MESSAGE
| DATE | 2008-07-08 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
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| SUBJECT | Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] ASUS/GNU
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From Free Software Magazine:
Businesses are not philanthropists. They are not, intentionally, educators
or evangelists for ideologies. However, from time to time their business
models just happen to coincide with their more idealistic customers own
interests. Asus is one such company.
When they launched the little EeePC they could scarcely have imagined the
extraordinary reaction it would cause. They say that any publicity is good
publicity but the reaction to the two pound wonder was almost universally
favourable. It was hot. I mean nuclear hot. And it was GNU/Linux.
The net was humming with praise, enthusiasm and replete with hagiographic
articles drooling with admiring screenshots. I was one the EeePC groupies
too. An EeePC slut. I liked it so much that, like Victor Kiam, I bought
one. Hell, I couldn’t contain myself. I joined the drooling throng
and penned four articles on this ultra portable laptop computer. The
praise was mostly unstinting and the lust for the little machine was
positively Gadarene. Niggles
Yes, there were niggling reservations: Xandros was the installed
default distro of choice—but this company, like Novell, had entered
into an agreement with Microsoft and they played silly buggers with
the Kernel before a torrent of complaints caused them to release the
source code. Then there was the matter of the sanctity of the GPL. In
the first flush of enthusiasm it was possible to put a peg on our noses,
avert our gaze and wax lyrical about the little beast. The Asus EeePC is
one of the few purchases I have made that did not induce the classical
post-purchase “buyers’ remorse†syndrome. However, all is not
mimsy in the borogroves, as Lewis Carroll would say.
Asus at least give the appearance that free software operating systems
are being quietly shunted onto the back burner
Window shopping on the digital mall I stumbled across a report about
the Computex 2008 show in Japan which reported that the Asus stand was
being very coy about advertising GNU/Linux. (Sorry, I can’t give you
the link. I was in live CD mode at the time, so I emailed the link to
myself but it all went pear shaped.) In fact you would have been hard
pushed to see any reference to it at all. Windows was a different matter
altogether. There was plenty of promotional material suggesting that
things go better with Windows on the EeePC. Leaving aside the technical
improvements to the latest EeePC models, including the bigger nine inch
screen and the Intel “Diamonville†Atom processor, Asus at least give
the appearance that free software operating systems are being quietly
shunted onto the back burner.
This raises a rather cynical question. Was Asus simply using GNU/Linux as
a lure to get a cheap foothold in the micro market and tempt Microsoft by
the stunning sales figures? After all, Microsoft has reputedly reprieved
Windows XP as it wants to get a share of this lucrative market too and
it knows that Vista is having problems running well on conventional
laptops and will therefore have problems running well on lower spec’d
machines like the EeePC. Well, Asus is a business too and it will
partner with whatever operating system shifts most product. They know
that the overwhelming majority of private computer users are, by inertia,
indifference, and technical and political ignorance, Windows users. That,
presumably, is why Asus told Zdnet that sixty percent of all EeePCs
shipped in 2008 would come with Windows XP preinstalled; and Microsoft
have not been shy in admitting that the purpose is to position itself to
“get into the next ten billion consumer marketâ€. Of course, that is
not the same as market share. Sixty percent of EeePCs with Windows XP pre
installed is not the same as selling that sixty percent. If GNU/Linux
has carved out a popular niche for itself on the EeePC, new users and
upgraders may stick with free software and Asus may not shift as many
Windows XP machines. If that turned out to be the case Asus would be
compelled to persist with GNU/Linux to meet consumer demand. Perhaps.
What next? Will the CEO of Asus wake up in the morning and find a
horse’s head in his bed? Will Bill and Steve make them an offer they
can’t refuse? It’s not as bad as it looks
Pitching your product at the biggest market does make sense. Here be
profits. It is unreasonable to expect a business to disinterestedly
promote software for reasons of principle or Evangelical piety and
purity. Nevertheless, it would be rather galling to see software released
under the GPL licence being using to establish a foothold in a new and
emerging market only to have a kind of corporate raider/asset stripper
step it and hoover up the fruits of all the initial hard work. Bill Gates
may not be Gordon Gecko but clearly greed is good. Greed is right. I have
no gripe with honest profit but parasitic profit annoys me. Really. (This
is not dissimilar to the situation of GNU/Linux software being ported for
cross platform use on Windows and Apple, Firefox and OpenOffice chief
amongst them. Many argue that this tactic aimed at enticing users away
from proprietary operating systems by giving them a “taster†of what
free software has to offer can backfire because it is bagged but without
much reciprocation, and more importantly, it fails to entice sufficient
numbers of users to GNU/Linux.)
If the responses to reports on Zdnet are to be believed, Asus got a call
from “a high placed and distinctly unhappy member of the Microsoft
family†reminding them that “nasty thing happen†to people who
don’t take their “protectionâ€. What next? Will the CEO of Asus
wake up in the morning and find a horse’s head in his bed? Will Bill
and Steve make them an offer they can’t refuse?
The good news however is that Asus seems to be ploughing on with
developments that are not entirely Windows centric. As I mentioned
in the last of the four-part series on the EeePC they have released
an SDK for the machine for developing software. More recently, Asus
has developed Splashtop (dubbed “Express Gatewayâ€) to be embedded
into all their motherboards (including those for EeePC models?). This
allows for an almost instantaneous loading of a PC. It is composed of a
proprietary OS running from the BIOS and a Linux stack on top of which
the applications run. On 1st July the 901 and the 1000 EeePCs series will
be released and both versions will come with a choice of GNU/Linux and
Windows. So, it looks like Asus is not going out of its way to publically
antagonize Microsoft whilst quietly proceeding with a binary policy of
offering customers operating system choice across a range of hardware
specifications. I would be happier if the playing field were level,
that Asus didn’t ship with sixty percent of machines with Windows XP
pre installed.
It seems that GNU/Linux needs to be an underground success before it
becomes - a success Too many bottles, too few corks
The astounding success of the EeePC has been a shot in the arm for all
lovers and supporters of GNU/Linux. It has thrilled everybody. However,
it encapsulates the classic conundrum (or Catch 22) of GNU/Linux. When
it comes preinstalled on machines like the EeePC it attracts interest
like sharks in a feeding frenzy and Microsoft clamour for a piece of the
action and start muscling in with bribes, threats and FUD. Exit GNU/Linux
stage left. It seems that it needs to be an underground success before it
becomes—a success. If it stays “underground†to avoid attracting
attention to itself it just leaves the field open to the proprietary
competition. It looks like a no win situation but that is only true if
you view the position statically.
Hardware and software development is a constantly moving target. Asus
might be hoist with the petard of its initial success but that very
success has led to the equivalent of a nuclear chain reaction—and it is
unstoppable. If Asus falter and cave in to proprietary pressure there are
many others eager and willing to step up to the mark: Acer Aspire One,
MSI Wind, HP Mini-Note, Dell E series—and they all offer free software
solutions out of the box. It would take some very nimble footwork for
Microsoft to manage or contain the threat offered by this Hydra-headed
profusion of free software choice. I don’t believe they can do it.
The genie is truly out of the bottle. Microsoft is just trying to put
the cork back in. Well, let it Conclusion
I started this article wondering and worrying that Asus were back
sliding on GNU/Linux but I am inclined to conclude on a note of cautious
optimism. The debut of the ultra portable laptops is what physicists
would call a phase shift and that shift is changing some of the ground
rules and, coincidentally, giving hardware vendors—perhaps for the
first time—the ability to resist the siren lure of Microsoft. What
really frightens Redmond is the thought and prospect that they can be
done without after all. Even if Asus start to succumb to the threats or
blandishments of Microsoft, the truth is that the emergence of the EeePC
has led to a rash of clones and self-styled “EeePC killersâ€â€”and they
all run GNU/Linux. The genie is truly out of the bottle. Microsoft is just
trying to put the cork back in. Well, let it. There are too many bottles
out there and they don’t have enough corks. Cheers and bottoms up!
--
http://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff
http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
"Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME"
"The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers to our own cultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own society."
"> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be damned.<
You must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have been attached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess you missed that one."
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