Everex Cloudbook...Another Linux Laptop Gone Down the Tubes? A Pattern Is Developing......

[Moshe Goldfarb]

First we had the Lenovo laptop that was released pre-loaded with Linux and
has a good portion of it's features hamstrung (ie:not working) with Linux.

Read about that one here:

http://www.channelinsider.com/c/a/Reviews/Lenovo-Launches-Linux-Laptop-and-Leaves-Lots-of-Questions/

" Seeing that XEN was pre installed got our interest. What a great
idea¡Xdeliver the system with virtualization already in place. Our amazement
at such an insightful idea quickly waned once we tried to use the XEN boot
option and were rewarded with an Error 15: File Not Found. We tried to
resolve the problem using instructions from SUSE, a control panel installer
and a few other tricks, but we came up empty. "

" The first part of the document covered ¡§features not supported.¡¨ Some of
those features are:

* ThinkVantage Active Protection System.
* ThinkVantage Access Connections for SUSE Linux
* ThinkPad Configuration for SUSE Linux
* ThinkPad Power Manager for SUSE Linux
* Wireless WAN Adapter
* ThinkVantage Button
* (Intel Graphics System) DVI Output "

Can you believe that?

Next we have the new Everex Cloudbook, another Linux based Laptop that
seems to be going right down the drain.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/21/cloudbook-shows-up-on-wal-marts-website-zareason-drops-it/

"Everex's Cloudbook hasn't exactly seen the smoothest of launches, and now
that the official launch date has come and gone, it seems that things just
keeping getting curiouser and curiouser. For starters, the budget-priced
laptop has now finally shown up on Wal-Mart's website, but it's already out
of stock, and it's not clear if it was ever in stock to begin with. In
other non-availability news, retailer ZaReason (which has actually shipped
a few Cloudbooks) has announced that it's ditching the laptop altogether,
stating only that "due to the amount of money we have lost granting refunds
(due to bank transaction fees) we can no longer sell the Cloudbook."
Needless to say, some are speculating that Everex's deal with Wal-Mart is
the primary cause for the troubles at ZaReason, but either way, it seems
that anyone actually looking to get their hands on a Cloudbook is out of
luck, at least at the moment."

The key point is that ZaReson is DUMPING it because people are returning it
in droves and they, ZaReason are being stuck with the credit card bank
fees.


Yes ladies and germs, it looks like yet another Linux Laptop DISASTER.

The real truth is, people, common people, are not interested in Linux and
there are not enough geeks around to make a Linux laptop feasible.

 

[Tim Smith]

The Asus EEE seems to be doing fine (as it should--it looks like a nice
little system).

The problem here is Everex. They seem to think that they can just throw
together a crappy system (this isn't their first...there was that gPC
thing they sold cheaply at Wal-Mart) and it will be OK, because (1) it
is cheap, and (2) Linux advocates will overlook all its flaws because it
has Linux on it.

It's odd that Linux advocates embrace these crappy computers as a way to
showcase Linux to the general population. If you were, say, an
appliance maker, and you wanted to showcase your new line of kitchen
appliances by holding an open house in a house equipped with your wares,
you wouldn't go find a rundown shack with a weed infested jungle in
place of a lawn, and invite people there to see your great kitchen
appliances, would you? Of course not. You'd have a very nice house,
with an immaculate lawn, in a lovely neighborhood, with everything great
inside. You want people to go away remembering the whole experience as
great, and some of that transfers to the appliances you were promoting.

When I want to show someone that there are good alternatives to Windows,
I don't look for the crappiest non-Windows machine I can find to show
them. I show them something like an iMac or a PowerBook.

Just look around. Nearly everyone who successfully promotes something
pitches it as upscale, not as something to use when you can't afford
something good.

 

[Moshe Goldfarb]

The Asus EEE seems to be doing fine (as it should--it looks like a nice
little system).

Where I live, they can't keep it in stock.
Nice system it is.

The problem here is Everex. They seem to think that they can just throw
together a crappy system (this isn't their first...there was that gPC
thing they sold cheaply at Wal-Mart) and it will be OK, because (1) it
is cheap, and (2) Linux advocates will overlook all its flaws because it
has Linux on it.

But it's not just Everex.
It's Lenovo who release a piece of Linux garbage that barely works.
It;s the OLPC which has totally mismanaged distribution chains.

It's odd that Linux advocates embrace these crappy computers as a way to
showcase Linux to the general population.

We keep hearing over an over again how Linux laptops, cheap (inexpensive if
you will) Linux laptops are the future yet each one turns out to be worse
than the one before it.

What's going on?

If you were, say, an
appliance maker, and you wanted to showcase your new line of kitchen
appliances by holding an open house in a house equipped with your wares,
you wouldn't go find a rundown shack with a weed infested jungle in
place of a lawn, and invite people there to see your great kitchen
appliances, would you? Of course not. You'd have a very nice house,
with an immaculate lawn, in a lovely neighborhood, with everything great
inside. You want people to go away remembering the whole experience as
great, and some of that transfers to the appliances you were promoting.

Exactly!!
Starbucks Cafe isn't any better than Chock Full Of Nuts but it markets
itslef better and cleans up the rough edges.
CFN....cheap seats, dirty counters and sticky sugar dispensers.
Starbucks....all first class. Clean and nice.
The cafe is the same, but the experience is totally different.
In fact IMHO CFN is better cafe than Starbucks, buy a lot.

When I want to show someone that there are good alternatives to Windows,
I don't look for the crappiest non-Windows machine I can find to show
them. I show them something like an iMac or a PowerBook.
Bingo.


Just look around. Nearly everyone who successfully promotes something
pitches it as upscale, not as something to use when you can't afford
something good.

Yep.
Take a look at the current Mercury Car commercials.
"you have to put Mercury on your list"....
Microsoft iSync etc..

It sells...

 

[Tim Smith]

Exactly!!
Starbucks Cafe isn't any better than Chock Full Of Nuts but it markets
itslef better and cleans up the rough edges.
CFN....cheap seats, dirty counters and sticky sugar dispensers.
Starbucks....all first class. Clean and nice.
The cafe is the same, but the experience is totally different.
In fact IMHO CFN is better cafe than Starbucks, buy a lot.

There's a funny story about not understanding marketing in the coffee
biz. Back when upscale coffees were taking off in the US, one of the
company's that started expanding nationwide was Seattle's Best Coffee.

When they started opening shops outside of Washington, some genius
decided that it would not be good to call a store in, say, Chicago or
New York, "Seattle's Best Coffee". Seattle is somewhere around #23 in
size of US cities, so, the thinking was, associating with such a small
city (compared to a Chicago) would suggest quaintness, or hicks, or
something like that, and not the kind of upscale sophisticated urban
image they wanted. So they named their stores something like SBC.

What they completely missed was that everyone associated Starbucks with
Seattle, and the upscale coffee craze was associated with Seattle.
Customers see a coffee shop called SBC, and they assume it is just
another local place and go off and find a Starbucks or some other place
that will bring the Seattle coffee scene to their city.

So, after spending a lot of money to rebrand themselves to lose the
Seattle name, they ended up (after finally coming to their senses and
doing some actual market research) spending a lot more money to go back
and put Seattle in the name again!

 

[Moshe Goldfarb]

There's a funny story about not understanding marketing in the coffee
biz. Back when upscale coffees were taking off in the US, one of the
company's that started expanding nationwide was Seattle's Best Coffee.

When they started opening shops outside of Washington, some genius
decided that it would not be good to call a store in, say, Chicago or
New York, "Seattle's Best Coffee". Seattle is somewhere around #23 in
size of US cities, so, the thinking was, associating with such a small
city (compared to a Chicago) would suggest quaintness, or hicks, or
something like that, and not the kind of upscale sophisticated urban
image they wanted. So they named their stores something like SBC.

What they completely missed was that everyone associated Starbucks with
Seattle, and the upscale coffee craze was associated with Seattle.
Customers see a coffee shop called SBC, and they assume it is just
another local place and go off and find a Starbucks or some other place
that will bring the Seattle coffee scene to their city.

So, after spending a lot of money to rebrand themselves to lose the
Seattle name, they ended up (after finally coming to their senses and
doing some actual market research) spending a lot more money to go back
and put Seattle in the name again!

As someone involved in the arts, including advertising, that comes as no
surprise although I had not heard that one before.

Advertising people will tell you that their job is selling things to people
that don't need them.

The problem with Linux is not only do people not need it, people hate it.

How do you market something that is free?
How can you get people to use something that is free?

Simple answer is, if it is good enough the people will use it.

Evidently Linux is not good enough because people seem to run from it.

 

[the wharf rat]

Evidently Linux is not good enough because people seem to run from it.

Great Ghu, where do you get this stuff? Linux is so popular
in the data center space that my biggest problem is talking people OUT
of it when they should be using a commercial operating system.

Like, say, Windows...

 

[Darth Chaos]

The problem here is Everex. They seem to think that they can just throw
together a crappy system (this isn't their first...there was that gPC
thing they sold cheaply at Wal-Mart) and it will be OK, because (1) it
is cheap, and (2) Linux advocates will overlook all its flaws because it
has Linux on it.

So Jack Tramiel and his inept offspring are alive and well.

 

[Charlie Wilkes]

The problem with Linux is not only do people not need it, people hate
it.

Just one cycle back in this thread you agreed the Eee PC is a nice
machine.

Most people are not going to buy a PC pre-loaded with Windows and replace
it with Linux. Obviously. But quite a few people will buy a cute,
inexpensive mini-laptop, and that will be their introduction to Linux.

BTW -- take another look at the Cloudbook article you linked. I could be
mistaken, but it sounds like ZaReason is having to refund money because
they can't fill orders, not because everyone is sending them back.

Charlie

 

[Hadron]

Just one cycle back in this thread you agreed the Eee PC is a nice
machine.

Most people are not going to buy a PC pre-loaded with Windows and replace
it with Linux. Obviously. But quite a few people will buy a cute,
inexpensive mini-laptop, and that will be their introduction to Linux.

BTW -- take another look at the Cloudbook article you linked. I could be
mistaken, but it sounds like ZaReason is having to refund money because
they can't fill orders, not because everyone is sending them back.

That's correct - because they wont release enough of them as they don't
work.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/25/everexs-cloudbook-postponed-for-tweaks/

 

[Moshe Goldfarb]

Just one cycle back in this thread you agreed the Eee PC is a nice
machine.

It is.
Most people are wiping Linux and installing Windows on it though and Asus
is releasing a Windows version shortly.

So much for Linux.

Most people are not going to buy a PC pre-loaded with Windows and replace
it with Linux. Obviously. But quite a few people will buy a cute,
inexpensive mini-laptop, and that will be their introduction to Linux.

It will also be their last time using Linux as soon as they wipe the
machine and install Windows on it like many are doing.

 

[Moshe Goldfarb]

That's correct - because they wont release enough of them as they don't
work.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/25/everexs-cloudbook-postponed-for-tweaks/

Exactly.
Another POS Linux loaded brick.

 

[Charlie Wilkes]

It is.
Most people are wiping Linux and installing Windows on it though and
Asus is releasing a Windows version shortly.

Bah. Where do you get this information? What version of Windows fits on
a 4gb flash drive? And what is the payoff?

Charlie

 

[Stephan Rose]

Bah. Where do you get this information? What version of Windows fits
on a 4gb flash drive? And what is the payoff?

He read an article somewhere where some person managed to install Windows
on it. Now in his mind, EVERYONE is doing it!

--
Stephan
1986 Pontiac Fiero GT

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[Tim Smith]

Bah. Where do you get this information? What version of Windows fits on
a 4gb flash drive? And what is the payoff?

Well, the fact that Asus sells a Windows version right now in Japan, and
has stated that they will release it in the US, are some big clues.

XP easily fits on a 4 gig system.

 

[Hadron]

Bah. Where do you get this information? What version of Windows fits on
a 4gb flash drive? And what is the payoff?

You should stop listening to COLA posters. And learn where google
is. And as for the last part of your sentence, if you don't know or can
not guess why people would put Windows on it then you're in the right
place :-;

 

[Hadron]

He read an article somewhere where some person managed to install Windows
on it. Now in his mind, EVERYONE is doing it!

http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/24/asus-rolls-out-eee-pc-in-japan-windows-xp-standard/

 

[Charlie Wilkes]

You should stop listening to COLA posters. And learn where google is.
And as for the last part of your sentence, if you don't know or can not
guess why people would put Windows on it then you're in the right place
:-;

Think about it. What are people going to use this thing for? They will
take it on the road to browse the web, send/receive email, etc. I use
Linux and XP both, and for that stuff, one is the same as the other.

People need Windows for particular software packages, the kind no one
would use on a machine like this anyway. Not too many people will make a
DVD of their kid's birthday party with a 900mhz CPU.

The Eee PC is a cool idea that isn't fully mature yet. I have read some
reviews, and I can see room for improving the interface. But Windows
will just add to costs and limit the ability of the developers to tweak
the OS for that particular platform.

BUT, having said all that, from a user's POV, extending XP's lifespan is
probably the next best thing to developing Linux as a Windows alternative.

Charlie

 

[Hadron]

Think about it. What are people going to use this thing for? They will
take it on the road to browse the web, send/receive email, etc. I use
Linux and XP both, and for that stuff, one is the same as the other.

To an extent I agree. But people want Windows. They want to be able to
sync their phone and pda - all of which is painful if not downright
impossible on Linux.

People need Windows for particular software packages, the kind no one
would use on a machine like this anyway. Not too many people will make a
DVD of their kid's birthday party with a 900mhz CPU.

You think there are no "low power" apps which people use and would use
on this pc? Wrong. Sorry. People ARE installing XP on it. People DO want
XP on it. I don't necessarily agree but others seem to want it,

The Eee PC is a cool idea that isn't fully mature yet. I have read some
reviews, and I can see room for improving the interface. But Windows
will just add to costs and limit the ability of the developers to tweak
the OS for that particular platform.

People dont care about tweaking the OS. They want the apps they are used
to.

BUT, having said all that, from a user's POV, extending XP's lifespan is
probably the next best thing to developing Linux as a Windows alternative.

Agreed.

 

[Charlie Wilkes]

Well, the fact that Asus sells a Windows version right now in Japan, and
has stated that they will release it in the US, are some big clues.

XP easily fits on a 4 gig system.

Sure... get rid of the hibernation file, minimize restore points, make
sure you delete all the crap generated by Windows update... it can be
made to work with a bit of effort. Or you can run a Linux distro
tailored for good performance on systems with limited resources.

Charlie

 

[Linonut]

* Charlie Wilkes peremptorily fired off this memo:

Bah. Where do you get this information? What version of Windows fits on
a 4gb flash drive? And what is the payoff?

Oh, you can get an XP install to fit in that space. And certainly a Win
2000 install fits even better. However, now see how many apps you can
load, and how much data. Almost unusable.

I've tried.