My buddy Earl Moore over at Meandering Passage wonders whether or not the recent buildup of “budget” computing devices running Linux is a positive path or not. I think it’s a really positive thing. Here are a few reasons why:

1. More Linux anywhere is a good thing in my books. Any chance of putting Linux into the vocabulary of more consumers can only be a good thing. The first step is making people realize that there actually is a choice. Apple is doing quite a good job of that right now too, albeit in the opposite end of the market.

2. While it’s great to have the experienced power users in your camp, the low end market shouldn’t be ignored. Surely some of those families who buy their first computers and find them to be stable, relatively secure, easy to use and good value for money might not be so quick to accept Windows as the defacto choice if and when they trade up.

3. Systems pre-installed with Linux will also put free and open source applications in front of people. Even if they don’t get the ideas of ‘software freedom’ or ‘open-source’, they might just realize that paying 300 or 400 bucks (the price of their whole computer remember) just to be able to create spreadsheets and wordprocessing documents is absolutely ridiculous.

4. The terms “Low End” and “High End” are rapidly moving targets. Many of today’s mid-range laptops can easily surpass the performance of a full desktop system only a couple of years old. You could easily and quite comfortably do all the stuff I do (graphics, photography, video editing, email, blogging, surfing etc.) on a relatively low spec desktop machine these days.

Of course it’s not all smiles and sunshine. There are definite hurdles. Things like the gaming market still have to improve. If little Johnny wants to play WOW, you have to let people know that it can be done before they buy the system. Pointing them to a forum post on how to do it isn’t enough. If things like this are easily achieved in Linux (many are) somehow we have to disseminate this information. Make it known that certain games or applications can be used on Linux.

Communication is key. Not to the tech world, to the mainstream. Shout from the mountaintops that Linux can do digital photography, web surfing, email, gaming, learning and all that stuff FOR FREE, WITHOUT STEALING ANYTHING!

Perhaps this is getting a little too evangelical. But with the steady stream of Linux-based products entering the market lately, I think things are really beginning to change.

Linux-based entry level PC’s? Hell Yeah! :)

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