Desktop Linux Summit Report

By Andy Patrizio

March 17, 2003

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The timing of the Desktop Linux Summit was perfect. It allows me to piggyback on last month's reviews of the Lindows PC, to elaborate on some issues and (gulp) correct something else.

The conference was billed as a discussion of Linux as a desktop software solution, since most of the effort around Linux is as a server product. It's an admirable aim, but then I got there and realized there was basically one Linux company running the show along with some guests.

So it's not what you would call a broad industry effort, yet. But given time it may become one. Most revolutions start small.

The show was promoted by Lindows.com and took place in the company's home town of San Diego, in the shadow of the Miramar Marine base, where F-15 fighters and C-130 cargo planes roared overhead during the presentations. This was the first of what they hope will be many shows, with around 30 exhibitors and 500 or so attendees in a meeting area of Vivendi Universal's offices.

The reason for the location is Vivendi bought out MP3.com, the company started by Lindows.com's founder, Michael Robertson, so Vivendi let them use a little real estate. The show took up all of two conference rooms. As I said, it's a modest beginning.

In the opening keynote, Robertson announced the Lindows Mobile PC, the first laptop designed to run Linux. It's very light, weighing only 2.9 lbs, but it's also on the small side for a laptop, with a 12.1-inch screen. It's powered by a 933MHz VIA C3 processor, comes with 256MB of RAM and a 20GB hard drive and has USB 2.0, Firewire and Ethernet built-in.

The $799 price tag makes it much cheaper than any comparable Pentium III laptop, but those Via C3 chips aren't known for their performance. Still, it's another step toward the further mainstreaming of Linux.

Robertson also introduced the LindowsFamily line of computers which have a built-in filter to block kids from accessing porn sites.

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