[dot] HP Delivers KDE on Laptops

[Dot Stories]

URL: http://dot.kde.org/1094715499/

From: aKademy Team <akademy-team at kde.org>
Dept: being-mobile-all-the-time
Date: Thursday 09/Sep/2004, @09:38

HP Delivers KDE on Laptops
==========================

   Hewlett-Packard [http://www.hp.com/] made quite a splash
[http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5831949/] when they announced that they are
offering Linux on the nx5000, one of the latest HP laptop models. HP
also sponsored aKademy [http://conference2004.kde.org/], the KDE
Community World Summit as a Platinum sponsor
[http://conference2004.kde.org/sponsors.php]. This included a loan of 24
laptops for usage in the tutorial rooms as well as a special deal for
KDE contributors to buy the nx5000 model at a  reduced price. The
aKademy press team arranged a meeting with Thomas Schneller, Manager
Software R&D and asked him about this venture from HP.
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     Can you please introduce yourself?

     My name is Thomas Schneller, Manager Software R&D of the HP EMEA
Product Development Center based in Munich.  I was part of the Linux
Core team which developed the first Linux pre-installation on a nx5000
Laptop.

     The KDE desktop contributed to the success of SUSE Linux and HP
chose SUSE/KDE for this laptop. What  were the strong points for
offering a KDE desktop to your customers?

     We used the standard configuration which comes with SUSE Linux
which is KDE.  We believe that KDE is a good choice as it offers
basically everything needed on a today's desktop.

     Do you give support for the nx5000 configured with a KDE/Linux
configuration?

     Yes, there is a 90 days support for the pre-installed Linux
software shipped on  that laptop which is similar to Windows where we
offer the same support.

     Are there any plans for more models supporting Linux?

     It depends on the market response to the nx5000 offer. If there is
a need for Linux pre-installed  Laptops we will discuss how to support
that. Currently we are also thinking to offer better support  for Linux
in the first place.

     Right now the nx5000 is not available in Europe. Do you have any
plans to sell them anywhere other than the US?

     It is true; right now the nx5000 is only available in USA. It would
have been too much effort to offer it  for Europe as well as there are
so many languages and localization options to take care of. But European
 customers are welcome to buy it in the USA if they want. It can be
ordered on the  HP website.
[http://h71016.www7.hp.com/dstore/MiddleFrame.asp?page=config&ProductLineId=430&FamilyId=1776&BaseId=12514&oi=E9CED&BEID=19701&SBLID=&AirTime=False]
 Just choose Linux as OS and the Integrated HP W500 wireless option. 
Drivers for that device are pre-installed. The Intel 2200BG driver was
not available at the  time we released the pre-installation.

     Will you support people who build device drivers and will you be
giving them hardware information?

     Yes, we already work with the open source community. As an example
have a look at  HP & Open Source  [http://opensource.hp.com] where
several Open Source projects are hosted.

     Does power management and the winmodem work on the nx5000 as they
do under Microsoft Windows?

     Yes, basically all hardware is working. ACPI is fully supported, so
hibernating your Linux laptop is  possible and also the winmodem works
on this model. I also want to stress the fact that we welcome any
feedback  as we are eager to hear people's experiences with our product.

      K3B and Kopete running...

     Did you have some problems of getting hardware components to work?

     We carefully choose the target platform for that project. We wanted
to make sure everything just works.  The only problems we had during
development were caused by pieces of hardware where detailed specs were
not available to us.

     Will this only work on SUSE or do you have any plans to support
more distributions.  Does HP have any plans to better support Linux in
general?

     Of course other distributions are free to benefit from the work we
did. There are plans to distribute BIOS in a Linux-friendly format for
selected Models. For the nx5000 this kind of BIOS is still available:
ROMPaq for HP Notebook System BIOS (68BCU ROM) Linux-Based
[http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/hpcpqnk/us/locate/1115_5930.html].
You can just download it onto your Linux desktop, unpack it and run a
script which will ask, if you want to create  a bootable diskette or a
bootable CD. Then you only need to reboot with the bootable media and
can flash your BIOS easily.  Plans to collect and offer Linux
pre-installation instructions and white papers on an open source basis
are discussed as well.

     Did you write any additional software for the nx5000 project? Any
plans maybe on doing that?

     Well any needed software we were looking for was already provided
by the SUSE Linux distribution like  for example the power management
applet. So we did not need to write additional software.

     Any ideas of working together with KDE developers with this. How
about a KControl module  for usage in KControl?

     HP will support initiatives which will enrich the desktop
experience on our laptops. If you or  your project has an interesting
piece of software please let us know.

      Watching DVD's with LinDVD...

     Can you tell us about any experiences your customers have with the
KDE desktop on these laptops?

     Currently it is still a bit early but we are busy collecting
feedback from all people who are using these  Linux laptops. We have a
feedback loop installed for this. But at least the experience of testers
are telling us,   we are on the right way.
 [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5831949/]
     You sponsored the KDE Conference with these laptops and you even
decided to sell some of those laptops at a lower price  to our
developers. What's the gain for HP for doing all of this?

     HP was an official sponsor of the KDE Conference as we are
sponsoring open source events in general. Also we hope  that by selling
these laptops at a nice price that some KDE people will provide us some
feedback. We as HP want to  improve Linux support for selected models
and to do so, we need to understand the issues. We appreciate your
feedback,  please don't hesitate to send us any problem you're having
with the nx5000 you bought.

     Is there anything else you want to mention?

     Yes. Please post your comments below the article. I will read
through them and answer any question appearing.

     Thank you for answering these questions and also a big thank you
for the support HP has given to KDE.