The Idea Box
A friend in Japan noticed the recent flow of artwork done by my daughter and kindly commented on her creativity: "I'm sure that your daughter has a bottomless idea box ;)." That started me thinking .... it would be great to have an idea box.
So, this is a place. My online idea box of sorts. Some of this might turn into bits of useful applied ideas around evolving and successful innovations - although some of it might be better just staying locked in the box!
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MERB
Rubinius
Dell / Ubuntu
The Linux Laptop
The evolution of open source is a big idea that has has been evolving for quite some time. For those of us who have worked (and played) with a great many different computing environments, there is obviously a use for many different kids of technological tools and solutions.
Certainly, open source working in conjunction with Linux is an intriguing idea for the times.
Dell's announcement yesterday that they would be shipping some of their desktop and laptop computers with Ubuntu preinstalled is a major one in my mind. Dell has tried bundling various versions of Linux before with limited customer success, but this time looks to be different.
Dell has teamed with Ubuntu in a way that has been very well received. Furthermore, Dell has been working on this for long enough that a lot of the early (somtimes big) glitches (like driver availability) they encountered have been largely overcome. ComputerWorld ran with a nice story back in March 2007, and all of this was updated in news reports ([1] and [2], as well a the BBC , InfoWorld, and PC World) on May 1st and some nice coverge on Dell's official blog. eWeek had an article, "Dell to Preload Ubuntu Linux on Some Consumer Machines" and they even speculated as to which systems might get the Ubuntu upgrade (Dell hasn't released the specific systems.)
I know one thing, I want one of these Dell Linux laptops! A Dell/Ubuntu laptop would nicely complement my Ubuntu and Windows I currently work with. (My Mac use has been on a multi-year hiatus until some compelling reason pulls me back.)
DesktopLinux.com has the right idea: "Pre-installed Linux on top brand-name computers is so close to becoming real you can almost run it."
Which laptops will ship with Ubuntu? Time will tell.
