Hewlett-Packard, the world's Number 1 PC maker, will try selling pre-loaded Linux on PCs in several countries as it expands a test program -- evaluating a market that some competitors have already entered -- and moves its personal computer business into a new generation of form factors and functionality.
The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company is in the nascent stages of a pilot program in Australia, where it offers a model of its HP PCs pre-loaded with Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 5 for small and mid-sized businesses. Brian Schmitz, director of product marketing for HP's business PCs, said the company is looking at results from the effort in Australia, and is gearing up to take the Linux pre-loads multi-nationally.
"We have seen interest in certain parts of the world," Schmitz said. "We're going to try some things in other countries with pre-loaded Linux. It's really hard to gauge. There's always a lot of noise around Linux but the demand isn't there."
Currently, HP certifies Red Hat's Linux as well as SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 for its PCs, makes drivers available for download on the Web, and works with companies and organizations to deliver piece parts necessary to load a Linux-based custom image onto PCs. The company has also filled large deployment orders for Linux-based PCs on a custom basis. Schmitz said the U.S. is among the countries where HP is considering providing pre-loaded Linux on personal computers.
"It's one (country) we're considering," Schmitz said, noting that HP has seen large deployments of Linux especially in some education accounts in the U.S., including in state of Indiana public schools and public schools in San Diego, Calif. In Indiana, custom system builders including Ace Computers, Arlington Heights, Ill., were called on to help deploy Linux PCs while in San Diego, solution provider Arey Jones was contracted to deliver Lenovo systems loaded with SLED 10.
"We've been actively talking with a lot of larger school districts about it," Schmitz said.
Also this year, Dell, Round Rock, Texas, has begun offering some PCs pre-loaded with Ubuntu Linux and Lenovo, Raleigh, N.C., has begun offering some ThinkPads pre-loaded with SLED 10.
"They already do it in a server environment," said Michael Worsham of MWE Computer Services, an Edgefield, S.C.-based solution provider and HP partner. "If they go to do the same thing with a PC environment, that would be a good thing, too - - as long as they don't take the Dell route and put Ubuntu on them."
HP has previously offered Linux pre-loaded onto PCs -- an effort it made several years ago -- but the systems never took off. Today, HP, which has the world's Number 1 market share position in PCs, is shipping a new lineup of desktops with ultra small form factors, gaming capabilities and all-in-one designs; all run Windows.
related stories
Video
trending stories
sponsored resources

Cysurance
Cyber Insurance 360

Tenable
Cyber Risk 360

Dell Technologies
Dell Technologies Cloud Learning Center

EPOS
EPOS

Fujifilm
Fujifilm

Application Integration 360

Mimecast
Mimecast

Hitachi Vantara
Hitachi Vantara

Dell Technologies
Dell Technologies Storage Learning Center

Carbonite
Cloud Storage 360

Webroot
Webroot Learning Center

BlackBerry
BlackBerry Learning Center

NPD
Industry Trends 360

Symantec
Symantec Business Security Learning Center

Channel Chief Showcase

Acer
Remote Workforce 360

Sherweb
Sherweb

APC by Schneider Electric
Digital Services for Edge Learning Center

StorageCraft
Disaster Recovery Learning Center

Vertiv
Edge Computing Learning Center

Wasabi
Wasabi

Dell Technologies
Dell Technologies Hybrid Cloud Learning Center

Cradlepoint
5g for Business 360

Comm100
Collaboration & Communications 360

Veeam
Veeam

Smart 3rd Party
3rd Party Maintenance 360

Sophos
Sophos Cybersecurity Learning Center

Trend Micro
Trend Micro Learning Center

VMware

HubStor
Cloud Backup 360

eSentire
Managed Detection and Response 360

Comcast Business
Comcast Business Learning Center
