Via

We were surprised to see VIA Technologies at the Desktop Summit. You generally don't expect major motherboard and chipset manufacturers at a small Linux convention. On their unassuming booth, was an equally unassuming PC, which was about half the size of your average small form factor PC. The VIA representative explained that two 1 GHz C3 processors were inside the case.

VIA was tight-lipped about who will actually market the machine, but they said it should ship around second quarter 2005. The box will have space for either a laptop hard-drive or normal sized hard-drive.

Conclusion

It's refreshing to see Open Source become more user friendly. We have seen Linux take a big share of the server environment, but for Linux to really succeed, it needs to capture the hearts and minds of the average Joe. Linspire, with its CNR technology and easy to use graphical interface, may have a good chance at lessening Microsoft's dominance on the desktop.

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