New Sharp 3D Notebook Available with Linux

Anonymous Writer writes "Earlier this month, Sharp released the Actius AL3DU, the second generation laptop in its line of autostereo display products. EmperorLinux, Inc. is distributing it with Linux pre-installed, dubbing it the Molecule."

Autonomy ?

[mirko]

Something that really concerns me is these laptop's autonomy, I think that it's of no use if it cannot at least play one DVD on batteries. What about this one ?

I think this is the start of something new

[Dancin_Santa]

I was going to say "Bah, what's the use", but this is actually really cool.

Put aside that it's running Linux for a minute. Who cares what software is running it? Not important.

What is important is that we are finally moving away, on a hardware level, from flat, 2 dimensional displays. While the "Help me Obi-one Kenobi" 3D displays are still a long way off (or disappeared a long, long time ago), this is an immense step forward.

Drop Windows Add $500???!?!

[TheLoneCabbage]

How exactly does Emporer Linux justify chargin $500 more for a computer without a licencsed OS?

I'm not great fan of Windows, but why should I pay $500 so that some screw up can spend 15min installing a version of Linux I don't like (vs one I do like)?

I think I've just stoped wondering why linux as a desktop OS has never taken off.

what software is positioned to take advantage?

[harlemjoe]

can anyone detail software optmized to take advantage of the 3D display technology

I've never heard of any software (CAD/CAM included) that is optimized for 3D glasses -- what utility does the A3CLU add to the computing experience?

And what linux apps are optimized for this? It would seem a bit of a waste if the only 3D tools were, say, KDE Widgets...

Besides the cool factor that is...

Supposed high-end laptop without a wireless card?

[expro]

Quite a hefty price for a laptop without a wireless card. Putting good wireless service into a Linux laptop would be a bigger step forward.

Re:Drop Windows Add $500???!?!

[tricops]

The $500 is undoubtedly BS, but they're some shop I've never heard of before... and Sharp may never have heard of before, or reasonably close. They're probably paying full price, with MS tax.. etc... heh...

Re:Supposed high-end laptop without a wireless car

[delire]

Right, I don't see what the problem is. I have a Centrino and the builtin wireless (ipw2200) works out of the box on these machines with Mepis/Ubuntu/Mandrake.

Re:Finally...

[C10H14N2]

Meh. Laptop specs seem to be flat-lining, but the prices are distinctly not dropping. I mean, come on, three years ago, I bought a UXGA/1Ghz/1GB Dell for $1,100 LESS than this, with TWO optical drives (one CDRW, one DVD) and about the same battery life. Yeah, gee-whiz technology, but from previous reports, it's about as "3D" as a prismatic baseball card (and, frankly, about as high-tech). The rest of the specs are downright underwhelming. Even if that damned screen was by itself worth $2k, this is still way overpriced, not least because they force you to toss out BOTH 512MB modules if you later want to max it out. Screw that, if you're going to pry $4k out of my hands, you can at least have the decency to use a single 1GB DIMM, damn it.

Re:what software is positioned to take advantage?

[delire]

Alot of medical imaging, chemistry software for Linux exists, and also alot of proprietary animation/modelling software, like Maya, which can exploit stereo imaging. The freely available Blender can also exploit it, as part of the render chain:

http://ltc2.smm.org/visualize/node/64 [smm.org]

The real question is not what Linux software uses it, but why and when you'd want to use it in the first place. I remember a few years ago a man tried to sell me a pair of USB stereoscopic glasses at a game development conference. He just couldn't believe it when I told him that immersion doesn't necessarily have anything to do with being inside the medium.

I see this laptop will be marketed at imaging professionals needing a mobile presentation device that serves a larger audience than the standard LCD; Polarisation/blacking distortion is annoying when you're trying to sell your good-looking wares.

Re:Drop Windows Add $500???!?!

[Mjlner]

How exactly does Emporer Linux justify chargin $500 more for a computer without a licencsed OS?

They justify it by doing stuff to it. Whatever stuff is and whatever pricetag they choose to put on stuff is their business. Your business is to decide whether or not you want to pay for stuff.

Their version of linux is just an option. You don't need to buy from them. Some people do want to pay for a pre-installed OS. And don't forget the PHB's who don't linke the sound of "cheap software/freeware". (Yes, I know the difference between freeware and free software.)

Re:what software is positioned to take advantage?

[mxpengin]

Well , actually you dont need the glasses to perceive the 3D [pcworld.com] in this kind of laptops. Once I used one of this ones, And I really didn't ejoyed it, I got a headache .... Its just to weird :P

Re:Drop Windows Add $500???!?!

[kisak]

What Emporer Linux charges for their custom version of Linux is a matter for them and the customers they can attract. A more interesting question is if Sharp forces them to pay the Windows tax, or if Sharp lets them buy the laptop without Windows pre-installed. I don't mind paying extra for a nicely setup linux system that is tuned for the hardware I am using. But I do mind giving money to the anti-competitive company MS which tries to sabotage linux and other software I use. Especially since I have not used any software from MS the last 6 years or so.

Gah price!

[allanc]

You know, I want to support Linux vendors, but the model with Linux costs *$500* more than the version with Windows direct from Sharp. That seems a little pricey for a free OS, eh?

(And I have to assume the sort of person who'd spend $3500 on a laptop to run Linux on either knows how to install Linux themselves or has people paid to do it for them)

One moe!

[ajaf]

I think it's great to see laptops with linux being sold, but I ask one thing, who buy this kind of laptop? A linux user, or a person who doesn't know that it comes with linux? If it's the second option, does this person keeps linux, or install windows after he realize it's not the operating system of choice?
It'd be great to see some statistics about that :)

Re:But so what

[LocoMan]

Well, if this becomes mainstream it could have some interesting uses, like for example having windows in the background actually look like they're below the active one. It won't really have much practical uses, but it'll have some nice eyecandy (hopefully without much performance hit if it's done in the 3D card level)

Personally, as an amateur 3D animator I'd really like to have something like this, it would really help a LOT when doing 3D stuff if I could quickly tell which parts of the wireframe are closer than others... staring at wirefame of a high poly object can get very confusing and most of the times a bit of turning around is needed to make sense of it.

Re:Win-modems

[FauxPasIII]

> They just forgot to add that there is no free Linux driver for software win-modems with Conexant chipsets

Not to give away the family jewels (I work at Emperor Linux), but... check under the alsa heading of your kernel config,
and google for slmodem.

EmperorLinux puts out a good product

[defile]

I got the smallest of the small Sharp Actius laptops and they pre-loaded it with Debian Linux at my request. They don't just slap a Linux distro on and push it out the door, they make sure everything works as advertised, customizing whatever they need to to make sure it does. The modem works! Software suspend works!

The model I got comes with a really small battery, and I bought an optional larger battery that has more life, but has a big buldge in it. The unit itself has no removeable disk drives -- everything is attached via USB. It comes with a docking station which allows the laptop to be used as a USB hard drive while it's powered off. Way cool.

EmperorLinux provides a detailed manual on making the most of your laptop through the Linux environment. But enough about the geek stuff.

The most important thing of all: when I pull this baby out at Starbucks, the chicks all turn their heads. A Dell doesn't do that. A Titanium Powerbook doesn't do that (anymore).

Score!