Huawei Starts Selling Laptops With Linux Preinstalled (techrepublic.com) 93
Huawei is now selling the Matebook 13, Matebook 14, and Matebook X Pro to consumers in China with Deepin Linux preinstalled. "Deepin is a Chinese-domestic distribution, with their own desktop environment -- appropriately also called Deepin," notes TechRepublic. From the report: Huawei is passing along the savings to consumers as well, with the Matebook 13 and 14 models receiving a 300 yuan ($42 USD) price cut, though the Linux version of the MateBook X Pro is listed at 600 yuan ($84) higher. This pricing should be considered tentative, as the products are listed on VMALL, Huawei's ecommerce marketplace in China, though only allow users to be notified when they are in stock. It is possible that Huawei may lose the ability to purchase Windows licenses from Microsoft due to their placement on the "entity list," restricting companies dealing in U.S.-origin technology from conducting business with Huawei, constituting an effective blacklisting by the U.S. government. Sales of Linux laptops to consumers -- by Huawei, and in general -- could result in better driver support for fingerprint readers and other hardware with inconsistent Linux support. Huawei has yet to announce any Linux versions available in the West.
Copycat marketing ? (Score:3)
Anyone else think itâ(TM)s kind of gross/disappointing that even the name of the product borrows so heavily from Apple-inspired conventions? Is it a coincidence Matebook sounds like MacBook? That they use âoeproâ and âoexâ as terms in their product? How do they expect to be taken serious in the USA with such a tone deaf copycat marketing pattern?
Re: Copycat marketing ? (Score:2)
Sorry about weird characters - they are supposed to be quote marks and Slashdot does not process that input right on mobile browser
Re: Copycat marketing ? (Score:2)
Re: Copycat marketing ? (Score:4, Informative)
Re: Copycat marketing ? (Score:2)
I think you meant "ignorant" rather than "inconsiderate" but thanks for the somewhat rudely delivered tip anyway lol.
Re: Copycat marketing ? (Score:4, Informative)
Those are "inch/second marks", not quotes. ASCII doesn't have proper quote/apostrophe characters, only foot/minute marks, inch/second marks and the backtick. "Smart quotes" is a feature that replaces 'foot/minute marks' and "inch/second marks" with actual quote/apostrophe characters. However GP is correct in saying that Slashdot doesn't support quote characters.
Re: Copycat marketing ? (Score:5, Informative)
Those are "inch/second marks", not quotes. ASCII doesn't have proper quote/apostrophe characters, only foot/minute marks
This is incorrect. ASCII has a "neutral" or "vertical" double quote character that's intended to be used as both an opening and closing quotation mark. Typographically it's not very good but it's the same character as was acceptable on typewriters for that purpose over many decades. If we want to be perfectionists about typography, the ASCII double quote character should not be used for inches or seconds; for those Unicode has the double prime symbol which has HTML entities ″ and ″.
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GCC is the ultimate authority on quotes, and gives compiler errors with this Unicode crap. Therefore they are not proper quote marks.
Re: Copycat marketing ? (Score:2)
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The argument is that the ASCII spec says it’s a quote mark. Typewriters just illustrate that a single character being used as both an opening and closing quote was common practice at the time the ASCII standard was being developed.
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Feet/inches or minutes/seconds are usually what I'm trying to write, but most applications / text boxes / whatever unhelpfully turn them into smart quotes.
I find it very hard to believe that you spend more time writing feet/inches and minutes/seconds than generally quoting text.
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Slashdot is literally the only site on the entire internet with this problem. Go ahead and find another one. I'll check back here occasionally to see if you find any.
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Not supporting "smart" quotes is not a problem. If I wanted "proper" opening and closing quote marks, I'd figure out how to enter them myself. I don't want the programs to "smartly" figure it out for me, because I usually am trying to not type opening or closing quote marks. and the "smart" quote functions are too dumb to figure that out.
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Slashdot processes quote marks just fine. Android users dont have issues. Only iCrap users have "issues," and the issue is that even after well over a year, you still havent figured out that the "smart quotes" (not real quote marks at all) is a setting you can disable but are too inconsiderate to do so.
Regardless of whether "smart quotes" are a good idea, Slashdot shitting out garbage when it encounters them is obviously a bug. Either display them as the user intended, or reject the post.
Re: Copycat marketing ? (Score:5, Informative)
Not especially, the term "notebook" has long been associated with laptops and manufacturers were calling their products *book for many years before apple, for instance the panasonic toughbook.
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Not to mention Alan Kay had a concept for a portable computer he called the "Dynabook" back in 1972.
Re:Copycat marketing ? (Score:5, Insightful)
How do they expect to be taken serious in the USA with such a tone deaf copycat marketing pattern?
I don't think they care much about the American market. Huawei is big in China, India, and SE Asia. Copycatism has a much less negative image there.
Linux and communism (Score:4)
I have never understood why Linux has done so poorly in communist countries. You would think the free software philosophy would be a natural fit: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs."
But the Chinese are only now pushing Linux, and only because Trump is threatening to cut off the Microsoft Windows licenses.
China pays hundreds of billions of RMB is licensing fees to Microsoft when they could customize and expand Linux to fit their needs for a tiny fraction of that.
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Linux has done well in North Korea. Yes, it adds metadata to each file every time the user opens it, so the Fearless Leader can have an audit log, but it is there.
Red Flag Linux is still supported.
Problem is that Linux takes coders to maintain, and Asia is great at doing lock-step coding. For example, if you need a website for a CRUD app, they are great. If you need people to code in a limited resource environment, doing something new, or even pushing the envelope, that isn't part of the Asian mindset, a
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I have never understood why Linux has done so poorly in communist countries. You would think the free software philosophy would be a natural fit: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs."
I have a few theories.
It's possible that the philosophical difference is wider than you see. While a philosophy of doing as much as you can with the resources available works well in a agricultural society this might not fit so well when the commodity in trade is information. Linux is software that allows for considerable creativity and productivity but much of this productivity comes from the ability to share the results. A (small "c") communist nation can gain plenty from this. A (large "C") Communist
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Interesting theory, but occam razor says it's because slants can't code for shit.
But can they sing and dance?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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You've used capitalism but didn't define it, which weakens your argument that "capitalism provides what communism promises". There is really no such thing as a single "capitalist" economic system, if you consider such divergent varieties as the laissez faire capitalism proposed by some conservative economists (but mercifully never put into long-term practice), the "crony capitalism" practised in countries such as Putin's Russia, or the state capitalism practised by China's banks and big industrial concerns
Re:Linux and communism (Score:4, Informative)
They're not "only now pushing Linux" - they've tried multiple times in the past. The most well-known was with the Red Flag [wikipedia.org] distribution almost twenty years ago.
Re:Linux and communism (Score:5, Interesting)
It's not Trump. It's the demise of Windows XP, which is pirated wholesale in China and has been for years. Without any support packages, and with the Windows laptops infected within minutes after exposure to any open wifi hub in China or indeed in the whole world, those pirated systems are no longer useful. They begin crashing _very_ quickly without extraordinary isolation from the rest of the world's networks.
China pays only a small fraction of the licensing fees owed by its businesses and citizens running these pirated systems, including the pirated but obsolete copies of Microsoft Office.
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But that was many moons ago. Why haven't they installed Ubuntu, Debian or whatever and moved on already?
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Because Microsoft is still a very dangerous monopoly and clients want to run Windows specific software. For more modern hosts, that includes CAD, financial software, and Steam where most of the games are Windows based.
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The PRC's official OS is Kylin Linux, originally developed for Chinese military applications because, you know, Microsoft, Apple, & Google can't be trusted, even by the USA's allies. EU governments are finally saying this out loud, especially after the embarrassing revelations of the US govt. sharing sensitive surveillance data with US corporations to use against their EU corporate rivals, as well as putting EU leaders & politicians under illegal surveillance.
I think that the US souring its trade ag
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Simply because copyright has not been law in many of these countries until quite recently and that piracy is rampant (Microsoft themselves even promoted pirated versions of Windows in China back in the day so that "people would get hooked"). Combine that with MS-DOS being shipped with every IBM PC back in the day paving the way for Windows to be seen as _the_ OS long before Linux was even born.
Also why would the Chinese want to use something specifically else when the westerners are all not only using Windo
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"I have never understood why Linux has done so poorly in communist countries"
Because there aren't any.
They all have strong centralized governments and control, they all have social classes, they all have both haves and have-nots. No one has ever made a good faith effort to operate a nation under communism, although a few have claimed to do so.
All alleged communisms are actually some kind of fascism. Pure communism only works on small scales, and only rarely then.
As a result of all of this (which is basic an
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Because the countries about which you write are communist in name only.
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Why am I not surprised your actually insightful comment was so difficult to spot? I still don't get the artificial shortage of mod points. (My best guess is some horrendous moderation abuse that I missed during the years I wasn't visiting Slashdot...)
Anyway, basically expressing concurrence, except for quibbling with your last paragraph. Insofar as they want to compete in the international markets, they are basically forced to pay the Microsoft taxes.
Having said that, I was actually hoping to find out somet
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Copycatism has a much less negative image there.
I don't know what you're talking about. *Posted from my SurfaceBook.
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I'd bet that Huawei could name it the "Makbook" or sell handsets branded with the name "iFone" and no one but the lawyers would give a damn.
I'm sure the American market will happily consume any product if it's shiny, has features, and people can get their hands on them.
As opposed to Gnomebook (Score:4)
Is it a coincidence Matebook sounds like MacBook?
No more than Gnomebook, Plasmabook, Cinnamonbook, or Xfcebook. The MATE Desktop Environment [mate-desktop.org] is the first thing I thought of when I saw the product name.
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In East Asia laptops are commonly referred to as "notebooks". In Japan there are many products with "book" in the name. It was to differentiate them from other types of portable that didn't fold closed (so were more like tablets but with a keyboard).
I assumed that's where Apple got it from too. It's a notebook computer, so they called their one the Macbook. Panasonic called theirs the "Toughbook" long before Apple did.
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Apple's PowerBook (1991) preceded Panasonic's Toughbook (1996). But that aside, the complaint as I understand it wasn't about the "book" part as much as "Mate" resembling "Mac".
Yeah right (Score:3)
Re: Copycat marketing ? (Score:1)
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Heck, they still have USB-A ports, longer key-travel... not bad for a MacBook Pro clone. In some way, possibly superior.
https://www.vmall.com/product/... [vmall.com]
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In that case Apple must have ripped it off from Panasonic's Toughbook line.
I think NEC had a "book" like back in the 90s too.
You know, because they open like a book. Previously many portables were either tablet-like or boxy like the original Compaq luggable.
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I know right! Apple is a horrible company copying the names of things. Macbook sounds so much like Notebook. The iPad sounds so much like a Note Pad. The iPhone sounds so much like a Phone. Absolutely terrible that Apple is copying these names. Wait which company are we talking about again?
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Anyone else think itâ(TM)s kind of gross/disappointing that even the name of the product borrows so heavily from Apple-inspired conventions? Is it a coincidence Matebook sounds like MacBook? That they use âoeproâ and âoexâ as terms in their product? How do they expect to be taken serious in the USA with such a tone deaf copycat marketing pattern?
Could be worse [micgadget.com].
Deepin vs Mint vs ? (Score:2)
Aside from the nice look, are there some good reasons someone would switch from whatever distro they're using now to Deepin?
In other words, what, if any, are the advantages or disadvantages of Deepin versus Mint versus Ubuntu or whatever?
Re: Deepin vs Mint vs ? (Score:2)
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And doubtless loads of compromised drivers. Wonder what Linus is going to do when totallynotbackdooredkeyboardriver.c gets submitted.
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As long as we ignore the UI, itâ(TM)s selection of bundled apps, default configurations, heavy focus on those with little Linux experience, and graphical, curated, and central documentation App Store to discover new packages to install... it is all the same, baby.
Ubuntu and Mint (built from Ubuntu) have most if not all of those things...bundled apps, default configurations, heavy focus on those with little Linux experience, and a graphical, curated App Store.
So again, in all seriousness, what would be a sensible reason to switch to Deepin? I like the look (it's really nice), but that's really a compelling enough reason for me.
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Aside from the nice look, are there some good reasons someone would switch from whatever distro they're using now to Deepin?
Most people buying these laptops are switching from Windows, not another Linux distro.
In other words, what, if any, are the advantages or disadvantages of Deepin versus Mint versus Ubuntu or whatever?
Well, there may be better Hanzi support.
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In other words, what, if any, are the advantages or disadvantages of Deepin versus Mint versus Ubuntu or whatever?
difficulty reading the menus if you accidentally boot into it before getting an opportunity to replace the OS? i mean, seriously? unless it's from http://thinkpenguin.com/ [thinkpenguin.com] you use the manufacturer's pre-installed OS? moo? :)
great specs! (Score:5, Informative)
https://www.vmall.com/product/... [vmall.com]
¥7999.00 or about USD $1100, that's with 8GB soldered-on LPDDR3 RAM and a 512GB NVMe.
https://consumer.huawei.com/en... [huawei.com]
nice specs! the only reason i would not get one is because, two and a half years ago, i bought an aorus x3 plus v6: http://lkcl.net/reports/aorus_... [lkcl.net]
with 2500 mbytes/sec NVMe speeds (6 seconds to run updatedb to index 10 *million* files), the option to put in a 2nd NVMe, the ability to upgrade to 32GB of 3200 DDR4 RAM, and a 3000x1800 LCD, any machine below that specification is "out" for me, sadly.
whilst, comparatively, it has the ability to take an NVMe, and has a 3000x2000 LCD, unfortunately (for me), the matebook-x-pro maxes out at 16GB of 2133mhz LPDDR3 and i am already struggling with 16GB of RAM due to the extreme workloads i put machines under.
for anyone else not having such extreme requirements, it'd be pretty damn good. LPDDR3 RAM is a really good choice, you get a really big reduction in power. very interesting what's happening in DRAM thanks to smartphones having such ridiculous memory usage: *high-end laptops* are benefitting! really weird - never would have called that.
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Given the current Chinese government... (Score:1)
The question is not "Is spyware embedded in the distro." It's "How much do they monitor?"
Probable answer to question two: "All of it."
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Xinix
We know where this is headed (Score:2)
Anybody who buys this hardware/OS can rest assured that the Chinese government will be "Deepin" every single thing that happens on their computer, and every one it's networked to that doesn't have better security than a jihadi's favourite goat.
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Are you sure you're not falling for the propaganda and FUD? Nah.
Re: We know where this is headed (Score:2)
HTTP 1.1 spying.server.com
Index.html?some=interesting&meta=data
Most properly configured firewalls would let this through, no questions asked. So no.
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Anyway if you live in the US you can't have one because Donald Trump is angry about something and says you can't have one.
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I wonder??? (Score:2)
Be careful of what you wish for (Score:5, Insightful)
Remember when US blocked China from participating in the International Space Station? 20 years later, China built its own space station, and soon it would be the only one in orbit.
While it may seem funny to see Huawei struggle with building their own OS on their phones and PCs, 10-20 years later, this move would be remembered as the beginning of the downfall of the complete US dominance in OSes.
The effect is more than just China, the existence of viable US-free operating systems on phones and PCs will undermine US effort to sanction other countries like Iran.
systemd government spy service installed as well. (Score:2)
systemd government spy sdervice installed as well.
BIOS locked down on Matebooks (Score:4, Interesting)
I bought a Matebook 13 in June and found that the BIOS was so minimal it wouldnt allow booting from USB. So no chance to replace WIndows 10 and load your own choice of Linux distro.
Its a well specd machine, but not worth it if you can't administrate it properly.
I sent it back to Amazon and bought a Zenbook instead.
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There used to be a program to launch a Linux install from DOS and then you could install from NFS (loadlin.exe). It seems like similar tools exist for modern Windows version:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
old loadlin.exe with a list of alternatives
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
So, you wouldn't need to boot from USB at all using such a tool.
Have you tried something similar?
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That just sounds like a locked down UEFI. Enter the "BIOS", remove the lockdown and boot from random something else.
Let's face it if your where correct and something happened to your Windows install you would have a very expensive brick. A quick Google shows lots of people installing Linux on their Matebooks so I have to call out for spreading rubbish.
That's kinda standard (Score:2)
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Will they play fair (Score:2)
Nice! Imagine this: (Score:3)
Imagine China throwing all their weight behind Linux and pushing it with a handful of one-party-state decrees. Throwing a few million developers at it on their domestic market and turning macOS and Windows and Android and iOS into obscure mini projects for foreign provinces in comparison with 2-3 years.
I can't say I'm not a little intrigued by that idea. It would be pretty hilarious.
Would you trust it? (Score:2)
Who knows what they've built into the kernel. It would probably make Apple and Microsofts phone home attempts look like an order for the local takeaway.
Sure, you could use a network sniffer to see whether its sending large quantities of data to some server in china by why bother, just buy a-n-other PC and install linux yourself from a known distro.
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Huawei is also a device maker so even with a clean slate, I'm not sure I'd trust it due to the potential of hardware based spying.
Only 16 GB RAM and no i9 (Score:1)