Shuttle's $199 Linux PC uses GNOME

http://techreport.com/discussions.x/14278
http://us.shuttle.com/news.aspx
http://www.foresightlinux.com/

Shuttle's $199 Linux PC is due out soon, with some decent (albeit low-end) specs. However, rather than using Ubuntu, it looks like they'll be using Foresight Linux and its Conary package manager.

Does a package manager *really* make that much difference, however? I argue that yes it does -- Conary was created by former RPM developers, who obviously also think that RPM leaves much to be desired. I've never had issues with Debian's DPKG; Conary, however, seems to transfer less data per update. Woopty do; at least its not RPM.

But, to really stand out in this suddenly-crowded field of low-cost Linux desktops, another system with a GNOME front end isn't going to do it. Different wallpaper and theme it may have, but its still the limiting GNOME desktop and GTK/GNOME apps.

This does go to show that other, smaller Distributions can get a great connection with a hardware manufacturer, not just Ubuntu. Maybe someone will wise up and see the power and functionality of KDE. Maybe it'll take KDE4 to really get there, unfortunately.

If a desktop came preloaded with KDE3 and then, in 1 or 2 years, a KDE4 version was available, I could see (less saavy) users paying to upgrade to the then-current release of KDE4. Foresight, huh -- it sure doesn't seem like it.