Users will be able to choose between Windows XP or Linux on all three models. All three have integrated webcams too.
Mandriva specifies a minimum of 512 MB memory to run Mandriva 2009 but recommends 1 GB if you want to turn on all the special effects. On my 512 MB machine, it ran flawlessly. The hard disk space requirement is a minimum of 2 GB with 6 GB recommendation. 3D acceleration is supported on most capable hardware. If you have any of the NVIDIA, ATITM, Intel, SiS, Matrox and VIA graphics cards, you are in luck as Mandriva One 2009 bundles with it the proprietary drivers for all these cards and you can use the 3D acceleration capabilities out of the box without any further tinkering.
Several months later and the happy couple love their new machine, it’s stable, fast and other than the odd glitch (Flash in Firefox sometimes doesn’t work), they are really happy with Ubuntu.
In the same way, I expect Free Software devices will ultimately mean more money spent on software and its development (which for a programmer is very good news), as more devices with diverse functionality become available to everyone living “la Vida Linux”.
With the world economy in shambles many businesses are already battening down the hatches expecting rough seas ahead. IT budgets will shrink along with all other budgets, and maybe even more than other budgets. After all, companies still need to advertise and pay their workforce, but they may be able to do without new servers or software for a while. And that is where open source software vendors can help keep the ship sailing. Also read, Five Cheap (or Free) Software Programs You Can Afford During a Financial Crisis.
[I]f you want a no-nonsense free alternative to Photoshop, then consider the Gimp (GNU Image Manipulation Program). This open source software is available for Linux, Windows and Mac, and the latest version is 2.6 (www.gimp.org/downloads).
