A Linux executive has a vision of the future in which personal computers will be given away free by telecommunications service provider in exchange for a contract, just as cell phones often are today.

The executive director of the Linux Foundation, Jim Zemlin, said that he believed user would soon get their personal computers for free when they sign a contract with a telecommunication service provider, mirroring the way cell phones are often delivered today by wireless providers. This future vision came as a part of a presentation at the O’Reily Open Source Convention in San Jose.

Zemlin says that he sees a future in which users will select a data provider in much the same way as they select a wireless service provider today. And, along with that selection would come the availability of a variety of personal computing devices, including basic models for free and premium models for an extra fee. In all cases, the data provider would be subsidizing the price of the computer in return for a data services contract.

In support of his idea, Zemlin pointed to the fact that AT&T is already involved in such a plan, in which a subscriber to a wireless internet plan receives a netbook computer for just fifty dollars, according to a ComputerWorld story. Here are some other Zemlin quotes from the presentation and a subsequent interview:

“What made the cell phone industry in the U.S. in particular take off in the mid-90s was the free phone.”

“Today, everybody in the modern world uses Linux multiple times a day.” (in support of Linux being the OS on the free computers)

“If you look at what the iPhone has, it looks pretty similar to that PC.” (while comparing the iPhone to a $1,000 PC)

All of these are valid statements, but it remains to be seen if consumers would be willing to get their computers this way. It should also be noted that many, if not most, netbooks are now shipping with Windows XP and not Linux as the operating system. But that does not obviate the fact that cell phones like the iPhone and Pre are already powerful computers in their own right. It will not take much more movement in the direction that the smartphone is already taking us before cell phones are as powerful as netbooks, then notebooks. Once that happens, the infrastructure for Zemlin’s ideas will be in place.

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Entry was posted on Saturday, July 25th, 2009 at 12:57 pm under Cell phones, Internet, Linux, Open source.

Read more entries by Michael W. Jones.
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