Cavalier attitude

In my speech at the Desktop Linux Summit on Thursday, I said the ideal Linux desktop — the one that would in essence become The Standard PC — would be the computing equivalent of a Chevy Cavalier. Why? I cited Searls' First Law of Car Rental:

It doesn't matter what kind of car you want to rent. You're going to get a Chevy Cavalier.

See, Chevy Cavaliers are your generic rental car. They're not bad, they do the job, and everybody knows how to drive one. Perfect cubicleware for large IT departments, among other things.

I asked how many in the audience (of several hundred) would admit to owning a Chevy Cavalier. No hands went up. But later a bunch of people told me that, in fact, they had arrived at the show in a rented Chevy Cavalier.

I'll put my slides up soon, with a pointer from here.

I'm writing this, by the way, on a the Lindows MobilePC laptop that was introduced about a year ago. Not a bad little box.