Re: Solu - A new breed of computer
 

Such pessimism... somebody had to think about bringing a mobile OS (Android) to the desktop and do it in a way that would be modern and scalable enough and offloading the need for storage on the device to the cloud much like many are doing now on their mobiles...

I personally wish them luck. I see the above points; but hey... stuff has to start somewhere right?

Re: Solu - A new breed of computer
 

Pessimism? Yes, but I like to think of it more as realism. :p After all, 90% of start-ups fail. It's not product I would ever purchase but I don't completely dismiss the idea. I'd I love to be proven wrong as I think it's great that they have their own vision and are challenging the norm. I think this is very brave of them and I wish them well but it's a tough market to break in to. Sadly, for the reasons already stated, I just don't see it happening.

Re: Solu - A new breed of computer
 

This might be targeted at the "i-folks" and become very popular, but most communities I feel related to - as this one - are more about freedom, privacy and open standards. Unfortunately that is still a minority, the average consumer just doesn't seem to care about that.
So I have my doubts about this product even if it might become something interesting - and even if they release the source of SoluOS (if they do they will certainly get a thumbs up from me though). How reliable will a paid for cloud-service be in the long run when it is not commercially successful?
We have seen Google closing down perfectly fine services because there was not enough interest, not because it was bad.

Re: Solu - A new breed of computer
 

I like the hardware design and I like what I've seen of the UI so far.

Microsoft makes most of their money nowadays from Office subscriptions. If these guys hope to survive, they need to be clear about their monthly subscription costs. If Joe Public are already paying $99 a year for an Office subscription that also gives them 1TB of cloud storage then these guys need to come up with something that can compete. Finland's F-secure already tried the cloud storage business with Younited and failed.

Re: Solu - A new breed of computer
 

Depends... to me it looks like platform for using virtualized apps where actual processing is done on more powerful hardware and on-prem device is merely for controlling those apps (montlhy subscription-model points towards that direction). Such technology has been around for a while and Nvidia has been active in developing technology to offer great deal of GPU power virtualized (AMD also published their offering for GPU-virtualization, but it's technically different from Nvidias take). They also promote the idea of cloud gaming, where you can play your favorite game using HW resources from remote data center. This way the HW you use doesn't mean that much. Another plus is that even the apps may be more or less platform independent as they are not bound to end user device and OS.

Re: Solu - A new breed of computer
 

I don't see this as the case. This is for a totally different crowd, a bit more savvy.

Making money out in the open (meaning via opensource) is hard. Having everything out in the open means that you've embraced the community but I'll be honest; that really doesn't mean too much of anything to the bottom line a lot of the time. May create great participation, add to the feeling of community, might even extend the life of the product.

But this is a community of folks that don't really get along about much anything. So to open something, you end up creating a situation where you hope adoption rates include the early adopters and contributors to the casual users that actually have disposable income and carry your product into something that lasts longer than your initial marketing campaign.

But that's my take. A lot of wondrous things happen in the FOSS side of things; but a lot of nasty **** happens too.

I'm the weird guy that actually liked Google Wave (I know Apache has it now) and some others that have gotten killed off... oh well.

Re: Solu - A new breed of computer
 

@JulmaHerra,
You may have hit the nail on the head. A small device as a thin client in a platform-independent way is a factor I missed. I agree it may have some really valid uses and can ever future-proof your purchase. You do not need to upgrade every few years, the server does (and your subscription covers it). If done cleverly, your device can 'run' Windows, OSX, Linux or Future OS 9000 simultaneously, without having to reboot.

Still, it is not something I would call revolutionary, groundbreaking or shaking foundations. The terminals of the 1970s did exactly the same thing, as does anyone using one of many remote desktop solutions today.

Re: Solu - A new breed of computer
 

Offline use of virtualized apps (in a meaningful way) would not be possible on a platform like this, right?

Interesting concept this Solu, not quite sure what to make of it...

Cloud based... still not sold on this, though we are becoming (being forced really) more dependent on it as time passes. Honestly, give me a mobile device that size and specs, and I want linux on it - not Android based, not ChromeOS, etc, but a desktop OS that is open, secure and portable (I can choose free, cloud based apps already).

What bugs me the most, with the specs below, is battery life. If the main purpose of the Solu is to change the way we work (bye bye computers and apps?) and make it hassle free (good luck with that!), and the screen is used as a touchpad when connected to a monitor, battery life probably won't be stellar.

* Screen - 1440 x 1440, 450ppi with an edge to edge touch
* Processor - 2.3GHz NVIDIA 4-Plus-1™ quad-core ARM® Cortex™-A15 CPU™
* Graphics - NVIDIA Kepler™ GPU with 192 NVIDIA CUDA® cores
* RAM - 4GB LPDDR3
* Battery - 1200mAh

Wish them all the best, but not my cup of tea (yet).

Re: Solu - A new breed of computer
 

Hard to say, as we don't have the details. It should be possible, but to what degree... that's the question.

It's one take on trend of everything being sold as a service.

Re: Solu - A new breed of computer
 

Has there been any revolutionary, groundbreaking and foundation shaking innovations in last ten years? Usually things described like that are merely new implementations of already existing technologies and ideas.