This nonsensical and clearly ego-driven ban on Huawei by the U.S. government is not only affecting the brand’s smartphone and mobile chip businesses; it is also affecting the less talked about hardware: laptops. If there is no reprieve, then Huawei’s laptops can’t run on Microsoft Windows OS too.
We already seen how the China telecommunication giant have found a temporary work around (sort of) for its 2019 flagship, the P30 Pro, and now, we think the company may be preparing to face the U.S. ban by selling its MateBook laptops powered by Linux OS. That’s right. Huawei is already selling “Linux Edition” MateBooks, namely, MateBook 13, MateBook X Pro and MateBook 14, in China.
These devices come pre-installed with Deepin, a desktop Linux distribution that based out of China. These devices are largely the same, save for the missing Windows logo key which is now replaced by a “Start” key. The boon of using Deepin is obvious. It is open source and freely available, and thus, devices running it will not be affected any bulls coming from the White House.
Another boon is, the OS is also available in English and this means Huawei can continue to reach out to the global market. That’s if the market is ready to welcome Deepin. However, global market does not appear to be the agenda for Huawei with this Linux devices, yet. At this point, the three devices are being sold in China on Huawei’s official e-commerce store on VMall.com.
Not to rub salt into the wound, the Huawei Mate 13 Linux Edition, Huawei MateBook 14 Linux Edition and Huawei MateBook X Pro Linux Edition, which sells for 5,399 yuan (US$763), 5,699 yuan (US$805) and 8,699 yuan (US$1,229), respectively, are tads cheaper than its Windows 10 counterparts.
Images: Huawei.
Source: Forbes.
