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Forgive me, I just started doing a little research when I read your story. Of course I started with 'open notebook' and related searches, but I didn't find anything. Anyone know of any industry group trying to create and open standard there?

Anyhow, I'm interested in your problem for selfish reasons, family and friends have been asking me about building/upgrading existing/fixing their notebooks for years. I've dodged them this whole time because I couldn't afford one myself, but this is finally starting to change.

So, anyhow, if I where going to buy a computer today I'd look seriously at building a 'barebones' notebooks. A few familiar companies seem to be building barebones notebooks, which is basically a motherboard and graphics card wrapped up with a keyboard, LCD screen and a case. ASUS, ECS, AOpen, Arima (??) and FIC seem to sell them. I couldn't guarantee it, but I bet you'd have much better luck getting a replacement part from someone like ECS or ASUS, plus you get to pick out or upgrade things like your CPU, hard/cd/dvd drive and memory.

Here are a couple of quick links to product pages for a few of the manufacturers:

Aopen
ECS
ASUS
Arima
FIC

Most of these links came from this site, which seems to specialize in mobile computing bare bone systems and hardware. Man, is it lunch time yet?

The FIC MAAT Server from FIC can serve as a Linux wireless access point.
Specs:
Embedded Linux
Transmeta Crusoe TM5600 500MHz
On-board 128MB SDRAM (512MB max)
2X 2.5' IDE HDD 20GB (120GB max)
4 ports 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Hub Switch
Built-in Wireless Access Point (802.11b)
Dimensions: W246 X D240 X H56mm

Unfortunately, it is rather pricey at $995 MSRP or $645 direct from the FIC California branch. Interesting nonetheless.

Well, I thought they took paypal, but it looks like they do not. You can snail mail them money orders and such, though. From their subscription page:

Sign up for a TransGaming subscription at $5 per month, with a minimum three-month payment. Once you have created an account and logged in, you will need to choose your subscription period and make your initial payment. We accept most major credit cards, but at this time we do not accept debit cards or American Express. You can also pay by international certified check or money order for subscriptions of twelve months of more (US Dollars only); we will activate your account as soon as we receive it. If you would like to pay by gift certificate, please send the gift certificate number to support@transgaming.com and we will activate your account.

Please be sure that you have read the Installation FAQ list and other documentation on this site to ensure that your hardware and software meet the minimum system requirements for WineX. Also note that WineX is a work in progress and not all Windows games are supported.

That second part is important, too. One of the biggies is your video card has to be supported fully (with 3d) under Linux. I found out that my built-in radeon on my motherboard will not cut it as ATI has not (yet?) given the right info/drivers for it. Last I checked, NVidia cards were supported up to the latest with drivers (I think) from their site, and ATI drivers are available through Radeon 8500. There are open-source Radeon drivers and the Nvidia drivers are closed source (but regularly updated).

Winex is free as in beer if you are willing/able to compile from CVS. I was not able to do this trivially before, but I may have had other problems which are now more apparent under my current Linux Distro. Subscription gives you the right to vote for games you want and gets you easier-to-install binaries. Source-based distributions actually make it easier to compile from cvs, but they are not for everyone. Another option is to purchase one of the distributions which comes with Winex and a subscription.

My current favorite source based distribution is also supposed to make it easier to install the nvidia drivers, though nvidia's instructions for manually doing this seemed straightforward. I have not tried this yet, but it is looking more and more like that is what I will do to alleviate my 3d problem. I had planned to buy a beefy video card anyway.

I would also encourage you to get involved with LUGS in your area both by meeting with them when they have meetings and by participating in their mailing lists. These are excellent sources of information. You can also email me at rifter0x0000 at yahoo dot com if you want more ideas/advice/etc.

Ultimately we need more Linux resources on the net to help people, and people who use linux need to be a resource. I also think it is important that Linux users settle for nothing less than total functionality, in other words we should be able to use Linux for everything you would want to use a computer for. That is almost true now, with some caveats, but I want to puzzle out and eliminate the caveats. I think anyone who can code or write documentation should work on this goal as well.

I hope that you have good luck in trying linux. If it does not work for you at first, try try again and seek help. I tried many distributions befor eI settled on one I woudl like for my purposes, and then I changed my mind again :). But remmeber Linux == choice and if you don't like something about it, it is likel

i prefer the Samba and Sabre from FIC. I have a Sabre in the car and a Samba acting as a tivo-like device in the house.

with the integrated pc-card slot, the only cable of significant length is for power. in the car, the pc slot is quite handy for sync'ing tunes to the car. something the shuttle doesn't have.

i prefer the Samba and Sabre from FIC. I have a Sabre in the car and a Samba acting as a tivo-like device in the house.

with the integrated pc-card slot, the only cable of significant length is for power. in the car, the pc slot is quite handy for sync'ing tunes to the car. something the shuttle doesn't have.

There are some other options out there:

The AquaPAD from FICA starts at $650.

You can get it running Midori Linux or WinCE. I've played with both and support for WiFi cards is good with either version.

The SonicBLUE ProGear can also be ordered with Linux as the OS, but it's WAY pricey - like over $3000. And the version running Windows98 runs hot. Burn your lap off and runs sluggish. But it has a built in 802.11b card. No drivers to load for this one.

There are some other options out there:

The AquaPAD from FICA starts at $650.

You can get it running Midori Linux or WinCE. I've played with both and support for WiFi cards is good with either version.

The SonicBLUE ProGear can also be ordered with Linux as the OS, but it's WAY pricey - like over $3000. And the version running Windows98 runs hot. Burn your lap off and runs sluggish. But it has a built in 802.11b card. No drivers to load for this one.

The FIC Samba SFF P4 kit includes DVI support, an AGP slot, 2 PCMCIA slots and SPDIF audio out.

Have a look.

http://www.fica.com/products/systems/Databook/Samb a/Samba.stm

Well tough guy, if you were around to witness it, you'd note that any hype generated by Transmeta was a side-effect of their NDA that applied to their employees and anybody who got to view the technology before release. They could NOT spend four years building their new processor from scratch while telling the world about it, or Intel would have simply thrown money at them (in the form of lawers or competition) to make them go away. That's called a trade secret. That's called business.

Second, Transmeta did not produce the AquaPad, a company called FIC did. But of course, one would have to actually read the article to find that out...

Specs from FIC

I replacded it with a FIC Sabre 1815 It shares a monitor/Keyboard with another PC via a kvm switch. The box is reasonably small, only has one fan, has 3 PCI and 1 PCcard, 1394 and usb, 10/100, audio, and video on the Motherboard. I put a slow (read cooler) 733 P3EB in it.

Overkill for the need, but it works like a charm, and linux supports everything there.

Check out the FIC SABRE 1815 as another nice and small machine.. Picked it up at Frys recently...
Wim.

Check this out http://www.fica.com/products/systems/Databook/Sabr e1815/Sabre1815.stm

got one about ready to go in the car (posted link earlier, but it's not showing up)

got another ready to go for my boss's house. in one of the PCI slots, i'm putting a QLA2100 (for an external array for storing movies, mp3s, etc etc). another slot will get an ATI All-In-Wonder Pro if I'm (and ultimately my boss) not happy with the built in video performance (and to also allow for hooking up VCRs and most everything else)

i considered a MSI6215 for my boss, but, the FIC Sabre is too cool. for the one going in my car, i'm putting an 802.11 nic in the *built-in* pc card slot to make rsync'ing mp3s from the house much faster . on the built-in 10/100, i'll likely put a ricochet minstrel on it and train it to one in my house so i can cruise around in the area around my house and check mail or whatever

going rate for the FIC is ~US$280. fry's sells it for like $320, but i'm in no rush to get it. i have found it on the net for $230, but can't find that place anymore =(

Nice and small, but that case has got some fuct up dimensions.

Look at the FIC Sabre ... that's an even better solution, IMO. Got one going in the car under the pax seat next to the CD changer. Running FBSD of course 'cause Tux Sucks and Beastie Rules =) /me ducks

According to FICA's website, the processor is a Transmeta TM3400 CPU (400MHz) . No, 400 doesn't mean "Five Hundreds"...

Here's a couple:

There are many others under development.

The news of the Transmeta chips stirred up more speculation in the 'coming soon' market of pads (FIC Aqua). And it seems like there's always a new one shown at Comdex, but afterward they disappear faster than a virgin on prom night. The Norwegian company Screen Media touted a produkt called FreePad which sounded good to me, but I guess the name loses something in the translation. As for a cheap wireless pad... well we all saw how long 3com's ergoAudrey lasted.

Recently there was word of the Honeywell WebPad, but as for the inexpensive pad... I continue to hope, dream, and become more cynical by the day.

Caino

Don't touch my .sig there!

transmeta webpad i saw @ comdex

it did not feel like vapor when i was holding it in my hands =)

test my linux powered robotic camera streaming video chat thingy

-mind different...

>

And are they FAST... I use seti as a guideline.. What used to take 66+ hours on the K6-2 350 is now taking only 18 or so hours.. Pretty good huh ?

Get that and the Guillemot G-Force2 card and you'll rock