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Lindows Releases Inexpensive Subnotebook
los furtive writes "As of March 1st $799 will get you this Lindows 2.9lb subnotebook with a VIA C3 933MHz Processor, 256 megs ram and a 20 gig HD, a 12inch screen, USB 2.0, firewire and of course the Lindows OS. Pre-orders have already started."
Sounds neat. We need more GNU/Linux hardware makers to make users familiar with the free operating system. I don`t know how free lindows is but bringing choice to users is important.
Considering the C3 933Mhz is slower than a PIII 400.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
I'm guesing it's good enough for word processing and web browsing, which is okay since I'm guessing this isn't a gaming note book.
Obviously this is an OEM model made by someone else (probably VIA themselves). Lindows doesn't have enough market pull to have a custom model made to their own specs. So I bet it is already selling like hotcakes in Southeast Asia with someone else's name on it and Windows installed. Does any recognise it?
And, despite it's large size, the Dell doesn't have USB 2.0 or Firewire, not to mention that the Lindows one has both.
Okay, the Dell is moderately faster. But it's not as flexible, nor is it a 'subnotebook' (I don't know why they call it subnotebook, makes you think they're targetting it for subhumans).
...if some nice hardware company, like an HP or a Dell, would produce a low-cost laptop similar to this with *your choice* of distro preconfigured?
/. would want to own one. Instead, wouldn't it be nice if they would sell you a laptop with *no* O/S installed, for $400 less than usual?
No, wait, no one reading
I'd buy one.
You said it yourself. People's time is valuable.
Peace of mind, it's a well constructed notebook with a rubber-suspended harddrive, rugged design (designed with kids throwing them into backpacks and taking them on school busses).
I also can have 802.11.. And a combo DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive.
On top of it all, I get OSX, which is Unix for the Masses. Something Linux wants to be, but falls short of in a few categories. For portable computing, I have different priorities than the desktop. For a fast desktop, I want power and control. For a laptop, I want simplicity, ease-of-use, even if it's a touch slower.
Oh, and I forgot. iMovie, iTunes, iPhoto.
I wasn't even aware that the Savage4 had functional 3D-accelerated drivers. It's hard to say in good faith "this notebook supports Linux" if you can't even run a 3D app properly.
Nice try, but you could probably get a Dell laptop that's faster and cheaper despite the Windows tax. Sure, this one comes with Lindows, but that doesn't matter if the hardware support is not there...
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It's a PowerBook their comparing their system to, which is no comparison at all. The PoweBook smokes it in everyway (except of course price), it's like comparing a BWM M3 to a Hyundai Tiberon...
And they forgot that the 12.1" PowerBook DOESN'T have a PCMCIA slot.
And a comparison to a PDA? WTF? can you stick the laptop in your jacket or pant pocket? NO!
Do real people decide between a PDA and laptop? That seems nuts, both provide completely different user experiences....
Fine it's a cheap laptop that's M$ free, but get the facts straight.
Aaargh.
I use an iBook, and I love it. It's a great machine and I'm glad I spent the money (a little more that $999, since I bought it last year, and I maxed out the RAM, which was a worthwhile expenditure IMO.) If anyone asks me "what kind of laptop should I buy?" an iBook is usually at the top of my recommendation list.
But.
I'm getting really sick of the comments that seem to attach to any story about any product X talking about how you should use Y or Z instead. Linux story: a bunch of comments about how you should use OS X. OS X story: ditto, but from the Linux side. MySQL/PostgreSQL: duuude, MySQL/PostgreSQL sucks, use PostgreSQL/MySQL instead. Any story about programming language X: Language X 5ux0rz, Language Y r0x0rz. Et bloody cetera.
Different people want different tools for different tasks. Deal with it.
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
I'm glad that I'm not the only one who noticed that they used the specs for the 12" PowerBook in place of the iBook; how fair is a comparison like that... to the Lindows system (or the others, really)? The 12" PowerBook is probably one of the faster and most full-featured laptops in the class, so of course it's going to cost $1799.
The worst part is that it's evident that Lindows isn't just exaggerating the value of their system - they're blatantly trying to deceive people into thinking that they have the only affordable small-sized laptop in existence. One wonders if they think that the $999 iBook only exists in a parallel universe!
No matter how much the cost or weight might be appealing, I can only see this laptop as being a nightmare for anyone who isn't technically experienced. Imagine some middle-aged couple trying to get an Internet connection, for example, or to get their USB printer to work. They probably wouldn't get much help at all from any company outside of Lindows, and "go check out the Ars Technica Linux forum" (as another example) is not going to help when many support-dependent people aren't even savvy enough to recognize when they have something like Windows XP! No matter what you might think of Macs, they at least have some official support beyond their manufacturer.
$799 is fine, but doesn't include either a CDROM or floppy. A USB CDROM is at least $100. And you would have to carry it around in addition to the laptop, adding the weight.
An all-in-one solution might make more sense, there are a lot of them out there.
"What's the point of going abroad, if you're just another tourist..."
I am running Linux on a 733 C3 and it is very slow. Where it really shows its slothness is when you do something like SSH. The key exchange seems to take eons.
Maybe its just me but what was the point of compairing a laptop to a pda. Laptops are good for a lot of things but pda's also have advantages.
just seems a dumb comparison
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