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Linux Laptop from R Cubed Reviewed

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the more-the-merrier dept.

An anonymous reader writes "NewsForge (Also owned by VA) has a short writeup on R Cubed's latest laptop, the LS1250-L Linux laptop. From the article: 'My test machine came with Fedora Core 5, the GNOME desktop, OpenOffice.org 2.0, the Firefox browser, and Evolution mail client. The lineup also includes the normal assortment of multimedia players, administration tools, and games. If you prefer, you can choose SUSE 10.1, various flavors of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and even Microsoft Windows XP.'"

11 of 132 comments (clear)

  1. A bit expensive for a Linux laptop? by gasmonso · · Score: 4, Informative

    Not trolling here, but the price does seem high... almost as if the MS tax in in there somewhere. Is there such thing as a Linux tax? Consider the Dell XPS M1210 for $1200.

    http://religiousfreaks.com/
    1. Re:A bit expensive for a Linux laptop? by also-rr · · Score: 4, Informative

      Well this one is 66% of the weight of the Dell (a big deal for me since I travel a lot - in fact being sub 3lb it's amazingly light), by the time I picked out similar specs for both the Dell and the R Cubed the comparison was around $1700 (Dell) vs $2000.

      $300 is easily paid for with the weight reduction and having every bug already worked out so I don't need to spend any time setting it up to run under Linux, in my opinion, but it depends how much you value your time I suppose.

      Anyway it's interesting enough that I'm seriously considering getting one as my next laptop instead of a MacBook Pro as I'm not sure I can face messing around like this to get wireless working again when I could have it all functioning out of the box.

      --
      Think of the Children; Sleep with your Sister
    2. Re:A bit expensive for a Linux laptop? by djmurdoch · · Score: 2, Informative

      just shy of $1500 doesn't seem that high, it's only £812,

      You seem to think currency conversion is all that matters. Everything in the UK is priced higher than the same thing in the US. For example, the $1099 Macbook is £749 in the UK (incl VAT). Expect to pay over £1000 for this machine. (Without VAT the prices are closer, but the UK is still higher. In the US prices are always quoted without sales tax, because each state has its own tax rate.)

    3. Re:A bit expensive for a Linux laptop? by spuzzzzzzz · · Score: 3, Informative
      Although if the XP model doesn't cost any more there is also be a MS premium built in, which would be a shame
      On this page, you can see that adding Windows XP to a laptop costs $105.
      --

      Don't you hate meta-sigs?
  2. Re:And why would I want to pay the premium by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 2, Informative

    Heck, right now you can even get a 1.8Ghz Intel Core Due for less than what R^3 wants for the 1.53 Ghz Celeron M. You can't even get an Intel Core Duo on the R^3 model.

    Screw that.

    --
    My blog
  3. Re:And why would I want to pay the premium by Bazman · · Score: 2, Informative

    Hunt for ndiswrapper? We got ten new Dell laptops in the other day, booted Ubuntu Dapper Live, and wireless worked. Straight. Out of. The Box. As did everything else.

      Although to be honest it was my technical team that did it so I'm not sure if they tested hibernate/suspend or any other real hardcore stuff. DVDs played, sound worked, network fine, wireless sorted.

      I need to make sure the external VGA works (this is a problem with some laptops in linux) since that does cause our students to lose hair when they have presentations to give, and causes some of them to resort to printed or even handwritten transparencies for talks!

    B

  4. Re:Stripped down... it's a terrible laptop. by r_cerq · · Score: 3, Informative

    First, the graphics card isn't ATI or NVidia. It's Intel. That means no native OpenGL support
    Bzzt, wrong! Intel cards do support OpenGL, just not spectacularly. Here I am running XGL on one to prove it...

  5. R Cubed sells many Linux laptop models by UseFree.org · · Score: 2, Informative

    The model reviewed by the article is just one of several types of Linux laptops sold by R Cubed Technologies, ranging in price from $999 to $1,454. I really think you're getting a better buying one of these Linux laptops than buying a Dell laptop where you have to pay the Micro$oft tax or one of those exhorbitantly expensive Apple laptops.

    The R Cubed Linux laptops have Intel integrated graphics cards for which Intel has released 2D and 3D-accelerated open source graphics drivers that are capable of transparent windows and drop shadows with EXA as well as rotating cubes and wobbly windows with XGL and Compiz! Way to go Intel!

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    1. Re:R Cubed sells many Linux laptop models by Doppler00 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Umm... Intel "3D-accelerated" chipsets have always been integerated, low end, junk. Great, they release open source for a product that is mediocre. What is impressive about that?

  6. Yes, you CAN get a Core Duo... by gknoy · · Score: 2, Informative

    All from shoprcubed.com:

    http://shoprcubed.com/products.asp?cat=27

    14 inch widescreen

    15.4 inch widescreen

    Their super-small one (12" I think?) and the top model (which I can't quite see why it's SO much more expensive w/o looking in more detail) both are celeron M or pentium M, but the middle two on the page are both Core Duo capable.

  7. Re:And why would I want to pay the premium by Wdomburg · · Score: 2, Informative

    The 4318 should be natively supported now by the bcm43xx driver. Not sure which kernel version that crept into, but it's definitely there in 2.6.17.