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In Search of the Cheap Linux Laptop
mr_mischief writes "According to Hot Hardware's recent review, Asus is getting ready to unleash a $199 compact notebook running Linux. This is entirely different from this recent $150 Linux laptop story which many Slashdot readers believed to be a scam. There's a dual-mode menu which offers a simple system for novice computer users, and a slightly more advanced version for others. It's not aimed squarely at the same market as the One Laptop Per Child project's XO, and is expected to be sold to end users worldwide. It's targeted at new users who don't own a computer or at people who want a cheap, small laptop for basic tasks. The reviewed version has a 7" screen and a cramped keyboard to match, but a 10" version is available for $100 more. It offers built-in wired and wireless networking, four USB 2.0 ports, and a three-hour battery life. The storage options are a bit cramped, as you only get 4 GB of on-board storage (8 GB on the $299 model) and no optical drive. As the review says, though, USB 2.0 can make up for that if you like, and the lack of moving drive parts makes the machine run dead quiet."
For the market this laptop is intended for, 4 GB of storage is probably perfectly adequate. Keep in mind that 4 GB hard drives were standard for laptops just ten years ago, and lots of people did real work with that much storage. At $199 a pop, Asus will have a laptop that is nearly cheap enough to become an impulse buy for a lot of people.
Sure, you can always get a much better machine for a little more money, but a certain segment of the market is always attracted by the lowest possible price. Clearly this is what Asus is aiming for.
If you buy it for portability and not specs, hell yes, $300 is a good price for a 10" notebook. For coparison, the cheapest sub-12" notebook at Newegg that's is a Fujitsu Lifebook at around $1500 on sale.
What I primarily use a notebook for is web browsing, e-mail and a terminal window. What benefit would a high spec laptop with Vista have for me? It'd just burn battery and heat up my genitals.
The $450 BestBuy laptop will not be a lightweight 10" machine though. The cheapest LifeBook P7230 which costs ~$1,600 w/ rebates, and it has a 1.2 Ghz Core Solo, 1 Gig of RAM and an Intel GFX chip. The only thing it has significantly more of is the HDD, but then it's not a solid state thingie.
:). Assuming the 10" screen will be at least 1024x768, it would be an excellent replacement for the armada, whose battery is beginning to crap out. Faster processor, double the RAM amount and battery life, more USB ports, built in wireless, and a webcam all for just $299.
Looking at the Eee's specs, it's significantly better than the old Compaq Armada M300 I currently have. My M300 was originally equipped with a 6GB hard drive, so the 8GB or 16GB models would actually be an improvement, if I hadn't upgraded it with an 80GB Seagate drive
Despite my excitement, whether the 10" Eee is a rip off or not depends on the needs and expectations of the user. I almost always carry my M300 with me, and I mainly use it for web surfing, some office tasks, light coding work and some gaming. This is exactly what I'd want the Eee to do, and I'm sure it'll handle these tasks just fine (by gaming I meant an occasional game of Starcraft or Doom deathmatch). If, on the other hand, the laptop will always remain on the table at home, and is expected to run Vista, then yeah, an additional $100 will get you a much more suitable machine.
Ok... I now see that there are quite a few replies already, but I'll still post this in case I covered something that hasn't been mentioned yet.
For it's size and weight, this is an excellent buy. Usually we'd be paying more for such a small size. You don't need speed on a a lightweight portable -- save the speed for a desktop (if you want to use your laptop as a desktop, that's a whole different issue).
Forget using it as a laptop, I'm going to use it as the house server. Get it set up, make the system card read-only and stick it in a closet with 1+ USB drives, it's quiet and low heat. If you need to see the 'console' pop the lid and there it is.
Tom.
I get roped into doing support for family & friends, and the typical grandmother PC once degunked, normally has a few card games, maybe a few photo's & a pile of email (all dumped in the inbox along with 2000 spam messages).
When I back up a family computer, (trying hard to ignore the crap pr0n on my father-in-laws 'puter), I typically don't have to compress anything to fit on a 800mb CD - it's often just Outlook Express email & nothing else.
get you grandmother set up with one of these laptops and a gmail account, and they will be happy. No having to pay McAfee or MS for endless updates, makes their life easy. Sure they will complain when they can't run the .SCR Christmas card that some stranger sent them, but quiet & portable will win them over.
Isn't think the Google vision for the future of computing; and Microsoft's nightmare; people using generic, cheap laptops for accessing Google, a PS3/Wii for games and some USB/LAN attached box for your data storage? 8GB - or maybe a few more via the USB port is enough for many people; and for those with video/mp3 collections, plug in an external 500GB HDD; as/when you need it.