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VIA Open Platform Mini-Notebook Serves up Linux
Vigile writes "VIA is attempting to outdo the ASUS Eee PC with its new OpenBook platform reference design that not only offers up extra features but also supports many more operating system choices as well. The exterior design is pretty damn sexy and is built around (of course) VIA's own CPU and chipset products and can be equipped with WiMAX and/or 3G networking like HSDPA or W-CDMA. What is really impressive is that the device can run versions of Windows Vista or XP, Ubuntu, Suse or gOS." Update: 05/27 13:30 GMT by T :
alphadogg adds a bit more information on the "open" part of "Open Platform," writing "The CAD (computer-assisted design) files for the OpenBook reference design can be downloaded for free and made available to anyone under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 license. The terms of this license allow the CAD files to be freely copied, shared and modified."
http://www.hothardware.com/News/VIA_Unveils_New_OpenBook_UMPC_Reference_Design/
The exterior design is pretty damn sexy
Are you looking at the same case I am? That thing is hideous.
that today we have another articles in the FP about why we should buy computer preloaded with linux. I am just glad that another company is bringing up linux computer preloaded which is a great challenge to windows and i think that is just stupid idea to think that preloaded OS as tax. just as apple's computers run OS X like a charm, a manufacturer should design a computer for linux as well. that is exactly what we needed. i rather have companies design computers for linux, not windows. I bet it is easier to wipe it out and try other distro. this is good news! another remarking event that shaped year of linux.
This is the first innovative design that I could actually use in a notebook design. My portable requirements rarely have me typing much. The real estate provided in such a design would make the size very versatile.
But, make make a version with a processor and memory usable for the western countries.
To Copy from One is Plagiarism; To Copy from Many is Research.
I bought a via system for my home media centre, sold by the promises of Linux support and low power hardware - never again! I've got the worst performing badly supported and buggy heap of junk, lots of things simply don't work even with the latest kernels even when you use Via's nasty binary only drivers.
On the other hand the Asus machine will come running Linux, so hardware support will be there from the work go.
If you ever drop your keys into a river of molten lava, let'em go, because, man, they're gone.
Apparently the performance of this CPU is equivalent of a 900 MHz Pentium-M... ( http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/hp-2133-mini-note/4505-3121_7-32924066.html ) or an 800 MHz Intel A110. However, with HW acceleration of a lot of video formats, this won't matter much while watching video, probably. You wouldn't want to run Gentoo on this thing though. ;-)
Please respect the open source BDSM community. Thank you.
How can people seriously call these things "ultra mobile" when they have to keep getting plugged into a wall outlet? An gee, I wonder why none of the photos show them plugged in. I suppose with a 50 foot extension cord you could be "ultra mobile".
My Lifebook P2120 gets about 8 hours with its dual battery setup and I consider that adequate although I wish it could do better. How many people work less than 8 hours? When I leave the house I grab my P2120, I don't pack a bag with a charger or spare battery. Eight hours can just barely get me through the day if I'm careful to set the screen brightness to minimum and hibernate a couple times.
Call me when an "ultra mobile" gets 10 hours of "typical" battery life, not 3 hours of "up to" battery life.
I'm looking at the Lifebook T2010 as a replacement for my slow and somewhat beat up (dropped it a few times) P2120.
The T2010 is a bit bigger than the P2120, but with 11 hours of battery life I'm probably going to overlook its flaws and its steep price tag.
My typical use is wandering around theatre using software to control the stage lighting via 802.11g. To me "ultra mobile" means the computer comes with me as I move around and I don't have to stop working several times a day to recharge, or carry a pile of spare batteries, or drag an extension cord around.
O.S. Support:
Vista
XP
Linux
but I'm not sure how it's going to work in the end: since they can't compete with the marketing budgets of the big boys, they're attempting to leverage the open source community - they're being "different" to stand out.
Releasing materials under CC license, etc., in hopes that someone else will take it and run with it, make a funny youtube parody video, something like that to generate buzz.
It *could* work, if they don't try to force it.
In the past when companies have tried to do something similar (case in point, Sony with the PSP blog thing), they've always been the ones behind the (seemingly unbiased) blog or website talking about the product - and it backfires.
Why would anyone buy a sub-laptop for a mere hundred or two less than a full laptop?
I agree with you with UMPCs are going the wrong way being ever more featured and expensive. I want to see something like an EEE PC in a blister pack at Target for $150. We'll probably get there too but it will require a new manufacturer that has no "big laptop" lines to protect and isn't bound by any sort of agreement with MS that would require crippling such devices.
However there are reasons to want such devices even with the feeping creaturism and ever climbing price point. The size, weight, and ruggedness of these devices lend themselves to being used in a way that I wouldn't use a cheap "full laptop". They can be casually carried in one hand and you can get around quite rapidly with one. They'll survive drops and bangs that would kill their $100 more competition and better tolerate being frequently picked up and put down in funny places. They'll most definitely stand up to kid abuse better. If nothing else, these things are like ToughBooks on the cheap.
They've announced around 1~1.5 month ago that they were going to join the open-source fest of Intel and ATI.
At first, due to the lack of ouput, some called bluff and though VIA only pulled a PR stunt.
But recently VIA finally released huge chunks of code under GPLv2, and thus opensource project like openchrome and unichrome will definitely get a boost.
Specially since the VIA openbook is more based on classical VIA platform (instead of, say, an Isaiah with either their newest chrome chipset with hardware H264 decode [the one for which they where hiring opensource talents] or with that nVidia integrated solution as world's cheapest Vista Premium platform) I think it could benefit from full opensource support very soon.
We need to pay close attention to the future development of the VIA opensource drivers.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Looks like these are just pro-e files of the case design. When I can get gerber files for the motherboard and VHDL files of the ASICS, I'll be impressed.
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I think they are personally half-assing it with most notebooks. Strange as it may seem, I would prefer if there was an option to buy most laptops without a battery. The damn batteries don't last very long when you do have them anyway, many people use their laptops as portable desktops, batteries tend to make the laptop that much heavier when you change your work venue, they add a lot to the price of the base system, and having one less battery manufactured is most likely helping the environment.
Once you start despising the jerks, you become one.
The GP refers to the much larger Windows BDSM-mostly-M community.
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