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Mandriva Joins the Netbook Market With the GDium
AdamWill writes "Lately it's hard to avoid the buzz about netbooks — the small, cheap laptop systems that were popularized by the Asus Eee PC. Mandriva is providing the innovative operating system for the upcoming GDium netbook system, produced by Emtec. The first GDium will be a netbook with a 10", 1024x600 resolution display and a battery life of four hours, weighing in at 1.1kg. The innovative G-Key system stores the Mandriva operating system and all the user data on a USB key — nothing is permanently stored inside the GDium. You can use your own desktop and data by plugging the G-Key into any GDium."
That's great, Mandriva is my ever fav linux distro, if I just want something that's readily prepared for me... Those guys have a lot of innovative ideas, and I'm glad to see there's something better than my EeePC's tortured Xandros....
From the site:
10.
1024×600.
1.1Kg.
4 hours.
Mandriva Linux.
G-Key.
Gayaplex.
I understood the first six things on the list. But what the heck is a "Gayaplex"? I'm going to assume that it doesn't mean what its spelling implies...
Why do you not already know this?
PC: faq=cig
It is headed the opposite direction, they are getting more expensive, not less, and gaining in size. When that first eeePC hit I thought "cool, pretty soon now the hundred buck blisterpack small notebook". Man, I was wrong.
is the guy managing public relations for Mandriva i.e. spamming message boards and stuf (see OSNews, for example).
Actually he's a nice guy and sometimes says interesting things, so I should not have said "spam", but posting just to put the reader in the right perspective.
Where is the disclaimer?!
Usb keys get lost or end up in the washing machine even more than small laptops do...
From a cursory glance, I'd say I like this. It seems the first Linux distro that is actually tweaked to run from Flash RAM storage, rather than just a somewhat leaner generic Linux bolted on top of a SSD-based computer. Less logging, less unnecessary data to and from the storage, more stuff loaded into RAM. This is what I was hoping from the Eee PC's Xandros, but was disappointed (Xandros on the Eee PC is every bit of a normal Linux distro, with some of the less useful logfiles annoyingly and dangerously often updated).
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
And I thought it was a Vista theme for Mandriva. Piano Black is all that!
Use MANdriva Linux to login to our Gayaplex using your Gkey?
Come out with your Gdium!
With a half pound more and a FireWire flash key (from Micromat) you can boot the MacBook Air with reliability & speed and a 13" screen, and an internal hard drive to use however you want (encrypted data or take it out).
There are new things coming and I think these options are good.
CPU 900 Mhz 64bits Loongson(TM) 2F with only 512 MB of RAM. It's interesting enough but it'll have to be cheap since the only thing I'd use this for is casual browsing.
Humbug.
I can live with cute, small, slow & quirky if it's CHEAP.
I can live with cute, small, fast & innovative if it's CHEAP.
$420 is refurb "normal" laptop range. I REALLY want a cheap laptop/notepad/"wtf is that thing?", but I want cheap.
It's not a value proposition. It's something else. Because I can get a 'real' notebook, somewhat more clunky and heavy, such as a Lenovo R61 with SuSE Linux pre installed for $700. For $636 you can get Vista, remove it and install your own Linux.
On the other hand, you can't have a x86 distro on the flash key you use with your GDium, pull it out and plug it to your x86 desktop machine, and boot it. Deal breaker for me!
Linux is the OS :)
Mandriva is the complete system
The system works because of Linux
Check the facts, type "sysinfo:/" to konqueror address bar and you get system information.
Type "uname" to CLI and you get OS name what follows POSIX standard.
So Mandriva is the OS but it is just a small part of complete system
So, we talk about Mandriva Linux here, what is great Linux distribution and I'm going to buy small laptop where I can install Mandriva, currently 2008 Spring in use.
What in the world is GodDamniun? Is that what the thing is made of?
What?
Wasn't Mandriva that big black chick on American Idol?
As I understand this, the root partition is stored on the machine's internal ROM. The user's home folder sits on the USB key, along with something that somehow links to /etc/passwd to provide authentication. The key is automatically mounted when inserted. Correct me if I'm wrong.
This doesn't sound particularly promising - it would be very easy to lose the key. I also fail to see why, when most ultra-sub-notebooks are bought by a person for their use, and their use only.
Also, will the home folder on the key be accessible when plugging into another computer, say, a desktop running OS X, Windows or another Linux distro? If so, it would kind-of defeat the object. Emtec would be entering the market very late, so they can't expect this to take the market by storm. If it doesn't, it kind-of defeats the object of sticking everything on a USB key.
Those using pirated Tinysoft signatures(TM) are a real threat to society and should all be thrown in jail.
Sigh. If only they'd taken proper care of their BitDefender or Clam, everything would have been OK.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
I'm just happy it has no wondows button.
I know it's stupid, but I've been meaning to by a linux laptop but I haven't because it would infuriate me to see that button on it!...
ya, but already at the same price or getting more than a regular 14 inch laptop I can snag at local wallyworld off the shelf, and being a regular manual laborer, a pound or three difference means absolutely nothing to me, just not that big of a deal with me when it comes down to it, I carry around more weight than that with various tools stuck in my pockets all the time, 2 lbs or 5 lbs, meh, I don't care, 50 lbs sacks of mineral are at my low end of crap I have to move by hand all the time. I was more interested in portability with the built in battery and wireless connect action and low power and low price and comes with linux pre installed. Power goes out all the time here and my backup to run off a truck battery right now is an ancient powerbook, just thinking of getting something a little newer and more powerful for when that happens. Laptop size of today or smaller, just don't care that much as I'd be sitting right on top of the screen anyway, it can be smallish. Re; the keyboards..I wonder why they don't have a full size one that just folds out? Keep the small form factor but have a keyboard twice as big once it is opened up. Flip screen, left fold out, right fold out, done, full size. Yes it would have to be some thicker, but overall that would be nice. But...anyway..first the mega XO disappointment now these things right back up to expensive again (this new one in the article I don't see a price for yet). I'll wait, no biggee, no giant need for one, except once they get to a hundred bucks I'd get three of them-one for me and two for gifting- but at three hundred and higher I want none of them, I'd get a used newer laptop or a new one on sale at Christmas.
I had every iteration of the Apple Newton MessagePad up to the last one (2100? Can't remember). I loved the size: smaller than my laptop (literally a laptop, not a portable, because it needed 120VAC), larger than a PDA. Everything about it was efficient for me. But they killed it.
If Apple could take the iPhone and make it 4x bigger (2x in each dimension), I'd jump on it in 3 seconds, even with the simple OS. There's just too much there that would destroy many of these netbooks, which in my opinion are just too limited to be functional. I want one, but not without a built in GPS hardware/stack of some sort for telecom.
Apple, are you listening?
Cheap is definetly part of the appeal of a small portable low specced computing device. In fact it is right up there in the article summary ->""Lately it's hard to avoid the buzz about netbooks -- the small, cheap laptop systems that were popularized by the Asus Eee PC." We had small and light before, but they were expensive. The asus was an immediate hit because the original one was *loads* cheaper than anything else out there, and the OLPC XO project suffered terminal extreme dumbness and couldn't get it into gear to really hit a hundred bucks and get them out onto the market. Asus changed the cheap part of the equation, but then they got weird about it and they started moving away from the smaller part of the equation, and started bumping the price back up and making them bigger and now they are back to getting medium expensive again and are in the same price range as low end normal laptops. Yes, right now people who are buying them want that ultra lightness, but a lot more people would be buying something similar as the price goes down, and they can stay small and low specced. There's a huge market for small AND cheap, not just one or the other. One of those big companies is going to grok this and hit the market with it. Hmm, bad car analogy time! Sport! Tata motors grokked that with cars and came out with their 2500 dollar nano car. They will sell zillions of them because around the planet none of the other car companies grokked that! they were going the opposite direction, bigger, more bloat, worsening mileage, getting way too expensive. Good for some I guess, but not for everyone. Cheap is a prime criteria for a few billion people. At 25 grand, they would never get to have a new car, at 2.5 grand, it starts to get really affordable for a lot more people, and you make your profit in volume sales.
I just picked up a Mobile Computing m1300 on eBay for a few hundred bucks -- it's one of the "slate" style tablets, essentially just a big PDA. If you're missing the Newton, you might want to check out something like this.
--saint
So the GDium uses G-Keys to access data through Gayaplex (the previously mentioned portal)... though a wireless G-Spot? Mandriva must not expect to sell many of these.
Today is red jello day - all workers must eat all of their red jello. Failure to comply will result in five demerits.
This thing looks so awesome. Too bad it'll probably never get enough market share for those GKey's to become even more interesting. Image going to a LAN-party or something and only bringing a USB stick (and a spare possibly).
This could also kill or at least diminish the hardware incompatibility issues Linux sometimes has.
As long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be battlefields.
The day that VIA claimed its Nano is only for 10"+ laptops...
That and the fact that the HP Mininote has all the potential to be the best subnotebook... But the screen is too glossy (they need to have a matte option), the thing gets pretty hot, the CPU is not very good for the task, and not to mention the exact same laptop (except maybe there's no speakers on the side of the screen for the Dell?) but the Dell happens to be 64-bit and 200$ cheaper... VIA needs to swoop in and supply them with cheap nanos, or they're going to die against the Atom.
This new mandriva laptop doesn't look too great. For 400$+ it's really exorbitant pricing. What advantage does this have over an Asus eee901, really now? I can remove my SSD (I think) and use a flash drive as a boot device... And the only real advantage I can see to having your OS on a stick like this is if you get robbed; but even then if you can yank out a USB flash drive out of a thief's hands as he runs off with your laptop, why couldn't you just hold onto the laptop?
10".
1024x600.
1.1Kg.
4 unclefucks.
Mandriva "Anusapple" Linux.
G-Key.
Gayaplex.
Pretty close to the original, no?
(come on and laugh, people)
http://www.pornolize.com/pornolize4?lang=en&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gdium.com
Very good point, surfing today takes a bit more power than ten years ago for sure. That's why I wanted to upgrade my backup machine, that PB1400m that is a 1997 model, just not enough processor or RAM to be of much use for much longer. Thankfully you can still get an iCab browser for it that works pretty fair. Thanks for the link to that new Dell review! Getting closer! I'm still going to hold out a bit longer though, joe cheap here, heh.
*In theory* a binary format such as Mach-O favoured by Apple could be used, booting from an architecture-neutral bootloader.
I'm not a low-level ones and zeros programmer so I'm not sure how much effort would be required to release such a dream.
Of course the limited capacity of the flash storage device would probably then be the deal breaker.
I have no doubt that they're targeting these at the education market - or markets with similar use. There are a lot of schools undergoing "one laptop, one child" type initiatives right now, trying to get a laptop to every student. It's a massive IT burden for many schools.
On the other hand, a school could buy a couple hundred of these and be "ready to go" with pretty much everything a student could actually need, and there'd be little/no maintenance required. Just issue each student a laptop and a USB key, and away they go... lose the key? Just replace it. And if the laptop gets damaged, the students' work is still on the key.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
This focus on male drivers is just wrong.
Beauty is in the beholder of the eye.
I've been using my Eee PC with my home on an external USB drive for months with no problems. Why would you lose the USB drive? It's plugged in and it stays plugged in. And this device looks like it actually has space where the thing goes; with the Eee PC, it always sticks out a little.
I think this is a good idea, provided the built-in OS can be upgraded/reinstalled. I don't want to run Mandriva, I want to run Ubuntu.
Here is brief descriptions of the cpu (PDF). It's chinese-developed 64-bit MIPS, has 2 FPUs, 2 ALUs, 64K/64K L1, 512K L2. And consumes 4W@900MHz. It has a builtin ddr2-667 memory controller, PCI-X bus and no builtin video/USB/etc.
Nice processor, but IMO Nvidia Tegra is more suitable for a netbook; Ars Technica writes: "Tegra ... dissipates less than 300mW during HD playback." And has all peripherials integrated on the chip.
Main problem with this netbook is only 4 hours autonomous work, while 7-9 is much more suitable: I can take it to work without charder, etc.
...to be known as Gaydar (allegedly)
It makes me think of this arch-based distro FaunOS which runs completely from USB flash.
The idea is that computers will become more and more ubiquitous. As folks upgrade, they will have more and more cast-off PCs/Laptops. For most people (non video/game enthusiasts), the minimum system requirements are not very high- meaning that all of those old systems can fulfill their needs. BUT, the time it takes to maintain each old computer will keep people from using them. The solution is that each person maintains their personal operating environment then carry it from computer to computer as necessary. All the computer needs to do is boot from USB (which is becoming more and more common)
Forget this specialized laptop idea- polish up a good general-purpose hardware-sensing environment that survives on USB flash drives and market that instead.
...to pay your $699 licensing fee you cock smoking teabaggers!
The processor of Gdium is a Chinese 'Loongson', which is a proprietary MIPS. Anyone interested??