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Litebook Launches A $249 Linux Laptop (zdnet.com)
An anonymous reader writes:
It's "like a Chromebook for Linux users on a budget," reports ZDNet. The new 2.9-pound Litebook uses Intel's Celeron N3150 processor and ships with a 14.1-inch display and a 512-gigabyte hard drive with full HD resolution (1,920 x 1,080). For $20 more they'll throw in a 32-gigabyte SSD to speed up your boot time. "Unlike Windows laptops, Litebooks are highly optimized, come without performance hogging bloatware, [are] designed to ensure your privacy, and are entirely free of malware and viruses," writes the company's web site. They also add that their new devices "are affordable, customizable, and are backwards compatible with Windows software."
Don't you mean 500GB? AFAIK there's no 512GB mechanical HDD.
#DeleteFacebook
What is this? 2008?
I bought a Toshiba laptop, wiped the Hard Drive of Windows 8. Upon powering it on without giving it a chance to boot, and installed Linux to it. Cost me about $320 Total.
hopefully something better becomes available....
>Richard Simmons has reportedly not been seen for over 1000 days, people! Possibly being held captive by his staff!
>We MUST get to the bottom of this, my fellow slashdotters!
Bennet Haselton has reportedly not been seen for over 1000 days, people! Possibly being held captive by anonymous cowards!
We MUST get to the bottom of this, my fellow slashdotters!
2017 and still solving the same fucking problems for the last 10 years
unable to load firmware patch rtl_nic/rtl8168e-2.fw
FUCK YOU STUPID MOTHER FUCKERS
They buried the lead. The article mentions a much more exiting low-end ARM64 laptop called the Pinebook. Does that actually exist yet, or is it still vaporware? Anyone seen/touched one in the wild?
Wow, this is revolutionary! A Full HD hard drive is a great achievement! Can you post a picture? Please?....
the SSD "upgrade" is in place of the HDD. No other HDD options, so you have to buy ANOTHER HDD if you want 1TB or 2TB and install it yourself I assume its a 9mm bay+sled that wont accommodate an older 12mm 2.5 larger capacity drive. Does any body make a 2.5 9mm drive with combined/integrated 16/32/64 GB SSD?.
There is no right to feel safe thru security vaudeville at the expense of everyone's freedom, privacy and tax money.
I think he is being held incommunicado by DHS under Trumps immigration ban after returning from a tour of the EU
There is no right to feel safe thru security vaudeville at the expense of everyone's freedom, privacy and tax money.
No windows bloat, instead they give you a piece of junk hardware that will make it seem like the machine is full of bloatware and virus's.
From the featured article:
The idea is that this laptop is warranted to run Linux and X.Org X11, as opposed to some other Windows-focused laptop models that end up suffering serious problems due to missing or broken drivers. So you'd remain within spec if you installed something more mainstream, such as Xubuntu.
OK, I don't get it. FTA It's "like a Chromebook for Linux users on a budget" if your budget is more than a Chromebook which are widely available for as little as $129, and most are $199. Heck, 14" windows laptops are pretty easy to find (similarly speced) for about the same price or less (as cheap as $179 for a Celeron N3050) and it takes minutes to wipe the drive and in stall the Linux of choice. Where is the breakthrough here?
Last I heard of Pinebook on Slashdot was a comment by vux984 mentioning it in passing.
But one disadvantage of switching from x86 and x86-64 to ARM and AArch64 is inability to run the occasional Windows application in Wine. My work flow includes a few Windows applications distributed as free software, such as FCEUX debugging version, FamiTracker, and Modplug Tracker. All are usable in Wine, even on a dinky little Atom CPU. If you go ARM, you're on your own recompiling them for linking with Winelib.
News for Nerds my ass! Fucking lame thread, kill it now!
Achille Talon
Hop!
Isn't that the Skype icon I see in the dock?
AC comments get piped to
4 Gig of Ram, what is this, 2003?
I have always used a ThinkPad that is off lease and verified. Newegg has a host of models listed between $200-$300. And the ThinkWiki will help you with the particulars if you aren't familiar with the model you get.
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
Hello I'm one of the creators of the Litebook, and I'm here to address a few of the comments. The Hard Drive formats to 500GB, but is advertised by the supplier as a 512GB Device.
The SSD is not a replacement for the standard drive or a hybrid mechanical Hard Drive. Its a separate 32GB drive and is seen as such by the operating system.
Skype is not a preinstalled application. We include pictures of it to show Windows Users that the applications they are familiar with will run on the Litebook.
Thank You,
The Litebook Team
So much of the Linux laptop market seems to be targeted at the low end (current story), or the high end (Dell XPS Ubuntu developer edition). Only System 76 seems to offer anything middle of the road (core i3 for $700). Not really confident linux can get a foothold in a market with a Windows 10 laptop at every price point from top to bottom.
If I wanted a Chromebook to run Linux on, I'd just buy a Chromebook and flash the firmware. There's an Xubuntu-derived distro specifically for the purpose, too, GalliumOS.
Wait, did I say I would do that? Let me correct myself. I already have. It runs Windows 10 the majority of the time, but it does have Gallium installed and bootable via rEFInd.
How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
What's so special about this laptop?
If I go to Alibaba and search for "inexpensive linux laptop", I get 19k hits with products like:
- https://www.alibaba.com/produc...
- https://www.alibaba.com/produc...
- https://www.alibaba.com/produc...
The big thing seems to be an angle rather than technology (hardware or software).
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
Google Chrome calls home. There are many alternatives easily available without Google's stalkware baked in.
Skype is insecure spyware owned and operated by Microsoft with well known intercept capabilities. It runs and consumes bandwidth continuously whether your using skype or not.
Spotify is spyware that automatically collects data about you and your friends just by logging on.
Why is it that everyone selling to consumers offering privacy and no-bloat demonstrates the exact opposite? We won't preload heaps of shit except for the heaps of shit we preload.
It's like all these companies selling "eco friendly" products that are anything but.
There needs to be third party qualification program for security and privacy that actually meet specific articulable requirements. This wild west of everyone claiming they give a shit when in fact their actions demonstrate otherwise is worthless.
Richard Simmons has reportedly not been seen for over 1000 days, people! Possibly being held captive by his staff!
We MUST get to the bottom of this, my fellow slashdotters!
Richard Simmons gave up, plain and simple. He loved his fat chicks with their sweaty additional crevices that they can never properly clean, and that sour milk smell of body odor they carry with them everywhere. He loved them dearly with all his heart. But nearly the whole nation of the USA has become a land of fat chicks and fat dudes with fat man boobs. Poor Simmons had to give up. Not even he could withstand the enormity and magnitude of the American brand of fatassery. Every man has his limits. Even Richard Simmons.
and that sour milk smell of body odor they carry with them everywhere.
You have an active imagination but they usually smell like shit due to an inability to reach their asses and wipe effectively.
As usual, the 16:9 TV aspect does not provide enough space for a keyboard and decent sized touchpad. To add insult to injury, the touchpad and keyboard are both significantly offset to the left, which could have been avoided if they put that extra column of keys on the other side. Where are the 3:2 notebooks? At these sizes, 16:9 simply does not afford enough vertical resolution for any use case besides TV.
and that sour milk smell of body odor they carry with them everywhere.
You have an active imagination but they usually smell like shit due to an inability to reach their asses and wipe effectively.
Same AC here. Maybe the fat chicks around here have a spray attachment for their shower so they can rinse their entire enormous asses. I don't know. I never did a survey. The ass is singular and a well known source of odor. Various additional crevices that normal people don't have, now those can be more elusive. Hence the sour milk smell. Note this does not rule out the additional smell of stale fecal matter.
The amazing thing is that the human body can withstand remaining in that condition for so long. A reasonable amount of adipose is a good evolutionary hedge against leaner future times ... the American level of extra fat is just plain grotesque and excessive. The very worst part is the attitude of most American fatties. They think it's not their fault, and the definition of "fault" is: the result of their cumulative decision making. That's just fucking pitiful. But they defend this notion vigorously, as though they truly cherish it.
It says there's no wifi.
OMG!
Simmons is Hazelton! Hazelton is Simmons!
Intel's Celeron N3150 processor ...
are entirely free of malware
I wouldn't be too sure about that claim if they're using a processor with Intel ME on it.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
The number of people here crying about the software and hardware calling home is ridiculous. No one cares about the D&D website that you frequent. Get over yourself. No one is spying on you.
designed to ensure your privacy, and are entirely free of malware and viruses
That's a pretty bold (and unrealistic) claim to make in the post-Snowden era.
when they can't even get a hard drive size correct?
When your Xorg process uses a ton of CPU and your graphics driver is bad, a linux desktop is quite bad with overhead also Gnome 3, KDE are pigs or at least quite heavier than XP was.
Until FexEx or UPS redirects you order to have huge NSA campus near San Antonio, TX where they replace the physical BIOS chip with one with the NSA uses to spy on everybody. No one hides from NSA, no one. And they want to target you with malware, they make it so.
proper DRM is being worked on.
Why did the developers of the Direct Rendering Manager have to give it such a confusing name?
My questions are:
1. Do you have optional firmware available to disable the Intel Management Engine, since that is one of the current trending concerns of this demographic of user.
2. Do you have plans for how to proceed now that Intel has signed blobs for CPU, ME, GPU, AND AUDIO on current/next generation SoC models?
3. Do you have any plans for a laptop device that can provide unsigned owner/end-user replacement of the firmware (even if you personally only provide a normal closed-source bios implementation) whether x86, arm, or some other architecture based in the near future? I personally would be willing to pay up to 1000 dollars for such a device given sufficient build quality, and I have seen other people, whether on slashdot, soylent, or reddit willing to do the same. But all we seem to get is more rehashed Linux laptops utilizing ever less libre-friendly hardware, with serious concerns as to the security and privacy of our own data operated on them, as well as anyone else's we pass along (Think Tor or I2P, neither of which is trustworthy even if the software is if the continued trend in ME/PSP/Signed Trustzone hardware) continues.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
- An AC
Really?
Why are people still insisting on using the crappy N series processor when processors like 2955U or 2957U or 3205U are much better and cost the same
What is the battery life for this notebook?
The original chromebook was cheap, light, booted fast, automatically synced files, and required practically no maintenance.
I bought one for $150. Still use it all the time. It is great for what it is.
Once you put a more powerful intel processor in it, and put a more capable OS in it, you lose everything special about it. No more fast boot, long battery life, cheap price, etc.
Linux users are generally power users. Who would want anything like this?
A pity these don't come with 120GB SSDs from the start.
That was the single most significant upgrade I made to old laptops (including ones with old ATA/100 interfaces).
Starting with a 500GB slow-as-crap laptop-grade HDD sounds like a recipe for frustration.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife