$98USD Laptop running Linux
Don...
-- Don McKenzie
Site Map:
And somewhere in Redmond, the nearest available chair is been used for stress relief...
Seriously however, at some point, someone is going to get the packaging and capabilities of these laptops right and at such a price point that people will not care that they have to learn how to use another OS (Linux).
At that point it's probably going to be the iPod all over again, with Microsoft been seriously left behind in the marketplace and rushing to catch up.
BTW, I find it interesting that MIPS chips are been used in these really low cost products instead of ARM. Are MIPS chips really that much cheaper ?
Simon.
-- Simon Clubley, clubley@remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP Microsoft: Bringing you 1980's technology to a 21st century world
Imprecavo contro il nuovissimo ordinamento quando clubley@remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP (Simon Clubley) ha detto :
MIPS? ARM?
-- Nuno on zx-6r '04 & CRe 250 '99 working in progress... La riforma della scuola è pronta dieci casse Marshall dentro ogni aula
That's not the same device that the OP mentioned, but is instead a traditional low cost laptop with a HDD.
There are a number of ultra low cost laptops, much lower in price than the Asus Eee, coming onto the marketplace, including the one mentioned by the OP at a reported price of 98 USD.
If you look at the Youtube link, you will see that the device is called a HiVision MiniNote. I couldn't find anything on the vendor's website, but a Google search for HiVision MiniNote turns up a number of reviews including:
where it's mentioned that the CPU is a MIPS based CPU.
I was curious why these ultra low cost devices seem to be going for MIPS instead of ARM; I seem to recall other ultra low cost devices choosing MIPS as well.
Simon.
-- Simon Clubley, clubley@remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP Microsoft: Bringing you 1980's technology to a 21st century world
I am just wondering what you do with 1GB of flash storage these days.
5-10 years ago when programs were a lot more effcient this was plenty. I just installed Ubuntu in a virtual engine. Besides the programs that are in there per default (ok, I'll soon toss all the games) I only added some of the gEDA software and whoops, it's already close to 3GB ...-- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/ "gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam. Use another domain or send PM.
I believe it is because they're domestic Chinese designs. (That also means they're not 100% MIPS compatible - IIRC they omit the halfword load/store instructions like many other clones and add some of their own.)
-Anders
Hopefully these devices have mutiple HiSpeed USB ports, (maybe even one 'internal') to allow Flashdrive choices ?
Flash drives are cheap, and on a great price-curve, so are the ideal way to manage portable storage size choices.
-jg
But on a laptop it needs to be internal. A 1-2" thingamagic sticking out the back or side isn't so great when you are on a flight. Some surprise turbulence or the guy in front of you the size of a sumo wrestler decides to recline his seat back and ... crunch.
-- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/ "gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam. Use another domain or send PM.
The "official" solution is often to use an SD card instead of a USB stick. these have been a bit more expensive for comparable speed, but prices for SDHC class 6 are getting close to those of USB sticks, and have almost comparable performance to typical USB sticks.
That's why I mentioned an 'internal' USB connector, under a hatch or similar, to avoid just what you mention :)
Two internal USBs would be even better...
-jg
Yes, it does say there is a SD slot so that would work. The 3h battery life is a bit disappointing though. But heck, if they improve that to >6h some day these laptops could really rock.
-- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/ "gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam. Use another domain or send PM.
Cheapest offer price I've see to date is $75 @ 5K for a netbook w/Linux.
IMO, the netbook market is about to explode with many, many suppliers coming online. I just got an MSI machine (The Taiwan-based motherboard maker) and it's pretty usable. Typing on it now, as a matter of fact. ;-)
That explosion will only really happen once they show up at places like Walmart and CostCo. And maybe have a bit more battery runtime.
-- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/ "gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam. Use another domain or send PM.
There's no reason to omit halfword load and store. Perhaps you are thinking of the unaligned load and store instructions? Those were covered by the '976 patent, which has expired, so there is no longer any reason to omit them. MIPS has many other patents on features they added later, but AFAIK the baseline architecture is no longer encumbered.
I think the developed countries will go for a $200-$300 netbook that is very light and compact and has maybe 3 hours of battery time (not much beyond what is now available). In lesser developed countries, a $130-150 retail netbook with 0.5G RAM and maybe a 16G SSD should sell well. Probaby most would prefer an OS such as XP home, with some willing to pay more than others for it (so it depends on Microshaft's willingness and ability to cripple the OS so it doesn't eat away from their mainstream markets). The 7-10" screens are about right for doing a whole class of tasks that are not really practical on a phone or PDA type device.
And sure, it's got to be available from the usual retailers. I got mine from Staples. The no-name ones will probably show up with dubious brands like "Sylvania" or "Kawasaki" just like the cheap portable DVD players, with slightly more expensive ones bearing the usual brands such as Dell and Acer. They'll all be made in Asia, and mostly in China.
I saw two models of EeePC in target yesterday. Not target online, in the store. Weren't there the week before. Costco had them from the launch a year ago, but perhaps online only.
Those are indeed what I meant, but looking at the documentation available it seems that those instructions are supported and that the news reports from when the chips were first announced were incorrect (which is understandable as information was pretty thin on the ground.)
Note that I am assuming that the CPU in these devices is related to the Loongson series.
-a
Interesting. I hadn't realised that the basic patents on the MIPS architecture had expired; I can see how that would be attractive for low cost clone vendors.
As for Joerg's comment about gEDA: for myself, it's not the flash size that would stop me there, but the display size - the screens are too small to usefully run programs like gschem and pcb.
OTOH, these devices are useful in a range of applications that could be run on smartphones, but are more comfortable to run on a bigger screen and keyboard. These devices offer that but without the size and weight of a fullsize laptop.
Thanks for the posted feedback,
Simon.
-- Simon Clubley, clubley@remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP Microsoft: Bringing you 1980's technology to a 21st century world
I've heard many users complain about the short battery time. I am one of them. In fact some even didn't buy laptops because they don't think it's worth it to have a machine that quits on you after 2-3h.
I have done many, many designs on machines with 10" or less. Some had fantastic battery life of up to 6h. Those days are gone so nowadays I often don't take my laptop along anymore.
The Staples website doesn't have anything under the usual $700 ceiling. Dell does. So ...
Kawasaki would be a nice name on a laptop :-)
-- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/ "gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam. Use another domain or send PM.
That's because we are all spoiled these days. I did my first large design on an old Wang Laptop from the late 80's. It had maybe 7", no backlight (!), monochrome, no gray scale and the vertical resolution was only half CGA. This was a rather large design, about 10 letter-A sheets chock full of discretes and stuff. Some of it I did on a train. I remember getting tired after about four hours yet the laptop still had plenty of juice in the battery.
[...]-- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/ "gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam. Use another domain or send PM.
ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.