$160 netbook

[jay-R5TnC2l8y5lBDgjK7y7TUQ at public.gmane.org]

The problem is at this price I would guess the linux distro they are putting out is not optimized for such a limited system. It may be a nice option for some one who wants to run android or a similar os. But the general populace will be looking for heavy web use witch these days means firefox and flash. 

I spent a bit more than twice that on my mini with 1gig ram, dual 1.6 atom, and 20 gigs of flash space 3 months ago. It just doesn't sound like much of a deal.  


------Original Message------
From: Tom Metro
Sender: discuss-bounces-mNDKBlG2WHs at public.gmane.org
To: L BLU
Sent: Mar 4, 2009 1:42 PM
Subject: $160 netbook

The Buy.com weekly ad mentioned the Belco Alpha 400 netbook selling for 
$160, or about half the price of a typical netbook:

http://www.buy.com/prod/alpha-400-mips-400mhz-128mb-1gb-7-linux-ultralite-notebook/q/loc/101/210486063.html

The good news is that it comes loaded with Linux. The bad news is that 
the OS is described as "Linux 2.4 Operating System" - presumably a 2.4 
series kernel - and the hardware seems equally obsolete. About on par 
with the first generation of netbooks: 7" 800 x 600 display, 128 MB RAM, 
1 GB Flash storage, and a 400 MHz MIPS XBurst CPU.

Unless the XBurst is clock-for-clock more efficient than the typical 
Atom CPU used in most netbooks, this one will be noticeably slower than 
the competition that's usually 1 GHz or faster. This Wikipedia chart 
shows the Alpha 400's (they list the manufacturer as Skytone) 
specifications at the bottom-end:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_netbooks

On the other hand, it's the 2nd or 3rd lightest model listed. Probably 
not worth the discount if you're looking for a netbook for general use, 
but could be a good choice for certain embedded applications.

Looks like Engadget reviewed it last December:

Switched On: Alpha 400 pays a high price for low cost
http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/22/switched-on-alpha-400-pays-a-high-price-for-low-cost?icid=sphere_blogsmith_inpage_engadget

  -Tom

-- 
Tom Metro
Venture Logic, Newton, MA, USA
"Enterprise solutions through open source."
Professional Profile: http://tmetro.venturelogic.com/
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