We’ve been slowly bringing you news on Dell’s mini laptop that’s been all over the ‘net. There just wasn’t that much to talk about - until now. Dell is flipping the netbook market on its head with the Inspiron Mini 9, a $399 laptop with a 1024×600 LED-backlit screen. SSD storage will be standard with 4, 8 and 16GB options. Battery life is around three hours and you even get Windows XP. Want Linux? Shed $50 off the price tag for Ubuntu.
Tomorrow, Google will be launching the beta version of Google Chrome in more than 100 countries. Chrome is it’s new browser and while it may seem like it’s aimed at Internet Explorer or Firefox, Google is really targeting Windows. Google wants Chrome to be nothing short of a full on desktop operating system that could give Windows a run for its money. But, what about Midori?
Google is releasing the beta for Windows to kick start a broader discussion and hear from users as soon as possible. It is also hard at work whipping up versions for Mac OS X and Linux, too. When the final project is all set and ready, Google will be making Chrome’s source code publicly available rendering endless expansive possibilities. Look for its release first thing tomorrow.
Looks like a company called Impulse just came out with a laptop that’s perfect for Michael Arrington. It’s called the NPX-9000 and is being touted as “The World’s Cheapest Laptop.”
You have to purchase at least 50 of them, which is exactly what Arrington is looking to do, but you’ll only end up paying $130 a unit. What’s that get you? A 400MHz MIPS CPU, 128MB of RAM, 1GB of solid-state storage, a media card reader for increased storage, VGA output and 3 USB ports. It runs Linux and will include an 802.11g WiFi dongle. That seals the deal for me. Anyone want to go in on a lot of 50 units? You can’t beat the price.
We’ve all seen Dell’s E mini notebook that’s piss small with an 8.9-inch screen but details haven’t emerged aside from specs - until today. Rumor has it that the Dell E is going to ship sometime in August for - wait for it - an astonishing $299. At that price, you’d expect a terrible system but you’ll find decent specs like a 1.8GHz Atom CPU, Linux. On the downside? 4GB of storage, only 512MB of RAM and Linux.
If the specs don’t suit you, fear not: Dell is coming out with a few models, including a premium model that supposedly has a built-in webcam, 1GB of RAM and other features. Either way, if Dell debuts a $299 sub-notebook next month, don’t expect to find them in stock after launch day.
Popular Mechanics has a must-read guide up for PS3 owners alike. If you’ve been interested in putting Linux on your Playstation 3 and need a little help getting things done, then this guide was made for you. You’ll end up replacing the hard drive and gaining the ability to dual-boot between Linux and the PS3 OS, allowing for open-source computing and powerful gaming.
The hard drive swap is optional, but it’s highly recommended by PopMech. Personally, I feel that a 60GB or 80GB model will do just fine. After all, it’s a console, not a personal computer. Put those Cell processors to good use and throw a copy of Ubuntu on your PS3. You wouldn’t want to upset two sets of fanboys at once, would you?
Those of you who run Linux might still experience falling asleep at the monitor with your command terminal running. The steady blinking of the cursor can be hypnotic, but sleeping at the desk is about as ergonomic as sleeping on a pile of stones. Art Lebedev Studio has whipped up an ode to the days of DOS commands with the DOS pillow.
Relive the days where you would wake up to the DOS screen, still giving you command syntax errors, despite the fact that you pressed the same command 400 time, hoping for a different result. Get your own for $36. — Andrew Dobrow
At first glance, this “case mod”, if you can call it that, looked like the box I carried my belongings off to college with. Look a little deeper and you see that this box is actually a working computer.
The UbuntuBox has got to be the ugliest damn case mod of all time. Isn’t there some sort of reward for this? The creator of this horrendous masterpiece says that the computer houses the parts from an old Pentium 3 tower, running Linux Ubuntu. (more…)
According to a calculation done by the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) a $21.50 “patent tax” is added in to every sale of Microsoft’s software products. This is the first time I’ve been informed that I was paying for Microsoft’s law bills before I switched over to OS X and Linux.
Now that I know this information, I’m glad I took the leap, regardless of if other software adds this in as well. The fact that the richest man in the world charges his customers to pay for his companies legal fees is almost to ridiculous for my fleshy neuro-system to stand. Does $20 make that much of a difference? It does if you’re struggling to make ends meet. Well, I’m a Mac convert. Chew on that Microsoft. — Andrew Dobrow
Japanese company TurboLinux will start selling their Wizpy Portable Media Player (PMP) in 2 weeks, ITmedia took it for a review and answered a lot of our questions. What’s so special about this not-too-attractive PMP is that apart from the usual 4GB FM radio, voice recorder, music, video, picture, text viewer that we see in the market, it has a Linux operating system on it with which you can boot any PC as long as they can boot from USB drive (CD/DVD-ROM or HDD).
Linux is pickup up pace. Apple Macs are picking up even quicker. Maybe its people’s increasing frustration with the obstacles presented by Windows. It doesn’t really matter why, right now Microsoft had better deliver with Vista in a few days.
With some odd timing, Dell has started to ship mainstream desktops without Windows preinstalled. Not only does this save the consumer a few bucks, but you now can choose to install Linux to the pre-formatted hard drive without dealing with getting rid of Windows first.
These desktops are set up with a base configuration of an Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (C521N) or 2.8 GHz Intel Pentium 4 (C521N)processor, 512MB RAM (C521N) or 1GB RAM (E521N), 250GB hard drive, and a choice of a Radeon X1300 (C521N) or a GeForce 7300LE (C521N) for graphics. They start at $624. Check Dell out next week to jump on this nice option from a major PC seller. — Nik Gomez
Dell ships mainstream desktops Windows-free [Electronista]
