MSI intros cut-price Linux mini-laptop MSI has made some modifications to its Wind line of Small, Cheap Computers, upping the storage capacity of the standard model and introducing a cheaper model. MSI Wind U90 MSI's Wind U90: smaller screen, lower price The low-cost Wind matches the spec of its pricier stablemates but comes in at £269 ($485/€332) instead of £ …
Make it a 6-cell battery for £20 less and you've got a sale.
Stop the HDD madness. I don't want to pay the for £60 the larger screen for an extra 40GB of HDD. And a pink only option for £10 and 40GB less is just silly.
If you want to sell me more hardware, bung in another GB of RAM (though that'd nark MS's XP licensing conditions as I understand it, but tough - I've got the cash ready & you're trying to sell to me).
When I shell out for a SCC/netbook/laptot, it'll have the following spec:
---> RRP £249.99 for a 8.9"/1024 screen version
---> RRP £299.99 for a 10"/1280 screen version
---> 4 hours of battery life with g Wi-Fi turned on (go on then, 3 hours at a push, if the recharger is like a mobile phone plug and you meet all the other requirements)
---> XP without any "free" MS Works trimmings and other bloat (I know that XP will run my progs. I know that Linux does not and does not offer an alternative prog. And no Wine-ing at the back from those that want to tinker. Let's have a "Minus XP for £xx less" option and we can all be happy.)
---> 1GB RAM (if you meet all the other requirements I _might_ accept 512MB as long as it's user-upgradeable to 2GB without voiding the warranty)
---> 1.6GHz CPU (likely to be an Atom in order to achieve battery life but I'm not really fussed).
---> Keyboard and trackpad to match the EEE 901 (I got hands on with an Aspire One and the button placement wasn't a real issue but the keyboard & touchpad are just a tad too small & fiddly.
---> Max 1.5kg weight
---> Storage can be anything from 12GB-ish. Preferably SSD. But as long as it's robust enough for the job and it doesn't impinge on battery/weight/size, I'm fairly flexible. I don't need to store vast libraries of files. This is a secondary device and I can use SD cards for extra storage.
---> Built-in 3G would be the icing on the cake and, as time goes by, is in danger of joining the above list as a requirement.
If you can't meet that spec then you can't have my cash. I can wait. We're getting there. Slowly. It'll all be sorted in time for Christmas.
All the while, the launch of the dinky Dell draws nearer...
for all the concerns about MS dumping XP licences to make the (announced) price of windows versions the same or even cheaper than Linux (esp eeepc), in the real world Linux is consistently cheaper - even for the eeepc. And when push comes to shove at the bottom end tiddlers, there is no contest.
BTW I looked at the £169 Maplin minipc. Pretty good actually - although lacking a VGA port so no use for presentations
The Maplin is the same device as the Elonex Onet; a 400MHz, Chinese-MIPS-knockoff powered under-specced device. At £169, with 2GB Storage and 256MB RAM, and 800 x 480 screen, you'd have to have a very good reason for wanting that odd CPU to choose it over the £199, 1.6GHz, 8GB/512MB 1024 x 600 Acer Aspire One.
I cancelled my Elonex orders after the interminable delays in getting the machines out; the money refunded paid for the Aspire and I'm glad I got it, though I got one for my 13 year old son as well, and discovered why the Eee's "protected" Linux partition is so useful - the Aspire needs a fair bit of faffing to recover from inexpert fiddling!
... how much do you get back from Microsoft UK if you click the "I do not agree" box on the Windows XP licence screen and ask MS for the licence fee back because the Ts&Cs are unacceptable? IIRC, it requires a form to be filled in (sent by MSUK) promising that no copies have been kept, yada, yada, yada, on pain of being forced to instal Vista Ultimate on your electric toothbrush if you've lied (or something like that anyway...).
Obviously, if that rebate is greater than the model price difference, then it will be cheaper to buy the XP version (and boost the Vista sales figures!!) and apply for the rebate. This was covered in detail on El Reg some while ago (>1 year) but I can't find the article.
If people in the UK has been successful in getting that rebate it's news to me. (Actually, I think one bloke did, a couple of years ago and posted his draft letter on line somewhere)
I went after HP several times including citing an Italian case but they still told me to drop dead.
MSI seems to be a bit of a shed near Heathrow and there's no-one to talk to. I got a polite "we'll investigate" letter. From the very "no headed notepaper" I could tell that one was dead in the water.
And I tried somewhere else, but I can't remember which one it was.
Bring on the EC Competition case about bundling (France?)
And of course the 10" model brings it in line with the old light weight getting long in the tooth very tough and rugged alloy cased P2/P3 Toshiba Portege 3XXX series sold at the turn of the century for around USD$4000-00 give or take and a then massive hard drive of 6gig initially .
But in those days we didn't have to deal the bloatware sold now .
My times change in a mere eight years in the life of mobile computing , still very tempting though indeed and may be a goer after the usual review and full complete road test .
I want to get a cheap laptop/PC to play on and learn a bit about *nix. I was going to use the g/f's old Compaq, but if the price was right (and I can get wireless etc working) I might buy my own.
Like others, I don't need powerful (got a beast of a desktop for that) I want cheap 'n cheerful.
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