Elonex Announces 100-Quid Laptop

[malty]

In today`s Sunday Times......

Elonex are marketing a laptop for kids, preloaded with a Linux distro, which one is not stated, cost circa £99.
Brilliant, you would think, a massive boost for the Linux community.
This is what the muppet wot wrote the article said (bear in mind two things here)...

1 / it is a Sunday newspaper.

2 / it is written by a media individual, the majority of these people
describe the colour black as white, a shower of rain as a
cataclysmic storm, a fight between 3 teenagers on a street
corner as mob violence.


"An open source operating system is ideal for low cost devices as it performs well on less powerfull, cheaper hardware"

"But open source software has its problems. If no one owns it, there`s no one to complain to when things go wrong - and the One (the computers name) HAS NO FIREWALL OR ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE BUILT IN" (my uppercase).

The article appeared in the newspapers InGear magazine, this started out as a mag just for petrolheads and features as its star crayoner, the dickheads ********.....J.Clarkson.

Incidentally, as you ask, the reasons I buy this paper every week are as follows.....

1/ It is the least worst of all of of the Britpress (thats`s not saying much)

2/ It has the two best writers in journalism anywhere...Brian Appleyard and Rod Liddle.

Mind you, the newspaper is owned by Murdoch, that champion of truth.

Mind you (2), I live in the hope that, one day, the saucer will land again and take them all back home (except Brian and Rod.)

Anyone out there with a computer costing more than £250....Linux is no good for you, and there ain`t anybody to "complain" to either !

Regards
Malty

[OoooMatron]

yeah i got Norton AV running in Wine. Not :D

[Mazza558]

Yeah, I read this earlier today too. There was also something about FOSS being "outgunned by the more sophisticated Windows platform" - more sophisticated?! At what? I can accept gaming, but the whole article is suggesting that FOSS is some kind of poor man's Windows.

If you want a better newspaper, get the Guardian - the "T" magazine in there every Thursday has good coverage of tech news from the past week, and, what's more, it has a dedicated section for letters (not just support), so if they say something that's wrong, you can email them and they might print it. The tech coverage in the Sunday Times is pitiful at best by comparison - especially considering that, like you said, a tiny tech section is crammed into the part of the paper about cars.

[Chilli Bob]

link http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/personal_tech/article3374812.ece

[tdrusk]

If you don't agree with what they are saying then right them back. You will get your word in :)

I just did.

[Presto123]

Same here! Bah @ them.

[saunders]

Some more specs about it here...

http://jkkmobile.blogspot.com/2008/01/another-simple-linux-umpc-fontastic.html

[johndc]

Incidentally, as you ask, the reasons I buy this paper every week are as follows.....

1/ It is the least worst of all of of the Britpress (thats`s not saying much)

2/ It has the two best writers in journalism anywhere...Brian Appleyard and Rod Liddle.


liar. you buy it for the page 3 girl, same as the rest of us.

[tdrusk]

liar. you buy it for the page 3 girl, same as the rest of us.
link? pic?

That computer looks like the screen won't hold up for 3+ years.

[Joeb454]

I don't think you'll find a page 3 girl in the Sunday Times...

[malty]

Mazzaa558,
the guardian is OK, took it for a while untill I became a capitalist. My daily peruse is the Scotsman, less manic than most, tends to bang on a bit about Scottishness, has some excellent writers.

tdrusk......
The "customer complaints" systems used by most business, newspapers are just that, are just a dodge to make the punters think that their opinion counts for something, they will, from time to time, throw out a morsel or two to prove that they are genuine. In the vast majority of cases their little eyes just glaze over.

I would not waste my time, I have on numerous occasions EMailed, written, phoned, screamed abuse at them. Did not do any good.
The only way we will ever win is to take up arms against them !


johndc......

Which galaxy are you from ? The only tottie to appear on page three of the Sunday Times would be Hillary bloody Rodam bloody Clinton or Jaquie bloody Smith. The inside of the boot of my car is more erotic than these two.

[Iehova]

I read the Independent when I can get it and the Guardian because it's in the school library. I think the Indy's much better though.

[johndc]

johndc......

Which galaxy are you from ? The only tottie to appear on page three of the Sunday Times would be Hillary bloody Rodam bloody Clinton or Jaquie bloody Smith. The inside of the boot of my car is more erotic than these two.

yeeeeaaah.... it was a joke.

but thanks for killing it.

[Redache]

ACK! I bloody hate journalists who start talking through their arses when they have zero knowledge on the product they are writing about.

Someone shoot him please.

[akiratheoni]

The worst part is that since it's written by a journalist in a newpaper, people will believe it -- and they won't listen to us when we say there are no viruses for Linux.

[rab4567]

A British PC maker called Elonx is offering to sell 100 pound laptop to students. This is extraodinary what is the world coming to linux is breaking out every place.

[days_of_ruin]

A British PC maker called Elonx is offering to sell 100 pound laptop to students. This is extraodinary what is the world coming to linux is breaking out every place.

Link?

[rab4567]

Oh yeah link is http://gizmodo.com/357.

[popch]

Oh yeah link is

404

[tylerspaska]

http://www.news.com/U.K.s-Elonex-readies-low-cost-Linux-laptop/2100-1044_3-6230997.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-5&subj=news

[fatality_uk]

http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/17/elonex-one-englands-100-quid-laptop/

Great price point, aimed at kids, plus it's kinda ugly
I'll be sticking with my eeePc :D

[Vitamin-Carrot]

Theres another post about these machines and the coverage they got in the sunday times. =cant be bother finding the link

[alzie]

Try here

http://www.elonex.co.uk/

link is slooow

[NullHead]

hmm ... I agree it's ugly. I wouldn't buy one :P Dells are the best imho.

[erfahren]

hmmm... sounds a lot like this deal (http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9749768-1.html) that was being talked about awhile back. It was some obscure company though. I never did hear how that turned out.

[Scarath]

That looks like it's from one of the Maths episode of 'Open University' from the 1970s. UGLY. Also It looks so top heavy, wont it just flop backwards all the time? What a piece of crap lol

[heathenos]

that's a pretty heavy laptop. :)

[bruce89]

that's a pretty heavy laptop. :)

I knew it! When I saw a headline elsewhere "4 pound laptop", I thought it was rather cheap.

[rab4567]

Sorry guys the link was http://gizmodo.com/357737/the-99-elonex-one-laptop-basically-british-olpc-without-the-innovation
I just got back from dinner.

[rab4567]

more
http://www.techgadgets.in/laptop/2008/18/one-laptop-worth-99-pounds-launched-by-elonex-in-uk/

[rab4567]

more!
http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/17/elonex-one-englands-100-quid-laptop

[rab4567]

The British PC maker Elonex is set to introduce a mini laptop to students for just under a 100 Pounds. This is almost unbelievable we have a choice of three mini laptops produced by Asus,Everex, and now Elonex running on linux.

link http://digital-lifestyles.info/2008/02/18/elonex-unveil-99-laptop/

[rab4567]

Press release link
http://www.elonexone.co.uk/index.html

[rab4567]

The details: http://jkkmobile.blogspot.com/2008/01/another-simple-linux-umpc-fontastic.html

[Ioky]

http://www.elonexone.co.uk/

This is call the "ONE" laptop

I don't know how much you know it, but it is really cool laptop. I mean with every thing it give you under this much of money.

And the most important it is run on Linux, where people can be free.

[Kevbert]

According to PCWorld Elonex are already taking £10 deposits!

[ukripper]

funny design though i have to admit but 99 quid sounds dream.
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/02/28/elonex_launches_one/

i have ordered Dell Vostro (bloody takes ages for them to deliver) though as I already own something portable (my asus eee)

[aaaantoine]

An interesting, albeit top-heavy-looking design. It's a pretty good functional move, as the hottest parts of the laptop are moved from the working surface to an upright easy-to-ventilate location.

[ukripper]

An interesting, albeit top-heavy-looking design. It's a pretty good functional move, as the hottest parts of the laptop are moved from the working surface to an upright easy-to-ventilate location.

doesn't look very stable design to me. Weight is more on upper end unless they are thinking to increase more weight by engineering on bottom part

[aaaantoine]

doesn't look very stable design to me. Weight is more on upper end unless they are thinking to increase more weight by engineering on bottom part

They could always build a pop-out leg into the back. That would save them from having to artificially add more weight to the bottom. Of course, then it would just look silly (sillier?).

[ukripper]

i am still not convinced by this design, although it has good feature of airflow but they really need to work to balance the weight on both ends. i would still prefer MB chassis under keyboard just like eeepc

[ugm6hr]

Another link: http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/columns/pound_99_pound_gnu_linux_laptop_too_cheap

This suggests it could be used for presentations...

However, the official Elonex website doesn't make any mention of Powerpoint support (presumably because OO.org is too heavy for it). PDF is mentioned, which can be used for presentations, depending on what software is used for PDF viewing. Keyjnote would be nice...

In any case, my question is this:
Is there an external monitor connector (to allow projector use)?

If there is.... I'm putting my name on the list!