500 gram GNU+Linux netbook - £70

Disgo Net Browser 3000 is sells in China for £70 with Windows CE 5.0. With its 7 inch display (800 x 480) it would make an excellent GNU+Linux netbook coupled with Firefox. Buying whole sale would be even cheaper. When the average *new* netbook price is £200, this is an absolute bargain.

So why has no one done it already?

• Needs an ARM distro (OpenZaurus, Maemo, openmoko or other embedded disro might make more sense than a regular Ubuntu distro).
• Only 64MB RAM, bloated firefox would consume that immediately, so Fennec is probably the way to go.
• Only 2GB NAND Flash, distro can fit in that, presumably it is also writable so can be partitioned for a HOME partition.

New netbook?

Currently I'm running an HP Compaq Mini-Note 10" 702EA - bought used for £160. Amazing with Ubuntu Netbook Remix, the keyboard which is large enough to touch type on.

Mass of only 1.1KG is the best feature though!

What's the competition?

Sony Vaio X505 10" 1024x768. Needs RAM + HD. 0.8KG - used price £800.
Apple Macbook Air 1.86GHz 13", 1.3KG - £1,150.
Lenovo ThinkPad X61 12", 1.6KG - Used price £350
MSI X400 14", 1.5KG - £550
Dell Vostro V13 1.6KG - £400

Dell Inspiron Mini 9 adopts keyboard

Good review of Dell Inspiron Mini 9 inch laptop, up to the point where they say the keyboard layout is actually a negative:

"Perhaps the loudest complaint heard against the Mini 9 is its keyboard. The unit’s small footprint necessitated a tweaked keyboard layout which repositioned some keys, shrunk others and dropped some entirely."

My feeling is that Dell have made a good call on this, I've proposed my design in the past, and it is a good step in that direction! If you're reading this Dell, drop the: CapsLock, WinKey, WinMenu, RightShift, Delete and F-key overlay too :)

InkMedia Ubuntu laptop

ASUS Eee and OLPC now have a competitor, from Canadian company InkMedia with their Unique laptop running Ubuntu. It is a different in that it runs everything from ROM, and data is saved to an external USB stick which prevents any viruses getting into the system when nothing is connected.