http://www.osnews.com/story/16000/Mini_Linux_PC_Breaks_USD_100_Barrier Exploring the Future of Computing en-us Copyright 2001-2009, David Adams adam+nospam@osnews.com Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:58:22 GMT http://www.osnews.com/images/osnews.gif http://www.osnews.com http://osnews.com/thread?166394 http://osnews.com/thread?166394 It's pretty clear that these Thu, 28 Sep 2006 16:06:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Dave_K) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?166398 http://osnews.com/thread?166398 Now this is something really useful.. It could rock for providing thin clients. Thu, 28 Sep 2006 16:12:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (reduz) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?166400 http://osnews.com/thread?166400 It's a cool machine, but pretty limited. It would probably work well with Minix or FreeDOS, but is too slow for desktop Linux. I'd say that a mini-ITX would be a better bet if you were looking for a low-power desktop computer (but then the mini-ITX isn't all that cheap). Thu, 28 Sep 2006 16:13:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (ozonehole) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?166406 http://osnews.com/thread?166406 for limited use, this is amazing! Im getting a few of theese baybes for the company. Thu, 28 Sep 2006 16:24:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (judgen) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?166418 http://osnews.com/thread?166418 I prefer this to the one latop a child project.Though the scope of the solution is different. Thu, 28 Sep 2006 16:53:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Bajan) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?166472 http://osnews.com/thread?166472 The article states that it can be used with Puppy Linux. A Distro that HAS a desktop, a fairly nice one. It says that it functions under Puppy. I wonder at what level that is. I look forward to seeing a nice review of some usage on this thing.

But I think the power of a simple computer with a light OS is being underestimated. Thu, 28 Sep 2006 18:25:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Kantian) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?166473 http://osnews.com/thread?166473 Additionally, the system is optionally available with pre-installed flash and microdrives, ...

It also mentions the CompactFlash Type I/II slot, but either option costs money. Apparently you can't use this without buying a hard drive or equivalent. That raises the price condiderably. Thu, 28 Sep 2006 18:25:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (KenJackson) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?166474 http://osnews.com/thread?166474 Where can you buy this? Thu, 28 Sep 2006 18:26:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (TheOtherPJ) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?166488 http://osnews.com/thread?166488 I have installed Puppy on a P166MMX, 96MB RAM, NVidia TNT 2 Pro 32MB, 20GB HD. It ran fairly well but not being able to use firefox was a pain for me. I think it was mainly due to the limited RAM of that PC, but this sub-100$ is not much better.

I am not really excited about this new cheap computer, I have tried many of that lightweight distros ..... no OO Calc, no Firefox, no OO Writer, no movies, so they are not of great use for me.

Now I am trying to give a last chance to a Compaq laptop, AMD K6-2+, about 480 MHZ, 192 MB, 5 GB HD, no ethernet port, (using one through PCMCIA, I rather will be using wifi-PCMCIA soon), no USB 2.0.

Installing Fluxbuntu with the LiveCD was a real pain, my advice is to install it via the alternative ISO. Now it runs ok but I am afraid I will not be able to watch movie either. Thu, 28 Sep 2006 18:46:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Bjorg) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?166503 http://osnews.com/thread?166503 Ordering/contact info:
http://www.ewayco.com/1-order-systems/order.htm

See their other $100 PC (larger, but alot faster):
http://www.ewayco.com/1-products-sub-low-cost-pc/low-cost-pc-sx.htm... Edited 2006-09-28 19:28 Thu, 28 Sep 2006 19:24:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (cfrankb) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?166511 http://osnews.com/thread?166511 Playing mp3's are fine, If it was powerful enough to play mpegs or avis files it would be really awesome, I could put on by every TV in the house, and rip my DVD's and mp3s on a fileserver, then i wouldn't have to have a dvd player on each.

Perhaps I could have it announce email and voip call and many other tasks. Thu, 28 Sep 2006 19:36:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (jamesd) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?166535 http://osnews.com/thread?166535 Now, I'm certainly not one to typically judge a site's aesthetics, but this site's got some major viewability issues. It's absolutely hideous, hard to browse, hard to read, and the flashing colors should come with a warning of some kind.

Yuck.

Not that this should neccessarily say anything about the quality of their products, but most people will make such judgements. Thu, 28 Sep 2006 20:46:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (ThawkTH) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?166536 http://osnews.com/thread?166536 I totally agree. I picked up a P3-500, with hard drive, cdrom, nic, 32MB video, and sound for $NZ65, and it runs great.

The only difference is a less modern and bigger case, and maybe more power hungry.

Not to mention the $99 PC does not come with a keyboard, mouse, or screen (unlike a laptop). Thu, 28 Sep 2006 20:48:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (journey) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?166643 http://osnews.com/thread?166643 When will they put 2 LAN ports on these small boxes? Driving me nuts finding cheap/small routers to use.
EPIA is still the best bet but double the price.
I would never consider this unit do be a desktop of any sort other than a thin client. Fri, 29 Sep 2006 01:53:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Bringbackanonposting) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?166666 http://osnews.com/thread?166666 "When you consider the huge numbers of P2/P3 computers that get thrown in the trash every day, recycling an old PC as a Linux box seems to make more sense both ecologically and financially."

Good point.
I use to get junk computers from our landfill facility here in Durham NC. Most of the time they were from companies that wanted to upgrade to newer computers. I would fix them up and give them to people who needed computers. They were not slow underpowered units either. Many of the computers I gave away were fairly good P2/P3 above 600Mhz.
Unfortunately the facility does not allow people to get them anymore. Fri, 29 Sep 2006 03:20:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (solidsnake) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?166711 http://osnews.com/thread?166711 It's not much for a "normal" computer, but could be great for thin client, though it looks like the same company has thinclients for less. Fri, 29 Sep 2006 06:35:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (bsharitt) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?166751 http://osnews.com/thread?166751 But that is 100$ without an Harddisk isn't it? So you have to add the price for a nice 2.5" HDD. Fri, 29 Sep 2006 10:24:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Alleister) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?166779 http://osnews.com/thread?166779 Sure, that USD $99 computer would be a good thin client, serve as a music player and so on, but I don't see much point of buying such except for some industrial usage. Every computer I have is built from used components. They're very cheap, can run games, videos, music and pretty much anything, it's easy to add more RAM/harddisks/faster CPU/etc...And for example this one I'm currently using cost me 30e (plus 10e for a 15" monitor) and considering it's a 750mhz Athlon with GeForce 2 MX-200 (32mb RAM), 384mb RAM and 60Gb hard disk space, I can't think of any reason to buy one of those 99 buck computers..Besides, recycling used parts is better than always buying new ones.. Fri, 29 Sep 2006 12:45:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (WereCatf) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?166799 http://osnews.com/thread?166799 Actually, the first thing that struck me is that they'd be great thin-clients. The other thing they'd be great for is a home-based file and web-server (for those running a web server on their always-on net connections).

This plus a USB hard disk, sounds great. Fri, 29 Sep 2006 13:58:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (SpasmaticSeacow) Comments