The idea of open-source hardware is slowly slowly but surely gaining traction. VIA Technologies, Inc., joined in on the fun today by unveiling an open source reference platform for low power notebooks, based on its own processor technology (obviously). The CAD files have been released under a Creative Commons license. The machine is tentatively named OpenBook.
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Member since:2006-01-24
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=gos
Gos is number 30 on distrowatch at the moment
Member since:2005-07-06
It is GOS on Distrowatch and is at #30 presently. I have never used it but if I recall correctly it was the distro preinstalled on the Linux PCs from Walmart. Beyond that and the factor that it is an Ubuntu derivative I do not know much about it. It has seen commercial distribution before though so I would not classify it as obscure.
Is it just me or does $500 for a starting price seem a bit high to be in competition with the EEE? I would be interested in it to be sure but I would have to classify it in a slightly different market with the probable $600-800 price tag for a configured system.
Member since:2005-11-11
EEE PC 900 is $550. The 901 is set to be $650. I think $500 is well competitive with that 
The specs are ballpark. If they can put an Isaiah in it when that comes out the processor should be competitive (though until then, the c7 is as noted a little anemic). Hard Drive instead of flash is a negative for some, a positive for others (space), though there's no reason someone couldn't stick a flash drive in there.
So yeah, price is a little higher than the EEE 2g surf, but $500 is lower than the current EEEs.
/disclosure: Just ordered an EEE myself. Happy with the choice. I like flash drive, and slightly smaller size. But I wouldn't rule out the OpenBook.
Edited 2008-05-28 00:46 UTC
Member since:
2006-11-08
Define "popular" please.
On one of the linked sites they talk about Ubuntu and SUSE. And.. G/OS. Seriously, I never heard about it. And it's not in the Top 300something of Distrowatch either (even though that doesn't say much).
So what exactly do they mean with "popular"?