$100 laptop running Linux

[Brian Kelsay]

Often the problem in a corporate environment, the newest version  of Windows must be run (XP w/ SP1 or 2) along with virus scanning, big email clients, latest office suite and nearly all software that an employee might ever use since you want a one-size-fits-all image for the PC.  There is always even more software to load for specialty jobs like program development.

Looking right now, my PC is using 300MB of ram.  This one of the low-end PCs that is about to be replaced.  For my home use, while running Linux a PIII-500 is still mostly adequate and my PII-333 laptop is also adequate.  The ability to play videos is one area I'd like to improve it.  My next PC will have a DVD burner, more ram and won't choke when I put my TV card in it.
It will also have enough juice in the power supply to run at least 3 HDDs.

Brian Kelsay

>>> Steven Danz <> 04/07/05 08:31PM >>>
Leo Mauler wrote:

>I have a PII-300Mhz I purchased for about $240 six
>months ago.  The 500Mhz laptops at HyperTech computers
> (87th & Farley) are right between $300-$400.
>
>300Mhz is decent enough for most things, not very good
>for video (VideoCD-quality MPEG1 videos run fairly
>well) but it will let me do basic graphics editing and
>browse on the Internet without painful
>"chuggachuggachugga" waits for the swap.
>
>Heh, wonder if there could be a system for buying
>those $100 laptops from Third World Countries which
>resembles the mail-order Canadian prescription drug
>programs. 
>  
>
It seems like there should be.  While I applaud efforts like the MIT
group working on building new $100 laptops ( http://laptop.media.mit.edu/ ),
it would be nice to have a place to send things that corporations
consider 'too slow to maintain productivity', whatever that is.