

99 USD micro notebook gets Debian support - wolfspraul
http://sharism.cc/2010/05/02/along-comes-debian/

======
SamReidHughes
This is wonderful, and I want to want this, but this seems like a fine RMS
torture device. A 320 pixel screen, divided by 80, is... 4 pixels per
character. Time to bring out the old HP-49G mini font. And I find myself
thinking, "Oh, I can plug in an external keyboard." But that wouldn't be
copyleft hardware. But I want to want this, and I want to get this. Imagine
that! My own little copyleft computer, that lives in my pocket and only talks
to me, and doesn't talk to any of the bad computers.

Imagine the shock, when you're listening to music on your headphones, and your
friend asks, "What are you listening to?" And you pull this _thing_ out of
your pocket.

By the way, it's slightly hard to find, so here's a closeup of the keyboard:
<http://sharism.cc/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/kbd1.png>

~~~
listic
They leave the place for alternative layout (i.e. Russian) on the tiny keys,
nice!

Other than that, can anyone explain why RMS favors MIPS-based Loongson CPU and
these guys - MIPS based Ingenic XBurst ? How are these CPUs any more open than
any other (i.e Intel, or any ARM core)

~~~
mstevens
As far as I know, RMS doesn't care, it's just that by commercial accident,
systems that are particularly open in other ways have tended to be MIPS based.

------
kqr2
Here's a review of the nanonote:

[http://www.linux.com/news/embedded-
mobile/netbooks/296251:a-...](http://www.linux.com/news/embedded-
mobile/netbooks/296251:a-review-ben-nanonote-gets-small-with-embedded-linux)

------
dkersten
I almost bought one, but they don't ship to Ireland, so I tried the EU
distributers page. To purchare it, I need to create an account - nothing
special there - but.. why do they need my gender and date of birth to buy
stuff from them?? So.. nope, not buying it now.

~~~
what
Where does it say what countries they ship to? I couldn't see any such
information on the site.

~~~
dkersten
If you try to checkout, it will only display shipping options if they ship to
the country in your address (I tested it, with Ireland it disn't display
options, but had a link to the page; with the US it let you choose from two
fedex options and gave price of shipping).

If you go to the distributer page, it links three distributers: EU, china and
asia.

On a side note, I emailed the EU distributer and the guy was pretty helpful
and friendly and said he'll consider removing gender and date of birth as
compulsaroy options. If he does, I'll probably buy one.

~~~
what
Ah, thanks. I wonder why they list Ireland in the country selection if they
won't ship there.

~~~
dkersten
They list every country in the country selection for the addresses.. future
expansion I guess...??

------
10ren
I expect this thing has incredible battery life, but it doesn't seem to be on
the website.

~~~
listic
Maybe not; the battery itself should be tiny.

I think they just never got around to measuring battery life.

~~~
10ren
Alas, you're right. I get 2.5-3.5 hours from my eee PC's 4400mAh battery; they
have a 850mAh. Even though they have a much smaller screen and slower CPU,
which will draw less power, a x5 smaller battery is definitely tiny.

Still, to get it down to 126 grams is amazing (incl. battery)
<http://sharism.cc/specs/> My eee weighs x8 (1000 grams).

------
mstevens
I have one, they're a good toy.

I haven't managed to do anything useful yet, although as I bought it mainly to
have a small device that runs "vi" I'm happy.

------
Jermey128
A slightly modified version of the hardware could make a great graphing
calculator...

