OT: $150 Laptop
 

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=5746&tag=nl.e622

Would you try a $150 laptop powered by Fedora? Sure you would. And apparently so are a lot of other folks.

A Swedish company called Medison has unveiled a laptop called the Celebrity. Medison’s laptop is the latest in a race to the bottom of the pricing barrel. Nicholas Negroponte OLPC is one effort and others are also getting into the act.

There’s only one problem with Medison’s laptop–it’s a slog to get through to its reseller’s site to buy one. The laptop is available through a reseller 2Checkout.com. After a few tries I got through to order despite that “if it’s sounds too good to be true it is” feeling. Here’s Medison’s pitch:

Medison Celebrity is a high quality laptop for the everyday user. It is adapted to functionality that does not demand the highest performance, but rather to everyday tasks such as e-mailing, surfing the Web, word processing and working with spreadsheet programmes. Built-in Wireless and slim design makes this a truly flexible and mobile laptop for the active user.

The computer is shipped completely set up and ready-to-use with Linux pre-installed - no complicated installations or adjustments are needed -within 4-6 weeks.

The Medison Celebrity also consists of components approved for the American and European markets as an environmental friendly product according to new laws taken by them.

Umm. OK. I only cared it was $150.

As for the details: The Celebrity has a 14 inch LCD, an Intel Celeron 1.5 GHz chip, a 40 GB hard drive, 256 MB of memory. Linux and office applications.

The big question: How is Medison making money from this laptop?

In an FAQ, Medison addresses why the Celebrity is cheap. “We see this from a democratic point of view where we believe everyone should be able to afford to have a laptop. The other reason is that we have our own plants where we assemble our laptops.”

This laptop is supposed to arrive in the next 4 to 6 weeks. Stay tuned.

You get what you pay for.

Yep.

It's not a rocket but it's a cheap option for those who just need a system to get on the net and post on the Mane. :)

It would be a great work computer, just wouldn't want it for personal use

I use Ubuntu Linux on my IBM laptop, runs great.
The thing hat would keep me away is the Intel Celeron chip set. It's total crap.

Tough crowd. It's $150. People pay that for those little DVD players that they take on the plane. This plays DVD's and still has all the other functionality.