Sub-$300 Notebooks – Surely This Must Be A Dream?

After the Ubuntu based gOS desktop computers sold so well that they sold out from Wal-Mart’s inventory, there is one thing that was on everyone’s mind almost immediately – when will Everex, the company that made the magic happen between hardware and OS on the gOS side of things, release a notebook? What with the OLPC project, among other similar competing efforts from the likes of Asus and even Intel (I think), a lot of people are wanting to see a notebook, using this “Google OS” of sorts, released for the masses.

In the past, I have been quoted as stating that this entire gOS thing is really funny for two reasons. The first is that gOS is not even part of Google… officially. And secondly, the project did in a very short time what Linspire and Xandros totally failed to via the SAME retailer.

So why is it working this time? Price, Google branding and timing. By taking the OS X/Mac approach, people are not left wondering if the OS is going to “detect” their hardware. So again, while Microsoft has opened its doors to a very restricted, members only version of the refurbished market, one tiny little Linux distro has the potential to put computers into the hands of people who might not otherwise be able to drop money on a new computer. Yes, Dell has competitively priced machines – just not with all these applications built in…