The $50 Netbook - Yes I Am Completely Serious

I am sorry but this netbook is a waste of time. There is no windows pc on this thing. it is like the first computer that came out.

That is the best comment on the interwebz today! Win all around.

Not really anything new there. I guy turned one of these into a fully working web server back in 2006. http://va3uxb.dynip.com/

I just picked up an Acer Aspire One for my wife and, after a little fiddling, got Kubuntu working on it. Best $300 I’ve spent since… oh I dunno, my similarly modified PSP. If you’re going to go with a netbook, get one that is fully functional - i.e. can run a modern operating system (K/X/Ubuntu Linux or your flavor of choice, or at least Windows 7). Underpowered is relative, I’m still running a desktop as a server that is slower and has less ram and HDD capacity than this slick little guy and when I built the desktop, it cost me 5 times as much. Unless you’re looking to do some heavy duty gaming, power is not an issue and the pricetag is amazing. $50 for a little piece of junk with half the capabilities of a palm pilot circa 1998 is a waste of money, though. Vaguely amusing that it runs linux.

Wow, very cool.

And contrary to the comment from the MSFT employee above, this little computer could a great tool for learning GNU/Linux - the Universal Operating System. Would also be a great conversation piece at a wireless cafe.

What’s driving GNU/Linux?
Freedom of Choice and the will to be enabled (as opposed to restricted) with technology.

Nice article… Something I’d add is that GNU/Linux is so successful because it empowers its users with the Freedom from Vendor-lock and artificial restrictions that are inserted to the proprietary operating systems and meant steer the user towards spending more $$ for using their computers.

The concept of Freedom in GNU/Linux and the FOSS community allows the software and technologies to benefit from enthusiasm and innovation that is not bound by any marketing scheme.

Take a look at the system you are using now… are you being restricted from having the very best technology available- only because your Operating System vendor wants to sell you the next “better” version? I’m not… Because I use GNU/Linux.

Computers and technology work better when they work together. The proprietary OS makers try to break Interoperability in order to vendor-lock their users… This is evil. People everywhere should punish vendors that work to destroy open standards and inter-operability because those companies are breaking technology for all of us!

Free yourself! Use GNU/Linux!

Just a few minutes ago the web site was updated and now there is no subscription required.

Tom

i need one for my kids! (well thats the excuse ^^)

this could be the next OLPC (when am done playing with it)

oh and you really need to implement something to mod down dumb comments, like the first 1

Hi, I wonder if Ubuntu version9 will work on this netbook?

Hi Josh,

Like with any OS, Ubuntu has minimum requirements to be run and recommended. The above hardware, comes close to neither - the desktop manager (GNOME) is WAY too much for it.

Lesser desktop managers are what is used for systems with lesser system resources to call from. :)

The first comment was the dumbest statement I have heard in a while and it made my day. Wow no windows, how will that ever work… I didnt know microsft workers read this stuff. PC is an ibm term anyways. First netbook had linux and those took off. Either Ms reads this or a troll or whatever. Ubuntu is pretty good except that stupid microsoft has a monoply so most things arent created for ubuntu. Driver/ awesome no need drivers is awesome though.

That might not be good because the speed though. Maybe a stripped down ubuntu netbook remix may be needed.