Zein's place on the net » small laptops http://ahmed.elze.in/blog my views on Australia, Egypt, Linux and other stuff Tue, 19 Apr 2011 04:40:40 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2 Wistrons Pursebook with Arabic Keyboard. Cool. http://ahmed.elze.in/blog/2009/04/04/wistrons-pursebook-with-arabic-keyboard-cool/ http://ahmed.elze.in/blog/2009/04/04/wistrons-pursebook-with-arabic-keyboard-cool/#comments Sat, 04 Apr 2009 08:46:15 +0000 Ahmed http://www.azein.com/blog/?p=157 I was looking at the new Pursebook at engadget [link] and I noticed that the keyboard had Arabic characters. Kind of exciting I as I am planing to get myself one of these new ARM netbooks when they come out later this year. Having an Arabic enabled keyboad would be a big plus.

]]> http://ahmed.elze.in/blog/2009/04/04/wistrons-pursebook-with-arabic-keyboard-cool/feed/ 0 Dell Mini 9: Good Netbook but Pricing All Wrong http://ahmed.elze.in/blog/2008/09/06/dell-mini-9-good-netbook-but-pricing-all-wrong/ http://ahmed.elze.in/blog/2008/09/06/dell-mini-9-good-netbook-but-pricing-all-wrong/#comments Sat, 06 Sep 2008 01:03:14 +0000 Ahmed http://www.azein.com/blog/2008/09/06/dell-mini-9-good-netbook-but-pricing-all-wrong/ I have not found a netbook that I feel 100% comfortable with. All the products out there have either too much or too little. The EEEPC901 comes the closest but is a bit too expensive for my taste (I would guess it is all the extra SSD).

Zein’s perfect netbook:

o Linux based (No Windows tax for me!)
o 9″ or 10″ screen.
o Atom 1.6Ghz
o 1GB RAM
o Large track pad (the Acer for example is too small)
o 4GB (at least and 8GB at most) of storage.
o 4 hours (at least) battery life.
o 1.3 MP Webcam
o Wifi
o bluetooth (optional)

And so I got very excited when I saw that the Dell Mini 9 had been released. The Dell is a lot more customizable at purchase time them the EEEPC, Aspire One or the MSI Wind and therefore a lot cheaper since you only pay for what you want. I got a surprise when I discovered that the Linux and Windows XP versions are identical in price!!

Here are screen shots of the 2 systems after configuration. Both are $US 454 (after $40 instant savings on the XP version) and while that is a lot less then an EEEPC 901. I am baffled to as why I am not saving by not paying any windows tax! I would have expected the Linux version to be at least $US 50 less than the windows version.

The Linux version
The XP version

]]> http://ahmed.elze.in/blog/2008/09/06/dell-mini-9-good-netbook-but-pricing-all-wrong/feed/ 0 The year of the low cost Linux machines http://ahmed.elze.in/blog/2008/01/17/the-year-of-the-low-cost-linux-machines/ http://ahmed.elze.in/blog/2008/01/17/the-year-of-the-low-cost-linux-machines/#comments Thu, 17 Jan 2008 21:51:03 +0000 Ahmed http://www.azein.com/blog/2008/01/17/the-year-of-the-low-cost-linux-machines/ Is this a poor geeks dream or what? It is like I have been dreaming for a small low cost laptop for years and then all at once every one wants in on this market.

Acer is looking to enter the low cost laptop market with 8″ – 9″ designs. Gigabyte also announced that it will produce what seams to be a low cost laptop due in June. Linux is not mentioned in either case but given the success of the other low cost machines with Linux I would say it is reasonable to assume that there would be a Linux version of both laptops.

In other news, Everex plans to expand their cloudbook line with some nifty ideas.

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