Intel, Asus Show Off $200 Laptop

By the Betanews Staff | Published June 5, 2007, 4:25 PM

Continuing its effort to provide an alternative to the One Laptop Per Child project, Intel announced plans on Tuesday to team up with Asustek to produce a notebook for developing countries that could cost as little as $200. The 'Eee PC' will be a full-featured low-end notebook, whereas the OLPC is more aimed at children. Intel has criticized the device in the past for being too simple, and not having enough functionality to even make it worthwhile.

Depending on the feature set, the Eee PC will retail for $199 to $299 and be available publicly. The OLPC currently retails for about $180 to government clients, but there is no currently planned retail push. Intel said it hoped to ship about 200,000 of the notebooks this year after production begins later this summer.

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Offering this unit through traditional retail channels to all consumers is a big plus and the specs seem pretty good:

Windows XP or Linux - 802.11b/g WiFi, Ethernet, modem, webcam, mic, 512MB RAM and 4, 8 or 16GB flash drive storage. Apparently a 3 hour battery life.

Full specs are still unavailable though it would be nice to see info on:
USB (especially for plugging in larger portable drives), SVGA port, Keyboard/Mouse ports, CPU.

Anyone know if Linux supports read/write to NTFS?

At $200 though, this looks like a real winner and compares favorably to OLPC, Palm's Foleo and to a lesser extent... VIA's Nanobook.

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>Anyone know if Linux supports read/write to NTFS?
Yup, for a long time now.

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Excellent! Thanks.

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If this thing comes with an Asus motherboard it is a hell of a bargain. My server is equipped with an Asus board and it's a killer.

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Asus has rapidly gone downhill with the quality of their motherboards. I recently purchased my first Socket 775 motherboard, an Asus P5K motherboard that uses an Intel P35/ICH 9 chipset. When I tried to boot my computer after installing the motherboard I heard my CPU fan spin up but their were no beeps from the PC speaker and no signal on my monitor. Even when I tried to boot the computer with no graphics card installed the motherboard STILL didn't produce any beeps.

I finally had to send the motherboard to Asus for repair.

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And ....

Even Asus boards fail. Ive just setup 180 Gigabyte 690 based AMD Pc's and they all worked first time no problems. Last year I had Asus and had no problems. I ordered a handfull of MSI boards and 2 were doa. On the whole Asus are very reliable, only gripe I have with them is there Soooooooo slow website !!

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Abit has been my bad-luck brand of Mainboards. I've currently got 2 Asus boards in use @ home and they've been doing quite well.

I'll never buy an Abit again. I replaced 3 of them in a row withing 2 years of ownership. No overclocking, well ventilated. Just crap boards.

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who said it couldn't be done.. Thank you Intel.

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Maybe my recollection is off, but a couple of years ago among the first to say it couldn't be done was Intel.

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the OLPC project uses AMD processors in their computers, which is the only reason intel is complaining.

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There is a difference between just complaining and competing.

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Since when is doubling the price considered competing?

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When the difference is an unusable calculator vs. a low budget pc, it IS competing.

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OLPC is a computer for educational purposes, not an entertainment device. Last time I checked, you didn't need Photoshop to access the net. You got $200, why not build a better one at $300? $400? $500? See how your argument works?

No I guess you don't.

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Eee PC! People on the naming board really were at a loss for words.

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Not far from "Lets call it 'Uhhhhh... PC'". ;] Maybe for the next generation model?

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yeah, lol, maybe there was a canadian on the board so when asked for suggestions all he could say was
"eh, PC"

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No, a New Yorker would say "Eh, PC".
A Canadian would say "PC, eh?"

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well then your wondering if we're talking about PC's or politically correct laptops...

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