Mandriva Joins the Netbook Market With the GDium

AdamWill writes "Lately it's hard to avoid the buzz about netbooks — the small, cheap laptop systems that were popularized by the Asus Eee PC. Mandriva is providing the innovative operating system for the upcoming GDium netbook system, produced by Emtec. The first GDium will be a netbook with a 10", 1024x600 resolution display and a battery life of four hours, weighing in at 1.1kg. The innovative G-Key system stores the Mandriva operating system and all the user data on a USB key — nothing is permanently stored inside the GDium. You can use your own desktop and data by plugging the G-Key into any GDium."

Ewwww....

[Anonymous Coward]

Usb keys get lost or end up in the washing machine even more than small laptops do...

Re:Gayaplex?

[clang_jangle]

Looks like Gayaplex is what they call their forthcoming social networking/educational "portal": http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:6V7GNDpoU-YJ:www.gdium.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/gdium_announcement-en.pdf+Gayaplex&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us [64.233.183.104]

Re:netbooks

[minginqunt]

Well, the 9'' Eees are already pushing what's usable in that form factor anyway. Extended use of its keyboard makes an unhappy me.

The extra inch of the 1000 series makes all the difference in the world. But you lose some of teh tinies and teh cuteness.

It's a tradeoff.

Why MIPS?

[Anonymous Coward]

CPU 900 Mhz 64bits Loongson(TM) 2F [wikipedia.org] with only 512 MB of RAM. It's interesting enough but it'll have to be cheap since the only thing I'd use this for is casual browsing.

Re:GDium

[Anonymous Coward]

Also, while not advertised it uses the MIPS-derived Loongson CPU. I don't know how it compares to Intel's ultraportable offerings performance-wise but I really like affordable non-x86 systems.

Come to think of it, nobody can install XP on MIPS and this is A Good Thing (TM).

OTOH

[ypctx]

On the other hand, you can't have a x86 distro on the flash key you use with your GDium, pull it out and plug it to your x86 desktop machine, and boot it. Deal breaker for me!

Re:Ewwww....

[reset_button]

Yea of course it's anectodal, but I lost my data off 4 of them within 6 months, used for taking files to/from work. That's enough of a reason for me not to store my OS on one.

Re:Ewwww....

[maeka]

No, I meant my story was anecdotal.
That being said, none of the dozens of USB keys I use for work (FAT32) have suffered a single file loss.

Re:netbooks

[music_man_420]

I heartily disagree. First of all, I purchased my EeePC 701 in December of last year and I have never looked back; despite the fact that I have the largest fingers of anyone I have ever met (no I haven't met any NBA players, I'm sure many of them have bigger hands then me). I'm not kidding, I couldn't get a grad ring in Grade 12 because even the largest size would not fit on my pinky finger. I have no complaints -- at all -- about the keyboard. Sure it isn't an IBM Model M but I don't find it any more annoying to type on then the keyboard on a standard 15.4 inch laptop. To be fair, though, I don't touch type. However my girlfriend does and she hasn't had any complaints about the EeePC's keyboard either.

As well I don't have any issues with the storage space. In fact, I would go as far as to say that I wish the EeePC 901 came with a 4GB HD because I simply have no need of a larger drive. Also, I would be absolutely shocked if any significant percentage of EeePC users use their EeePCs as desktop replacements. I would think that most people who buy EeePCs probably have a desktop at home, or at least another laptop. Personally I run an SSHFS serve on my desktop, which allows me to access my entire movie collection, as long as I am connected to my own network, or at least my entire music collection as long as I am connected to the internet at, at least, 512Kbits. As well, most people I know, who like to carry around a large amount of data, use external HDs rather then laptops anyway, so even if the user is incapable of using something like SSHFS, they may not care that much about disk space.

As far as battery life goes, I have been able to stretch my EeePC out to almost 9 hours, if I am not using it heavily. This has, so far, proved to be more then adequate for my usage, although mileage may vary.

And finally, yes, indeed, the low-res screen is a bit of a bitch. Although this can easily be mitagated (at least mostly) by using virtual desktops.

Personally I wish the EeePC, including it's keyboard, was a little bit SMALLER, as I currently can only fit it in the pockets of a couple of my pants, out of about 30 or so, and I don't like taking much stuff with me for the vast majority of my excursions.

In short I love the EeePC, and, knowing what I know now, I would find it very hard to choose between the 701, 901 and the Acer AsprieOne if I was in the market for my first subnotebook today.