@Djcn

You must be very slow

Who told you Air isnt in the market.

My boss bought one in May,

Kai, its sleek but just like a pretty boy with cottonwool for brains

Gamine:

Kai, its sleek but just like a pretty boy with cottonwool for brains

Exactly.

Hi guys got some tight schedules,

@Ex, I'm a great apple fan, but don't like it when guys make too much noise. I've got my macpro since 06, but today u see guys flying out as if they even know what they're having. u can imagine someone that got a pro 2 months ago and asking me if i've ever heard of a mac, then i replied no.

When i visited a friend in a Japanese base, a japanese guy was so annoyed that he threw his macbook to the wall.

I keep myself with upcoming techs, but dont get excited about anything any longer. Most persons don't even know that systems aren't getting faster but they're only making it better and cooler.

@Gamine
You air comes in different variants.
I don't live in Lag but call to find out from distributors and they said they have onlt the ATA type
Pls tell me if the SSD was the type acquired by ur boss, the size and the cost
The SSD type has no moving parts inside.

@EX
The MacBook Air can wirelessly access the optical drive of another Mac or Windows PC that has the Remote Disc program installed, allowing the installation of applications from a CD or DVD. It can also reinstall the system software from the included installation DVD.
Remote Disc supports netbooting, so the MacBook Air can boot from its installation DVD in another computer's drive
The only qualms is that some guys dont find the confgs easy.

The product u spoke of is the Toshiba portege R500, it came after the air and the problem is that it has a smaller screen and lesser speed but almost at the same price tag with the air and so it fell off the market.

anyone checked out lenovo thinkpad X300? the X300 supporting the air.

For ultra portables,these guys are good
Lenovo Thinkpad X200
Lenovo ThinkPad X61
Lenovo 3000 V200
Lenovo ThinkPad X300
Micro Express JFT2500
Lenovo IdeaPad U110
Asus U2E
Toshiba Portege R500-S5002
Fujitsu LifeBook T4220 Tablet PC
Sony VAIO VGN-TZ295N

For Gamers
Alienware Area-51 m15x
Gateway P-171XL
Alienware Area-51 m9750
Toshiba Satellite A305-S6845
Dell XPS M1730 (This guy is very expensive $3500 compared to the alienware products ($1500) but i can bet that the alienware still performs better)



@EX, u're right, 90% of hardware manufactured pass through asia's factories and then maybe couppled or packaged elsewhere. Americans and Europe don't manufacture stuffs like that but only contact these to companies in Taiwan, China, Malaysia and others. The companies only follow the instructions and details of the manufacturing process, these are later advertized to the American market, who are the world's greatest shoppers and the trend moves on and on.

Do someone out there knows that ur display screen, processor, memory and other chips are made of SAND. Yes, i mean SAND.
The next time u buy that cool and geeky gadget, just know that sand was processed to bring out the beauty in it.

@Djcn

Yeah its the SSD, no moving parts

The size

13.3 in

@BigBrovar

Saurik's Cydia brings Apt packaging to iphone/Ipod, and since the login details of the two products became open ( user Root, password Alpine) third party Terminals give access to Darwin/Marvell commands to be run. i use putty on Mac for sessions, and WinSCP on windows to copy files and set permissions when i do copy. in the end, the iphone/ipod arent so closed anymore (not after jailbreaking).

I'm not really into Nokia (though i got a nokia 5610 XpressMusic the other day as a gift) so I'm not into the N810. whats happening with OpenMOKO? I'm keenly awaiting the potentials of Android; if done right it will create a revolution and hopefully kill symbian.

@karmamod
seconded, it was hyped up too much for being thin, but specs wise its utter rubbish. I'm not sure what market segment the Air is trying to fill, but if its ultraportables its off the mark. seeen the OQO? now that is my definnition of an ultraportable. to me the only great thing anout the Air is the very bright and colorful display.

@Djcn
no, i don't mean that portege. te portege I'm talking of came out way before the Air. will look in my mags and see if i can find the model number. the one you refer to is that one with the funny tagline "Lighter than Air". also, no matter the noise Apple fans make, I'm glad someting people are breaking off the windows stranglehold and delving into other options out there. it doesnt have to be Mac, even Linux to me is a far better OS to windows in many respects. have you tried BSD yet? I'm sure you will love it, being closer to the actual Unix than the rest.

i don't merit Air's remote disk as a good notion; on the contrary configuration is dead easy, but its still a hassle having to piggyback on another system's cd drive just to install software or whatever. what if you were caught in a location without another system and you absolutely had to use a cd drive (say your Air crashed and you need to repair the installation?)

components made of sand. yup, its true, but not just any sand. its silicone sand. some peole might get the impression you mean the very sand under their feet. Penry, however, the entire santa rosa chipset, used zirconium and not silicone.

for gaming give me Alienware Area 51 any day or the Falcon Northwest. next up  is the Dell XPS. Alienware now has a quad SLI (four freaking GPUs!!!) in the Aurora ALX system (see pix.)

check out that sexy Alienware curved display unveiled at CES 2008.(see pix)

the Dual Zone ThermalTake liquid cooling system of the Area51 (pix).

more pix.

1. Area 51

2. more area51 liquid cooling with 5 cooling fans

3. Falcon NorthWest Fragbox (for LAN parties, think Unreal 3!! )

4. the Falcon NorthWest FragBook
(Intel Core 2 Duo Extreme X6800 2.93GHz processor, 4GB of RAM, two NVidia GeForce 7950GTX Go 512 MB Graphic cards, and up to 3 SATA hard drives.)

check out this Voodoo laptop.

Dual GeForce G70M “Ultra” 256MB

a WSXGA 19″ display capable of resolutions of up to 1680×1050 pixels
an AMD Turion ML/MT CPU

160GB HDD

Internal Digital Card Reader 4-in-1

8-channel surround sound with 4 embedded speakers and subwoofer
8X ENVY DVD+-RW Dual Layer Slot-Load DVD & CD Writer

gigabit Ethernet + MiniPCI expansion

@ Ex Inferis

Abeg, e don do. you wan kill me with laptops ? Chei, see laptops. Those Alienware and Falcon Northwest laptops are the bomb. Such a shame that getting those in naija is going to be near impossible and VERY expensive.

agaba123 (m)
UK
Posts: 1824
« #31 on: September 22, 2008, 09:40:16 AM »

off topic. abeg make una no vex
a friend called me and asked me to buy a lappy for him.
Not that h needs it but is now a fashion statement in naija. Everybody carries it around whether they are going to church or bible study. When they visit a friend, it is a sign that one has arrived.

Is that true? Grin Grin
=================================================================================================
ROFLMYO!  agaba my guy, how u dey now?  long time.  omo, u dey craze o!  i no go dey surprised o, no be naija we dey talk about? very soon, agbero and hin driver go dey take am do GPS sef.  naija we hail thee! 


@ Ex-Inferis, you've made some very valid points in your posts and just like you I go for the specs based on my need and my pocket (as baba ijebu concern now  ).  unfortunately, our naija folks' mentality no go lai lai change no matter how much you try convince them, which is kind of sad.  na brand names go kill us for naija (well, the ones wey dey buy into it anyway).  what kills me is that most of these peeps don't wanna take the time to look around and compare specs/prices but are just fixated with brand names that in most cases cost a lot more than an unpopular brand.  acer is giving yeye HP/Compaq, Sony (another over-priced piece of shit, excuse my french!), Toshiba a run for their money in the states, which of course our effizy lovers for naija are unaware of.  anyway sha, make u leave dem make dem dey waste dem money o jare (swegbes) 

samir101ng:

@ Ex Inferis

Abeg, e don do. you wan kill me with laptops ? Chei, see laptops. Those Alienware and Falcon Northwest laptops are the bomb. Such a shame that getting those in naija is going to be near impossible and VERY expensive.

yes sir. i don stop sir.

the purpose was to draw peoples attention to variations in the market in terms of whatever catches your fancy: hightech, spes, price, power, colors.

some peolpe really think HP is the be-all-end-all of computing, and by narrowing their choice to one singular item they are unnecessarily locking out possibilities of better bargains and suitable machines out there.

mind you, not that HP is total crap, but most of the Asian-made Hps we see in Naija are lightly inferior in quality to the Asian-made ones in the states.

not everone needs a Mac; but thats because not everyone KNOWS the difference between a Mac and a PC, or the strengths and weaknesses of both. i can only pray our time and effort yield open mindedness in the buying public such that they will not be sweet-mouthed by the Store Guy into paying more for features they dont need (like me, i dont need no fingerprint scanner; i keep my porn and nuclear blueprints elsewhere . im not terminally paranoid ).

incidentally note hat those Alienware and falcon machines are not mainstream, for everyone; they are specialist gaming machines that will also be useful in graphics/video works. beyond that their price tag is pretty unjustifible economically.
so only kick-ar5se gamers will have the kind of mental fortitude so requisite in shelling out such a lot of cash for what eseentially will appear as "just another laptop" to joe Average.

T@meD0:

agaba123 (m)
UK
Posts: 1824
« #31 on: September 22, 2008, 09:40:16 AM »

off topic. abeg make una no vex
a friend called me and asked me to buy a lappy for him.
Not that h needs it but is now a fashion statement in naija. Everybody carries it around whether they are going to church or bible study. When they visit a friend, it is a sign that one has arrived.

Is that true? Grin Grin
=================================================================================================
ROFLMYO!  agaba my guy, how u dey now?  long time.  omo, u dey craze o!  i no go dey surprised o, no be naija we dey talk about? very soon, agbero and hin driver go dey take am do GPS sef.  naija we hail thee! 


@ Ex-Inferis, you've made some very valid points in your posts and just like you I go for the specs based on my need and my pocket (as baba ijebu concern now  ).  unfortunately, our naija folks' mentality no go lai lai change no matter how much you try convince them, which is kind of sad.  na brand names go kill us for naija (well, the ones wey dey buy into it anyway).  what kills me is that most of these peeps don't want to take the time to look around and compare specs/prices but are just fixated with brand names that in most cases cost a lot more than an unpopular brand.  acer is giving yeye HP/Compaq, Sony (another over-priced piece of shit, excuse my french!), Toshiba a run for their money in the states, which of course our effizy lovers for naija are unaware of.  anyway sha, make u leave them make them dey waste them money o jare (swegbes) 

i would love to believe people carry laptops around for diferrent reasons; i used to haul mine to friends' long ago to have a blast at Halo, or pilfer someones playlists and Divx movies. but i never carried one to impress.

im guessing the scenario we had when mobile phones were just hitting the market in circa 2001 is what is recurring again if indeed its true people lug around notebooks to impress. i remember a time when a Motorola Talkabout earned one a star rating, now it earns you curses and physical attacks.

eventually people grew up (or at least outgrew the habit) and now mobile phones are as fashionable as piles of rock, especially with the tokunbo market.


as for those people who dont want to scour the market for other laptops before committing; well partly its laziness, partly is because most nigerians are Luddites, favoring the gool old status quo over technological advantage of change; and partly its down to their non-sceptical minds willingly sponging the crap of the Store Guy who tells them the purchase they are about to make is the best thing to have ever hapened to them.

Ex Inferis baba! You have broken down why Nigerians should not be one sided in their thinking. I really cant stand the bandwagon effect in Nigeria. But hell, MTN and others are capitalising on it.
I remember when I told my friends that I want to get a Volvo, they were all like, what the hell, When one of them followed me on a test drive in an S60, he kept dreaming about the machine.
Competition helps all markets. Makes manufacturers stay on their toes. The R&D dept. in most companies is where the most money is spent.

@Sojioguns

that Volvo S60 was once voted safest car on the planet. funny you should mention this, because recently i was asked what midsized commuter car i'D love to buy if i were to buy a car right now; almost everyone predictably gunned for a Honda/Toyota, 2 kias and one BMW.

i said an Audi A4, or the new Passat.

they were like, "huh"?

in cars of its range, i don't think anthing beats that passat for sheer driveability

but thats for another thread.

as for MTN, once upon a time the Elites bought MTN, and the poorer members of the household settled for then-called Econet even though Econet was first with SMS delivery report and had low cost scratch cards among other things.

its like when i bought my first Sendo X and my mates kept ripping me for not buying a nokia smartphone even though technically the Sendo X was a more advanced symbian phone then. buggy, sure, but one cool sexy machine nonetheless.

and even now it still happens all over; if your phone aint a nokia, it must imply you are a broke-ar5se playing second fiddle.

beats me, that.

Confession, I actually decided to explore European cars when I had an encounter with the men of the night with my Honda (may her soul rest in peace). Bottom line, "European cars are better than Japanese excuses for cars" he he

that depends. somehow i find japanese cars luxurious and european cars spartan. but driving them is something else.

are we talking about cars?

switch back to Acer vs HP, then.

earlier on bigbrovar and i were talking about cloud computing and netbooks.

here is my prediction.

1. a few years from now all computing will move online in a paperless office of the future. case in point: the growth of Ajax, google Docs, Zoho, Splashup (similar to photoshop, see pic below), Adobe Air, InstaCalc, App2You, Yahoo Webmessenger, meebo, sosius etc and Zimbra. more and more devices now are already offloading their contents into the "cloud" by syncing or direct upload, to services such as Fanbox. eventuially the concept of the local harddisk will be a thing of the past.

like ThinClients, computers will become dumber, running only the OS needed to give them life, while the soul of their purpose resides online. soon music, documents, videos, photos, contacts, telephony and other communications, will all be up in the internet cloud and we shall live our lives innundated by the radio waves needed to keep our digital wireless hub breathing. think online radios, online albums (like flickr), Netflick etc. iTunes is already well on the air. already music and photos have gone digital. have you noticed the recent tide of browser-based games?

2. in cases where the Operating system needs to be installed or reinstalled, I'm predicting it shall e done online devoid of installation CDs. already Microsoft is researching in ways of how to sell software online and be installed straight from the servers in the cloud. in fact we already have online operating systems. YouOS is a virtual OS that you an customize.

3. soon devices will talk to each other across diverse proprietary spectrums, and keep content up to date via syncing. the days of the Sneakernet are numbered.

i arrived at my predictions based on my oservation of current trends and the direction technology is headed. Apple's .Mac service, which now is known as MobileMe, is also ahead of the competition in some respects.

at the end of the day, Digital rights Management, bigger bandwidth, and the death of piracy (at least to some extent; hacking and cracking is becoming more difficult everday) are on the horizon.

so don't let the terms "Cloud Computing" or NetBooks be alien to you.

and already Acer is way ahead of HP in the netbook revolution.


cheers.

PS: the application you see below (pix) is an Adobe Photoshop clone. its not running locally on my system, it is an online application made using Ajax technology.

I think Netbook are here to stay , although i dont see them replacing laptops just as the latter didn't replace desktops. each device has a role to play.if all u do is surf the net,note taking,watch videos/music. abd general lite computing then the netbook is for you. i know many pple u use 10% of their laptop potential for such pple a netbook would be ideal, its also good for road worriors and business trip .we had a meeting with some members of African Development Bank recently and one of them brought his Netbook to the meeting and it was sweet.although it runs windows xp .which brings me to my second point . the NetBook field is where GNU/Linux shines the most . because its modular and open , allowing u to easily remove unwanted stuff from the kernel and sliming it down to fit a specific hardware need .this is something that cant be achieved in windows. last month a visiting prof from the US was here and his son had an eeepc that ran XP . his experience on it gave me the impression that putting xp on that device was a big disservice to humanity .The device was as slow as hell, and shutting it down require u to go to grab a coffee and wait, what about the start up? dont even ask. i felt really sad for him . and being a nice guy i got my geek on and installed eeebuntu netbook remix(a version of Ubuntu modified esp for netbooks) for him via usb install .before u know it the eeepc was transformed , it was the most amazing interface i have ever seen on a computer , everything worked , hibernation,webcam,wireless, and it was fast and snappy , all this with a cool interface that would have many mac users drool . till this mo the guy sends his regards from the US. test on most netbooks as shown that the Linux version usually outperforms the xp version by a distance.as a linux user am pretty excited to see how things plays out with the netbook

September 30, 2008 5:33 AM PDT
Stallman: Cloud computing is 'stupidity'
Posted by Mike Ricciuti
52 comments

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Not everyone loves cloud computing. Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation and creator of the GNU operating system, says cloud computing is "stupidity" that ultimately will result in vendor lock-in and escalating costs.

"The interesting thing about cloud computing is that we've redefined cloud computing to include everything that we already do," Stallman said, in a report posted by The Guardian on Monday.



Richard Stallman, speaking at MIT in 2006.
(Credit: CNET Networks)


Cloud computing, the latest marketing description for a notion put forth by computer industry companies in recent years, moves most of the computing power--and sometimes data--to servers maintained by companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Amazon. The classic example of cloud computing might be Gmail, offered by Google.

Stallman says cloud computing forces people to hand over control of their information to a third party. His objections echo his longstanding belief in non-proprietary software. "One reason you should not use Web applications to do your computing is that you lose control," he said. "It's just as bad as using a proprietary program.

"Do your own computing on your own computer with your copy of a freedom-respecting program. If you use a proprietary program or somebody else's Web server, you're defenseless. You're putty in the hands of whoever developed that software," he said.

Stallman dismisses cloud computing as industry bluster. "It's stupidity. It's worse than stupidity: it's a marketing hype campaign," he said. "Somebody is saying this is inevitable--and whenever you hear somebody saying that, it's very likely to be a set of businesses campaigning to make it true."

eptember 30, 2008 | Comments: (0) 3 votes

Cloud computing is overhyped
As the hype around Cloud computing turns into disillusionment, will users throw the baby out with the bath water? Here's hoping the answer is no

TAGS: Cloud

It seems that Cloud computing is already scaling its way down Gartner's trough of disillusionment. For those not familiar with the Gartner Hype Cycle, the trough of disillusionment begins right after a technology has hit the "Peak of Inflated Expectations."

Dan Lyons starts things off by agreeing with Richard Stallman about the risks surrounding cloud computing. Dan says:
"Just think of all the little hooks and Velcro straps a cloud service provider can create to keep you locked in. For one thing, they’ve got your data. But think also of all the business logic, the customized apps created uniquely for you. Just look at what Facebook does to make it extremely painful for users to move. That's a tiny taste of the cloud."

Stallman tells the Guardian:
"It's stupidity. It's worse than stupidity: It's a marketing hype campaign, Somebody is saying this is inevitable –- and whenever you hear somebody saying that, it's very likely to be a set of businesses campaigning to make it true."

The Guardian also has a quote from Larry Ellison on cloud computing:
"The computer industry is the only industry that is more fashion-driven than women's fashion. Maybe I'm an idiot, but I have no idea what anyone is talking about. What is it? It's complete gibberish. It's insane. When is this idiocy going to stop?"

On the other side of the debate is Geir Magnusson:
"I think that notions of privacy and user control aren't intrinsically at odds with the big spectrum of technologies that are called 'cloud computing.' Rather, like any other computing technology used by humans, there are options, and we can choose to use and create tech that is secure and open, both in the implementation (as in open source), but maybe more importantly in terms of portability and data freedom, being able to move one's data to where one chooses."

Like many other technologies purported to completely reshape the vendor landscape, cloud computing won't deliver. However, cloud computing definitely has a role to play in the future of the IT marketplace. Some applications are well aligned with the cloud. Others, especially really important business-critical apps, aren't. Will this change over time? Maybe, but how many companies still do the majority of their business critical transactions on a mainframe-based system? Hint: a lot. Also, as more customers start making noise about data portability and freedom, expect vendors to respond with support for related open standards.

In the end, cloud computing will become a valuable part of every company's IT strategy. However, cloud computing simply won't be the foundation upon which an average company's IT strategy is built.

What do you think?

PS: I should state: "The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions."

Posted by Savio Rodrigues on September 30, 2008 04:33 PM

Yes they are trying to take so much to the internet. That is if there is proper infrastructure for that. Lets wait and see what 03B has to offer when they roll out their satellite transmission that is supposed to help developing economies.

@Flyuche

every emerging tecnology has its dissenters, Flyuche, and to this day technology that existed for sometimes decades still gets ripped by pundits who just don't get it. what has been happening here all this while? it was me versus Djcn tearing apart two stalwarts of computing: Apple and microsoft.

it is no surprise someone thinks cloud computing is "stupid" even though its in its infancy. do you remember a time when Bill gates said 16k of memory was enough for eveyone? well, we are now on track to 1TB of memory for high-end servers and some consumer machines can take as much as 32gb of RAM as we speak-er, type.

in the dawn of the internet it was seen as a passing fad, now it dominates computing across all strata of life. Web 2.0, which is the precursor of cloud computing, was also seen as an ephemeral thing.

it makes sense putting everything online; the early computers had their foundation rooted in networking human beings, then it became networking terminals, then networking mainframes and minis, now we have the internet. Data is much more secure stashed in remote servers outside of the local machine. you can lose that machine but you never lose your data.

the direction of technology is not determined by opinion; ancillary and auxiliary services as well as component makers sometimes nudge computing in the proper direction. and the web 2.0 services which form the outside layer of cloud computing mostly dictate the direction everyone is heading (see the success of youtube, flickr etc).

besides, there isnt a big deal of anticipation or expectation; its a subconscious movement towards the fully integrated online direction.

and its not always all doom and gloom when your private data resides securely on server clusters owned by the likes of google and microsoft. they are much more secure than when residing locally on your harddisk. in any case where do you think your banking, credit card and ATM details reside? in online servers maintained by the banks or its affiliates. if such details were local on your computer imagine the havok that will ensue were your system to crash, get wiped out or stolen.


@Djcn

and those web 2.0 services use common standards (Ajax, LDAP, Flash etc) so intercommunication will not be an issue. google was able to successfully integrate all its online services (google docs, google talk, gmail, Google maps etc) and over time i expect tose services will talk with other online services (like share calendars etc) since the tools used to create such online services are standards-based.

I'm not saying there is a hurried pace to get there; eventually in the near future we will get there.

its inevitable.

i do agree on the bandwidth issue, and seemingly bandwidth is never enough. but then goodnews is on the horizon; Verizon FioS, which uses fiber optics, has speeds of about 32mbps. for streaming whatever content, even HD movies, that is more than enough. but like you said, when that will trickle to Africa is anyone's guess. maybe when our politicians get their acts together, the rest of the world will take africa seriously as less of a burden and more a market and invest heavily in infrstructure.

@bigbrovar

linux is more suited to mobile and embedded devices because of the nature of its being. it is much pliant to slimming down unlike windows XP. microsoft cannot use Windows CE because of its severe limitations so the next best thing is XP. it surprises me that Microsoft, with al its resources, know-how, and legacy cannot see beyond the failings of windows mobile and create a new slim operating system for the mobile world. i mean, Symbian, Android, Linux (though Android is based on linux) and now Mac OS X portable are dominating the mobile scene when windows has the potential for trouncing them all.

i guess its one more example of microsoft's ineptitude.


PS: contrary to my earlier statememnt, it seems HP is well into the Netbook thingy. their 2133 Mini-Note Netbook runs on a 1.6GHz C7 M ULV VIA CPU (VIA, for gawdssakes!!) and 2gig of DRAM memory. however its pretty expensive in comparison for almost the same performance to the Acer Aspire. it comes in flavors of vista asic, XP, Suse Linux and freeDOS.

pic below.

pc vendors just want to increase sales. what is a netbook anyway? this whole idea of ultrasmall cheap laptops started with the one laptop per child project. a project that seeks to empower children in developing world with affordable basic computing hardwares. Negroponte started it, intel had a similar project. now this concept has been hijacked by major pc vendors like Asus, Acer, hp, dell and co,
this so called netbooks are not cheap. for example i could get a decent full featured laptop for the price of that hp netbook. for all those seeking to get a small pc we have the tablet pcs. please let them go back to the original concept. that is affordable laptops for children in developing nations.

@flyuche, as expected it's always normal for everyone to express his or her feelings concerning a particular project. Those criticisms are valid but however they can assist in redefining cloud computing.
Most times if guy are not in aggrement with others, all they do is tounge lashing a particular project.
When Intel withdrew from the OLPC project, it blasted the project and embarked on a similar project.
When Apple, IBM and others decided to create the Taligent stuffs, Microsoft kicked against it.
In the world today, most guys are just fighting for their own interests.

The emergence of Netbooks is even seen as a treat to established companies like Microsoft, IBM, Apple, HP and others. The fact remains that most are cheap in the market.

I was watched a documentary some time ago on two cars with 99% similarities in the making but with different brands, the manufacturers know quite well about this, but to you and i, we will keep arguing on that matter.


@EX, u had spoken of FreeBSD earlier, i last worked with version 4.0 a long time ago and ever since lost interest. running 3 OS on my desktop system i'm considering installing the FreeBSD OS again, cos it has really become cooler, secured and with much more support. I'm however struggling with a slow internet connection from my ISP and downloading above 10MB is a nightmare.
I was chatting with a guy in Finland who was speaking of downloading full HD DVD movies in just a few minutes. I just wonder where that can be done in this country. I've got a lot of work to do but still squezzing out time to write proposals for broadband access in this country. we surely need it. I know the western world have gotten there as japan is even offering Home users 8Mbps subscription services. In Nigeria i wounder how many so called ISP's can even boast of that bandwidth.

INFO ON LINUX.

You spoke of Linux as being suitable for Netbooks et al, well Linux is a GENERIC term and has over 300 different distributions ranging from servers to microcontrollers.
From embedded systems to supercomputers.
What i'm trying to say is that in any hardware platform Linux can be designed or modified to suit that need.

Linux is supported by corporations such as Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Novell, Oracle Corporation, Red Hat, and Sun Microsystems and a host of companies, so it is a universal thing. It remains the most widely ported OS.

it now runs on a more diverse range of computer architectures than any other operating system: It is now used on mac systems despite the closed arch,
in the hand-held ARM-based iPAQ
the mainframe IBM System z9,
The µClinux kernel fork can run on systems without a memory management unit.
MS sometime created their own version
All these are achievable not becos of anything else other than the kernel and the developers.

Microsoft has a proprietry windows xp OS for netbooks, i don't know if u've seen the one on the OLPC project which can dual boot with a version of Linux.
Following the confirmation of 20 OEM to deliver windows xp on netbooks, a press statement was released, i believe some 3 months ago to continue to offer windows xp far more than the 2014 date fixed before.

Pls note: This applies only for Netbooks and Nettops, and an aggrement was recently signed with the world's leading OEM for this contract. xp still tops in the no of installed os.

I AM BEGINING TO LIKE THIS MACHINE.
processor

    * Intel Centrino Core™2 Duo Processors T5870

Drives

    * Hard disk drive Serial ATA hard drive 250GB (5400 rpm)
    * Optical DVD rewriter with LightScribe

Memory

    * DDR II, 667 MHz  4GB
    * Memory slots 2 x 2 GB SODIMM slot supporting dual channel memory

Portability

    * Display features 15.4" WXGA BrightView (1280 x 800 resolution)

Connectivity

    * Wireless technologies Wireless 802.11a/b/g/
    * Fax/modem 56K modem
    * Network interface Intel Fast Ethernet Integrated Controller (10/100 NIC)

Expandability

    * Expansion slot Slots available for additional devices: 1 ExpressCard/54 slot, Media Card reader slot (Secure Digital (SD)/MMC support)
    * I/O port 3 USB 2.0 ports, VGA, stereo microphone in, stereo headphone/line out, power connector, RJ-11, RJ-45

Software Operating System

    * Operating system installed Genuine Windows Vista Premium
    * Compatible operating systems Genuine Windows XP Professional Edition

Pre-installed software

    * HP Backup and Recovery Manager
    * Roxio Creator 9
    * Microsoft Office 2007 Ready (60 day free trial) Basic, Small Business or Professional edition

Software included

    * HP Backup and Recovery Manager,
    * HP ProtectTools Security Manager,
    * Device Access Manager for HP ProtectTools,
    * HP Wireless Assistant,
    * Microsoft Office Ready with 60-day Office Professional 2007 Trial Edition (select models),
    * Roxio Creator 9 (for optional DVD+/-RW and DVD/CDRW drives),
    * Synaptics Touchpad Driver
    * Symantec Norton Internet Security with complimentary 60-day live update, PDF Complete (Vary by country)

Graphic / audio

    * Graphic card 01 Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
    * Graphic subsystem video card memory 01 Up to 384 MB DDR2 shared system memory
    * Internal audio High Definition Audio, mono speakers, stereo headphone/line out, stereo microphone in

Input Devices

    * Keyboard Full-sized keyboard
    * Pointing device Touchpad with scroll zone

Warranty

    * 1 year carry-in (pick-up and return in some countries (upgrades available, sold separately)) 1 year warranty on primary battery

Power

    * Features 6-cell (47 WHr) Lithium-Ion battery
    * Requirements External 65W HP AC adapter
    * Battery life Up to 4h30m

Security

    * Management Kensington Lock slot

@Flyuche

your point seemingly boiuls down to "whoneeds a netbook when they can get a laptop"? well, its a bit like saying "who needs a mobile phone when they ca get a cordless landline phone"?

portability in a mobile world is what fuels the netbook revolution.

im not deeply engrossed in netbooks, but i understand the reason for their being. laptops are becoming increasingly bigger albeit slimmer; but bigger nonetheless. HP has a 20 incher, most are on the 17 inch screen territory.

this partly made the Macbook Air appealing to the upwardly mobile. netbooks are looking at that niche the MA is targeting; why lug around a hefty 17inch laptop when all you do is surf the web and create documents in an environment where a netbook will suffice?

that is the rationale.

mobile phones are geting smaller, laptops too need to shed weight. afterall 80% of computing is core computing (surfing, documents, email etc) especially in a business atmosphere and mind you netbooks are targeting the bsiness segment agressively rather than home users who essentially use their systems for media.

@Djcn

it doesnt matter the number of linux distros; linux by its kernel nature is immeasurably portable. everyone of those distros just take the kernel and adapt it for their own purpose, or fork off a distro (like Ubuntu which is based on Debian).

windows xp doesmnt come close in this level of portaility; the next best thing regarding embedded that microsoft has is WinCE.

(heres a Microsoft joke: Windows CE, ME, NT = CEMENT ).

this windows CE is what powered Windows Smart Displays.


as for bandwidth for the first time my MTN 3G hit 127kb/s yesterday, but only for a while before sliping back down (it was in HSDPA mode).

still not enough for massive gigabyte downloads. hopefully we will get there.

The netbook is a no-go area for me.

i hate small screens, the smaller it is, the farther away i am.

The bigger, the better.

Gamine:

The netbook is a no-go area for me.

i hate small screens, the smaller it is, the farther away i am.

The bigger, the better.

I'm sure i got something bigger, and i swear its better for you. and i aint talking about no darn netbook neither.

tempted?



on gaming rigs, check out this cool Acer Aspire Predator. spex are:


(for the high end system)

1.  2.83GHz Q9550 Intel Core 2 Quad (again 4 processor core)

2.  GeForce 9800GTX graphics

3. 4gigs RAM

4. three 640GB drives (almost 2 terabytes of storage).

5. 24 inches 1920 x 1200 LCD (slightly better than True HD, or 1080p)

6. liquid cooling system

Alienware, watch your back. this Predator, characteristically, is cheaper.

while you are slobbering all over the sexy orange wunderbox above (who says Acer makes crap?) allow me to respond to the naysayers of Cloud Computing.

if anyone had been following this thread they will perhaps form the opinion that cloud computing is someting fancy to relegated to the dustbin of history as most technological, groundless fads have done (eg boo.com), especially going by the comments of Flyuche and Gamine.

well, it seems even industry monoliths are taking the concept serious, going the by the recent statements of microsoft CEo steve ballmer. it appears microsoft is working on introducing an entirely new OS besides windows 7 that the company has tagged "Windows Cloud operating System". now that is separate from the Midomi project microsoft is working on and here is a quote regarding Midomi:

" The basis for the platform centers around research related to Microsoft's Singularity project, and envisions a distributed environment where applications, documents, and connectivity are blurred in a cloud-computing phantasmagoria which can be run natively or hosted across multiple systems. The researchers are working to create a concurrent / parallel distribution of resources, as well as a method of handling applications across separate machines -- religiously-dubbed the Asynchronous Promise Architecture -- which will set the stage for a backwards-compatible operating system built from the ground up, with networks of varying size in mind. Says the SD Times, "The Midori documents foresee applications running across a multitude of topologies, ranging from client-server and multi-tier deployments to peer-to-peer at the edge, and in the cloud data center. Those topologies form a heterogeneous mesh where capabilities can exist at separate places."

http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/10/01/microsoft-to-launch-windows-cloud-operating-system-soon

Microsoft is attempting to move customers away from windows to Midori over time. for the best info hit this link:


http://www.sdtimes.com/MICROSOFT_S_PLANS_FOR_POST_WINDOWS_OS_REVEALED/About_CLOUDCOMPUTING_and_MOBILEDEVELOPMENT_and_NET_and_SOASAAS_and_SOFTWAREDEVELOPMENT_and_WINDOWS_and_MICROSOFT/32627


meanwhile here is ballmer's actual quote regarding Windows Cloud:

" We need a new operating system designed for the cloud and we will introduce one in about four weeks, we’ll even have a name to give you by then. But let’s just call it for the purposes of today ‘Windows Cloud’, Just like Windows Server looked a lot like Windows but with new properties, new characteristics and new features, so will Windows Cloud look a lot like Windows Server"

as for the interoperability issues Djcn raised earlier, the article further says;

"Ballmer also hinted at what would be built into the new OS, including geo replication, how to design apps intended to commingle [we think he means appeasing regulators by providing more interoperability], management modelling and an SOA model, to effectively create a new platform.

“We’re not driving an agenda towards being service providers but we’ve gotta build a service that is Windows in the cloud,” admitted Ballmer.

He also hit out at internet kingpin and pesky rival Google.

“If you talk to Google they’ll say it's thin client computing but then they’ll issue a new browser that’s basically a big fat operating system designed to compete with Windows but running on top of it,” he said."

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/01/steve_ballmer_windows_cloud/


so guys, prepare for your data going up in the Cloud.