some people are indeed already headed for the “blister packed on a card”
computer market – even if we have to create it ourselves.

some people are indeed already headed for the “blister packed on a card”
computer market – even if we have to create it ourselves.

I still think someone with a really efficient supply chain and mass-market experience could put together a Razorbook-class machine for well under $200.The Razorbook cuts back on many of the components, but nearly costs as much as the 7″ Eee 4G Surf does now.

If Royal can put touchscreen PDA knockoffs on shelves for under $30, a cut-spec sub-netbook with an off-brand CPU and a Damn Small Linux-grade OS loaded ought to be doable in the $100-150 range. And I'd totally buy one.

bolomkxxviii, I feel your pain, but most people know that just because they can buy a cheap handheld game system for $49 that totally sucks, it doesn't mean that a DS will also suck. I think the same rule applies here.

From a marketing point of view, Coby is actually a better known BRAND to average consumers then Asus, MSi, or any of the other dozen Hong Kong/Taiwan companies putting out Netbooks. Coby and Craig are known as cheap brands, but they are known to Middle America.

The interesting part is Coby wouldn’t even have to hit the $99.99 mark to do well. Even at $175 -$200 they could get some traction in the market place. I would even say Coby doing this could do a great deal to “save” Netbooks. It is troubling to see that the prices are heading into the $500 range as more companies add to the Netbook market. Coby making a $99 or $200 machine could be seen as a helpful “corrective” influence on the prices of the Netbooks inching towards $700.

These computers primarily run the Linux operating system, however users have managed to port other operating systems such as Windows CE to the Loongson architecture.
Linux distributions that work on Loongson:
Debian Linux, specifically their mipsel port
Gentoo Linux, work in progress
Slackware Linux is also being ported, although nothing has been released yet.
Red Flag Linux
Mandriva, since September 2007

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loongson
From Wikipedia:

The first revision of the Loongson architecture, the Loongson1 is a pure 32-bit CPU running at a clock speed of 266 MHz. Its primary focus is with embedded designs such as cash registers, where 64-bit capability and high speed are not necessary. It was released in 2002. As of 2006 it was used in the Sinomanic Tianhua GX-1C PC.

…

In March 2006, a €100 Godson II computer design called Longmeng (Dragon Dream) was announced.

In June 2006 at Computex'2006, Taipei YellowSheepRiver company has announced a Municator YSR-639, a mini-computer based on the 400 MHz Godson 2.

In September 2006, Li Guojie, director of the Institute of Computer Technology under the CAS announced a Longxin IIE (Godson IIE), a 64-bit chip containing 47 million transistors and reaching speeds of 1 GHz. It implements a subset of the MIPS III ISA.

In the second half of the third quarter of 2006, China revealed the latest addition to the Godson series, the Godson 2E, which was already in the early stages of manufacturing. Developers claim tests show that the Chinese chip can rival Intel Pentium 4 processor in performance and it was superior to the early series of the Pentium 4 CPUs, with much lower production costs.[5]

Unlike processors from Intel, Advanced Micro Devices or Via Technologies, the Godson-2E is not based on the x86 instruction set. Instead, the chip uses a modified version of the MIPS instruction set that replaces proprietary instructions with ones developed by ICT. This means the Godson 2E cannot be used in PCs running Microsoft's Windows XP operating system, and thus the computing devices based on the Godson 2E would be most likely running the Linux operating system.

The processor runs at a clock speed of 1 GHz and like other chips in the Godson family, the Godson 2E was designed by the Chinese Academy of Science's Institute of Computing Technology (ICT) and was the first Chinese CPU produced using 90-nanometer process technology. Earlier versions of the Godson 2 chip were produced using a 180-nanometer process and ran at clock speeds up to 500 MHz. The Godson 2E CPU contains 47 million transistors, more than the 42 million of the original Pentium 4. Battery drain will be less, with power consumption between 3 to 8 watts, according to CAE Fellow Li Guojie (李国杰), director of the ICT. Li Guojie also announced that at the end of 2006, scientists would start to upgrade Godson 2E to Godson 2F, which will improve performance by about 30% and reduces power consumption by about 50%. It was announced that the Godson-3 is scheduled to enter production by 2008.

In January 2007 Gentoo Linux was ported on this machine, the initial port was compiled on a Cobalt Qube micro-server.

According to the table on Wikipedia, there are parts ranging down to 200 MHz, but a part that starts at 400 MHz was used in a 100 Euro computer 2 1/2 years ago, and there have been Linux ports. Hopefully the specs will be in the ballpark of the Razorbook, though Nate was right to point out that even that is still speculation.