The Agora Netbook from Australia’s Kogan Technologies may be one of the first examples of a netbook designed by committee. Kogan founder Ruslan Kogan asked for community input when he first decided to put together a mini-notebook, and the results are a stunningly average netbook with a 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU, 10.1 inch display. 160GB hard drive, and if you’ve ever seen another netbook you can probably fill in the rest.
But there are a few things that make the Agora stand out. It uses the gOS operating system, which is based on Ubuntu Linux, but which uses an OS X-style dock application launcher and integration with web services like Gmail and Google Docs.
Australia’s Technology & Business posted a glowing review of the netbook today, and points out another nice feature: easy access to the RAM, hard drive, and WiFi. While the Agora Netbook certainly isn’t the only mini-laptop that lets you remove or upgrade these components, it certainly makes things easy. All you have to do is remove a single screw.
On the down side, the Kogan Agora comes with a choice of a 3 or 6 cell battery, but even the higher capacity 6 cell version provides only 3 to 4 hours of run time.
Well I do like the inclusion of GOS. It’s a lovely operating system. It’s also nice to see Australia getting their own, especially with user input.