The folks at System76 announced today that they’re launching a new high performance 15.6 inch laptop called the Pangolin. It’s a big heavy machine that I’m not particularly interested in, but when I saw the news I decided to take a peek at the company’s 10 inch Starling NetBook page and I noticed that System76 has updated the processor without changing the price.
Last year the Starling NetBook was selling for $385 with a 1.5 GHz Intel Atom N550 dual core processor. Now you can pick up the same mini-laptop for the same price with a 1.66 GHz Intel Atom N570 processor.
That price includes Ubuntu 11.04, 2GB of DDR3 memory, a 250GB hard drive, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, and a 3 cell battery. You can also configure the laptop with additional storage, a solid state disk, or a 6 cell or spare battery.
For about the same price at Amazon or Sears I can get an Acer Aspire AS1430Z with better than Atom Intel Pentium U5600, 1366×768 display, 3GB RAM, 320 GB hard drive, HDMI port and a copy of Windows 7 Home Premium. I’ll wrestle with a dual boot Ubuntu install if I need it.
I’ve thought about similar, cheaper-than-System76 options, and tried going that route with an HP Mini 1000 a year or two ago, but the Starling has two big things going for it in my view
. Â First, it weighs only 2.0 lb with a 3-cell battery; since I want this as a supplement to a much heavier, much more powerful MacBook Pro, I want my “auxiliary” laptop to be as light as possible, and I can live with 3 cells. Â Second, it is _designed_ for Ubuntu; my HP Mini came with their “Mobile Internet Experience” Linux variant, so I figured it should be supported by an “orthodox” flavor of Linux, but when I installed Ubuntu I found that the Ethernet card wasn’t recognized under some circumstances (and therefore my IDL installation wouldn’t work, as that was tied to the Ethernet MAC address). Â Fixing this required adding a kernel parameter to /boot/grub/menu.lst; this wasn’t hard, and having to manually re-add it every time I updated the kernel wasn’t hard, but diagnosing the problem and tracking down the fix in the first place was a pain in the tail. Â In short, I’m willing (if I have to, i.e., if the Eee PC X101 doesn’t pan out for me) to pay more to get (1) a lighter machine that (2) won’t require reading the entrails and consulting the secret masters of Linux lore to make it work. Â (BTW and FWIW, System76 also assures me that upgrading the HDD/SSD in the Starling is easy.)
This looks to be a low-volume high-margin netbook; it’s for the niche market who is most productive working in a Linux environment but doesn’t want to bother with their own Linux installation. Â I like how the power button is located where it’s very difficult to accidently touch it.
For people who are willing to install their own Linux, for about $340 (Google “ASUSÂ 1015PX-MU17-WT”) one can get a standard Windows 7 Netbook with similar specs, as well as an easy-to-install 2gb memory card.
What I would really like to see is system76 or zaReason bringing out AMD e-350 based netbooks.Â
They might later, possible contracts with Intel not withstanding, but keep in mind no one is offering a Zacate in anything smaller than 11.6″ but Ontario options are available for 10″ systems.
Well, I am in the camp that actually considers 11.6″ screens to be netbooks. 11.6″ screen, zacate and linux ought to be a sweet little box.
How refreshing! Â Ubuntu! Â Now because they don’t have the hardware constraints enforced by the OS vendor does it have a higher display resolution option as well? Â I’ll have to check these guys out… Â Any chance at a review of one of their netbooks? Â I wonder what their build quality is like.
Nope, they’ve got 1024 x 600 pixel screens, probably because that’s what’s readily available. But the netbooks come standard with 2GB of RAM and you have a lot of options for storage. Unfortunately most of them are rather pricey, but System76 doesn’t do Linux because it’s cheap, but rather because there’s a small but niche market for people who really *want* Linux systems and want to know that they’re buying supported hardware.Â
I’m one of them, so this rocks. Â I was just hoping for more I guess… Â Not that this is bad.