Indamixx has been loading up mini-laptops with open source audio production software for a while now. I first heard about the company in late 2008. At the time, the company was selling a Sylvania G Meso laptop with an 8.9 inch display, a custom Linux operating system and a whole slew of free and commercial music making tools for creating, mixing, and editing audio.
Now Indamixx has updated both the hardware and software. Instead of a Sylvania G Meso, the new Indamixx laptop is based on the MSI WInd U100. It ships with 2GB of RAM, a 10.2 inch display, a 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU, and a custom Linux distro called Transmission, which is based on Ubuntu 9.04. It has the latest no-latency kernel which helps with audio production.
It also includes a variety of open source audio software including Ardour, but also some commercial apps like ArdourXchange for importing files from Pro Tools and other Mac and Windows software. You also get 260 plugins and over 350 samples and scratches, plus 30 days of support with the purchase of the $499 laptop.
Damn, how far technology goes.. And it moves so fast!
Music Phones, now music netbooks..
Will really robots rule the world soon??
$499 laptop “Open sorce” (this is an obvious lie) netbook?
ha-ha-ha
I’d better buy $150 “proprietary” netbook and buy some additional professional software for the rest of the money. And yes, if I like some software which is free or open-source, I can install it too. That’s freedom isn’t it?
The MSI Wind U100 typically sells for $300 to $350. You’re paying the rest
for the software which comes preconfigured to work properly. Not all of the
software is available for free, there are a few commercial apps thrown in.
And you get limited technical support. I don’t think $150 to $200 is too
much to ask for a highly customized machine. Sure, some people could build
one themselves with most of the same tools, but for most users it’s more
convenient to pay extra to have someone do all the hard work for you.
Netbook flavors?
Will we see ‘expert’ devices that do a particular function very well. but very cheaply? So you see this ‘music flavor’ devices now, but could ist be joined by video editing device. Could you make combo assisted by some other specialized chips to assist the video editing function particular well at an extremely LOW price.
The reason why this sparks my interest is I see a rise in a new type of worker. FOr instance I see this guy at the coffee shop every day, he is some sort of web designe or something…freelance perhaps. But he does 90% of his work in this coffee shop it seems, he has no office or he’s getting out fo teh home office to keep from going crazy. So maybe this concept of JUST working from home with a professional level rig all the time is outdated. Maybe there is a need for specialized high end netbook that are just used for when you’re on the road.
So many professional are on the road, are in airports, are traveling…yet they can’t drag their high end work rig around. They need something special because even a $3,000 laptop can’t do what their $15,000 rig at work can do. They need something ‘custom’ that can hold, run, and even edit projects they have from work yet do it on a small, mobile, and cheap device.
An interesting engineering problem at the very least….can you make a custom $1,500 netbook that can do the same projects (not as fast, not as well….just do it) as your $15,000 work machine?
This is one niche I’m happy to see beginning in the netbook market. I’m still not sure you’d *want* to have a movie or image editing laptop in this form factor(As those things are really meant for larger screens IMO…), but for audio, it makes so much sense.
DJs, podcasters are reporters seem like the types just waiting for something like this. Hell, if I weren’t so broke I’d certainly look into it for my nacent podcasting ideas…
As a freelance radio producer, I couldn’t agree more. I’ve been running apps
like Audacity, CoolEdit, and Reaper on my netbooks for ages.
The one thing I’d like to see is a higher resolution display in a netbook
designed for music/audio production though. While a high res screen isn’t as
important for audio work as it is for video, if you’re working on long,
multi-track projects it is nice to have a bit more screen area. As it is, I
find I can do short, quick projects comfortably on a netbook with a 1024 x
600 pixel display but I wouldn’t really choose one for long form projects.
It’s funny…I’m not sure what long form projects the netbook works for outside of writing/blogging. I mean, even with that higher resolution display, wouldn’t you be doing a lot of squinting?;)
Actually, while I think 1366 x 768 pixel screens may be overkill on 10 inch
netbooks for reading web pages and writing documents, they could work for
manipulating wav forms in an app like Reaper.
But I’ll reserve final judgment until I can get a company to send me a
netbook with a higher resolution display for review. 🙂