Linux Laptop from R Cubed Reviewed 132
An anonymous reader writes "NewsForge (Also owned by VA) has a short writeup on R Cubed's latest laptop, the LS1250-L Linux laptop. From the article: 'My test machine came with Fedora Core 5, the GNOME desktop, OpenOffice.org 2.0, the Firefox browser, and Evolution mail client. The lineup also includes the normal assortment of multimedia players, administration tools, and games. If you prefer, you can choose SUSE 10.1, various flavors of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and even Microsoft Windows XP.'"
Dell (Score:5, Funny)
R Cubed sells many Linux laptop models (Score:2, Informative)
The R Cubed Linux laptops have Intel integrated graphics cards [fsf.org] for which Intel has released 2D and 3D-accelerated open source graphics drivers that are capable of transpar
Re:R Cubed sells many Linux laptop models (Score:3, Informative)
Re:R Cubed sells many Linux laptop models (Score:2)
This is the most positive post that I've ever read about Intel Integrated Graphics in all of my 2.25 years of viewing Slashdot. I'm serious here.
Here are some other pre-installed Linux vendors (Score:1)
A bit expensive for a Linux laptop? (Score:5, Informative)
Not trolling here, but the price does seem high... almost as if the MS tax in in there somewhere. Is there such thing as a Linux tax? Consider the Dell XPS M1210 [dell.com] for $1200.
http://religiousfreaks.com/ [religiousfreaks.com]Re:A bit expensive for a Linux laptop? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:A bit expensive for a Linux laptop? (Score:3, Informative)
You seem to think currency conversion is all that matters. Everything in the UK is priced higher than the same thing in the US. For example, the $1099 Macbook is £749 in the UK (incl VAT). Expect to pay over £1000 for this machine. (Without VAT the prices are closer, but the UK is still higher. In the US prices are always quoted without sales tax, because each state has its own tax rate.)
Re:A bit expensive for a Linux laptop? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:A bit expensive for a Linux laptop? (Score:5, Informative)
$300 is easily paid for with the weight reduction and having every bug already worked out so I don't need to spend any time setting it up to run under Linux, in my opinion, but it depends how much you value your time I suppose.
Anyway it's interesting enough that I'm seriously considering getting one as my next laptop instead of a MacBook Pro as I'm not sure I can face messing around like this [revis.co.uk] to get wireless working again when I could have it all functioning out of the box.
Re:A bit expensive for a Linux laptop? (Score:1)
Re:A bit expensive for a Linux laptop? (Score:2)
Kevlar on laptops. I can imagine a conversation going like this -
Person 1 Hey, this laptop is bulletproof.
Person 2 Yeah, of course. It's got linux on it.
Person 1 No, I mean literally bulletproof. It's got kevlar.
Person 2 YOu mean if I shoot a bullet at you, you can block the bullet with your laptop.
Person 1 Yep. (satisfied grin)
Re:A bit expensive for a Linux laptop? (Score:1)
Re:A bit expensive for a Linux laptop? (Score:2)
On a hunch, I'm going to say you have aggression issues?
Re:A bit expensive for a Linux laptop? (Score:1)
THat would be one hell of a story to take home with ya..
Re:A bit expensive for a Linux laptop? (Score:1)
WTF? (Score:2)
As for being fully configured, you are missing the point: even die hard geeks need to get things done.
I have installed Linux on many laptops. Been there, done that, got the cheap T-shirt. If I needed a new laptop I would be more than happy to get something ready to go to which I can add what I need, but that has the basics (Internet stuff, multimedia, office applications) ready to rock.
They are aiming for the geek wit
Re:A bit expensive for a Linux laptop? (Score:2)
Re:A bit expensive for a Linux laptop? (Score:3, Funny)
And the special X windows drivers.
And the fact that it can run "continously for up to 7.9 hours".
Lots of value added things in here. But does it run Vista?
Re:A bit expensive for a Linux laptop? (Score:1)
Re:A bit expensive for a Linux laptop? (Score:2)
(What's that joke? Many windoze users are smart, but Mac users are smart AND have class, or something like that?)
Re:A bit expensive for a Linux laptop? (Score:1)
Re:A bit expensive for a Linux laptop? (Score:2)
If only others would follow (Score:2)
From TFA: "The $1,433 suggested retail price for the reviewed model seems high."
That's for sure, considering the reviewed model was a 1.73GHz Centrino processor with a 533MHz front side bus, 512MB of DDR2 memory, and a 60GB 5400RPM hard drive.
I like what rcubed is doing and give them lots of credit, but until the likes of Dell and other large vendors offer mainstream factory linux installation (without hidden charges, etc), we're on our own. Modern distributions are savvy enough to handle almost everyth
Re:If only others would follow (Score:1)
Re:If only others would follow (Score:3, Funny)
Re:If only others would follow (Score:2)
There is no mention made, nor selectable option for, FreeDOS, RHEL, or anything else besides Windows.
Are those special "business" options? Because if that's the case, it's
Re:If only others would follow (Score:2)
The other problems might be just getting the sound system to work, on many machines I have no problem, o
Re:If only others would follow (Score:2)
And why would I want to pay the premium (Score:5, Interesting)
Yes, I know it's easier to have a pre-setup laptop and not have to worry about searching for ndiswrapper etc for wireless, but the community that the linux laptop makers are targetting actually loves such challenges.
Okay, now I'll get back to trying to figure out how the heck this BCM4318 is going to work
Re:And why would I want to pay the premium (Score:3, Informative)
Screw that.
Yes, you CAN get a Core Duo... (Score:2, Informative)
http://shoprcubed.com/products.asp?cat=27 [shoprcubed.com]
14 inch widescreen [shoprcubed.com]
15.4 inch widescreen [shoprcubed.com]
Their super-small one (12" I think?) and the top model (which I can't quite see why it's SO much more expensive w/o looking in more detail) both are celeron M or pentium M, but the middle two on the page are both Core Duo capable.
Re:And why would I want to pay the premium (Score:2)
Re:And why would I want to pay the premium (Score:3, Informative)
Although to be honest it was my technical team that did it so I'm not sure if they tested hibernate/suspend or any other real hardcore stuff. DVDs played, sound worked, network fine, wireless sorted.
I need to make sure the external VGA works (this is a problem with some laptops in linux) since that does cause our students to los
Re:And why would I want to pay the premium (Score:2)
Since the masses do think like you do, you are probably right, though. Most folks probably will take the lower-quality Dell over this laptop. This
Re:And why would I want to pay the premium (Score:1)
Re:And why would I want to pay the premium (Score:3, Informative)
Re:And why would I want to pay the premium (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:And why would I want to pay the premium (Score:1)
I'd rather pay more and get linux preinstalled and hot have to dink with drivers. But I also want a specific distro. Fedora, RedHad, and SUSE aren't what I'm looking for. I'd rater go with a debian based or maybe Gentoo distros. I just bought a macbook (haven't got it yet) using this reasonin
pre-loaded linux surprisingly absent (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:pre-loaded linux surprisingly absent (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:pre-loaded linux surprisingly absent (Score:1)
Re:pre-loaded linux surprisingly absent (Score:2, Insightful)
Two reasons:
1. So that you don't pay HP to preload Windows (Assuming HP won't sell you an OS less laptop because that may add a new cycle in their QA process)
2. Because then HP will ensure that our wireless cards, suspend, media buttons etc work everytime.
Re:pre-loaded linux surprisingly absent (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:pre-loaded linux surprisingly absent (Score:2)
Re:pre-loaded linux surprisingly absent (Score:1)
http://www.shoprcubed.com/ [shoprcubed.com]
http://system76.com/index.php/cPath/1?gclid=CLK_3M ynp4YCFRhWUAodYwQcCA/ [system76.com]
http://www.linuxcertified.com/linux_laptops.html/ [linuxcertified.com]
http://xtops.de/thinkpad_linux_preinstalled.html/ [xtops.de]
Hopefully you'll see why I picked the first one.
Re:pre-loaded linux surprisingly absent (Score:2)
Re:pre-loaded linux surprisingly absent (Score:2)
This is an extremely good point - which makes the fact that Windows XP is sold in boxed versions just so much more astonishing.
Last time I
Re:pre-loaded linux surprisingly absent (Score:2)
This idea won't work unfortunately. Even if the installation process was as simple as 'Insert the installation CD and turn on your computer', this would still be too scary and complicated for many users. 50%* of people would put the CD in the wrong way round (the others just got lucky). A computer should be
Re:pre-loaded linux surprisingly absent (Score:2)
Except that the computer is usually *not* fully working when one buys it. You need to unpack and to connect the cables. I saw people mix up and plug speakers into a micro
Two button touchpad ! (Score:2)
Has it got a windows key too ?
I notice that the Leveno Thinkpads have gone to two button touchpads too.
I'll be glad when I'm out of computing, it's a lifetime of frustration.
Re:Two button touchpad ! (Score:2)
Re:Two button touchpad ! (Score:1)
I doubt anyone even manfacturers such touchpads anymore.
Which is sad for users, especially Unix users.
2 Button Mouse? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:2 Button Mouse? (Score:2)
Re:2 Button Mouse? It's the only kind that works.. (Score:2)
I'm also not surprised that the sleep and WiFi are flakey. It's gotta be tough for an OS to support proper re-initialization on hardware that can be powered off and on. That's not somethin
Most linux users get no OS... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Most linux users get no OS... (Score:1)
There currently is no such thing as a "barebones" laptop (although it's been attempted in the past), unless you are referring to sloppy seconds offered by companies reselling corpo
Re:Most linux users get no OS... (Score:2)
It does not take a lot of technical ability to use or maintain Linux (assuming you are using a distro like Ubuntu rather than one like LFS)- in fact I would say it takes takes less ability than Windows once installed.
It takes some ability to install any OS, Linux attracts a more technical crowd because it does not come pre-installed. Selling PCs with Linux pre-installed will (hopefully)
Irrelevant... (Score:1)
Forget the software (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Forget the software (Score:2)
Re:Forget the software (Score:2)
Re:Forget the software (Score:2)
Re:Forget the software (Score:2)
But I have never seen Linux suspend to disk (or suspend in *ANY* fashion, actually) without hosing on restart. I'm currently running Ubuntu on an IBM (Lenovo) which should have the best Linux support out there, and I can only suspend the laptop once. The second time I do, I have to power it off and reboot. Not useful.
I haven't even bothered with trying to
I know I'm complaining but... (Score:1)
Wow (Score:2, Funny)
So what? (Score:4, Insightful)
What's the point of creating yet another laptop with an overpowered CPU and no battery life? It would make more sense to use a less powerful CPU that doesn't suck up power. Especially when the system is designed to run Gnome on Linux — that's a configuration that would run happily on a system with 1/3 the hz.
Linux people have to stop producing technology whose only advantage over standard Wintel platforms is that there's no OS tithe to Redmond. Go with the Penguin's strengths: less resource hungry, so you can produce cheaper systems that use less power; open source, so you can fix all the usability bugs that Microsoft (and, alas, most Linux app designers) can't seem to deal with.
Re:So what? (Score:3, Insightful)
No, it is a misnomer to claim that modern Linux-based OSes are less resource hungry than Redmond bloatware. The modern 'Linuxes' may have caught up to Win98 in terms of usability, but they're resource pigs.
My tactic
Re:So what? (Score:2)
Your comparison is based on system that ten years old. When I said "less powerful" I didn't mean "anemic". Aside from having any version of Office without a lot of virtual memory swapping. Hence your slowdown.
My comparison of Linux and Windows was not theoretical. I used to be a tech writer at Borland, and we were developing a Linux version of our Windows IDE [borland.com], so I had two machines on my desk. I named them "Calvin" and "Hobbes". Calin was a 350 mhz Pentium III with 256 MB of RAM (wimpy by today's standard
Re:So what? (Score:2)
Re:So what? (Score:1)
Re:So what? (Score:2, Interesting)
I think the basis of comparison here was more towards the current operating systems, i.e. Win XP
Re:So what? (Score:1)
Re:So what? (Score:1)
Don't say _any_ version of Office. I have Office 4.3 on CDROM for Windows (3.1 or greater) and also Office 4 on floppies for Macintosh. Both will run quite well on a machine with 4 megs of RAM.
Re:So what? (Score:2, Interesting)
And I'm typing this on a Dell Optiplex with a PIII 500MHz processor, with NetBSD 3 on Mozilla. (under FVWM, etc.) Go figure. I'm cheap and refuse to waste ANY more money on 'horsepower' when if I have a processor-hungry computing task I can pull another Dell PIII machine out of storage and hang it off a free po
Re:So what? (Score:2)
Even on a newer system, and though I rarely use OOfice it I turned off Java and changed some other settings to speed it up a bit - I really do think that the default settings are silly.
That said my not particularly powerful desktop runs multiple simultaneous KDE and Gnome sessions (using older PCs as terminals) with fairly heavy apps runnin
ASUS? (Score:2)
Are you having scrolling difficulties, too? (Score:2)
are you having hallucinations? (Score:2)
The article on Newsforge does not mention ASUS.
(However, going one link further, R-Cubed's site does say "built on ASUS", but leaves open the question of whether they changed the machine in any way.)
Stripped down... it's a terrible laptop. (Score:2, Insightful)
It's a Centrino based system. Which means Intel Pentium M or Celeron Pentium M at 1.6 GHz or better and SpeedStep, Intel chipset, Intel WiFi. All supported, so we're good. Everything lines up nicely with much of everything... but there's a few bits tha
Re:Stripped down... it's a terrible laptop. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Stripped down... it's a terrible laptop. (Score:2)
Pro for Linux: Doesn't crash as often, has fine-grained seperation between OS and UI, is much faster and for a professional, better to maintain. Has actual user seperation, limiting damage by viruses. Holes are plugged faster.
Con for Linux: OpenGL card support isn't quite up to par in all but NVidia chipsets. Need binary drivers, which sometimes lag behind OSS UI's, for faster performance in video. Only a few mainstream games (including id Softwa
Re:Stripped down... it's a terrible laptop. (Score:2)
It's Jon Carmack who's said that.
Re:Stripped down... it's a terrible laptop. (Score:2)
Re:Stripped down... it's a terrible laptop. (Score:4, Informative)
Bzzt, wrong! Intel cards do support OpenGL, just not spectacularly. Here I am running XGL on one to prove it...
Re:Stripped down... it's a terrible laptop. (Score:4, Interesting)
Second, the graphics memory is shared, but so what? That does matter if you're playing heavy duty games, but if your laptop use consists mainly of Web browsing, email, and Vim usage (as is true for my usage) then it doesn't matter if your memory is shared. If that's a real concern, throw an extra 512MB of RAM in there, which is still cheaper than going for a dedicated GPU.
Third, yes, the screen is only 1024x768, but that also means it's small. The laptop is light and fits easily in my bag. Compare that to 1400x1050, which means widescreen and it means having a bigger panel. It's fine if you want that, but to some people portability is more important than screen real estate.
Fourth, happiness might be doubling up on 9-cell batteries, but to me, happiness is not having to carry two batteries. Weight, weight, weight.
In short, the laptop is made for someone with basic computing needs who values portability over power. It's not a gamers' notebook. That doesn't make it a "terrible" notebook, it just makes it a notebook not suited to everyone's needs. The same is true of one of those XPS monsters with a huge screen, high resolution, and dedicated GPU: it's a hulking machine that weighs several pounds more. That doesn't make it a "terrible" notebook, even if it does make it a notebook that I wouldn't buy.
Re:Stripped down... it's a terrible laptop. (Score:2)
Well, first off resolution != size, if you look at some of the high-end HDTV cameras you have a 7" 1920x1080 LCD display. The important part is what defines the size of a laptop, my impression is that the
Hot Item? (Score:5, Funny)
Some discrepancy. . . (Score:2, Insightful)
And later. . .
Umm excuse me? One look at the companies product page yields:
I can only draw one conclusion: the reviewer must be lying! After all, who can you trust to know a laptop better than t
Re:Some discrepancy. . . (Score:2)
The actual manufacturer, Asus, who lists 3.3lb as the base wieght on their spec sheet.
As for the batter life, 2-2.5 hours is for the three cell 24Whr battery. The "up to 7.9" hours is with an optional (and significantly heavier) nine cell battery.
keyboard.. (Score:2)
Looks like someone took an ASUS laptop , slapped fedora on it , hey presto linux laptop..
Linux Pre-Loaded (Score:1)
http://linuxcertified.com/linux_laptops.html [linuxcertified.com]
XP? (Score:1)
where are the news? (Score:1)
The R Cubed Website (Score:1)
I need features!!!! (Score:1)
Re:Anonymous Coward (Score:2)
Re:Anonymous Coward (Score:1, Insightful)
However sometimes the community really does want to know about a new product of some kind. And I would think that Slashdot would care about the goings-ons in laptops sold with
Re:Same laptop for less (Score:2, Funny)
KFG