ARM-powered Ubuntu 'Webbook" Launches in South Africa

[randomizer]

Vodafone officially launches its Ubuntu-based netbook in South Africa today, which will be distributed by local telco Vodacom.

ARM-powered Ubuntu 'Webbook" Launches in South Africa : Read more

 

[de5_Roy]

price is too high for a netbook with 800 mhz cpu, 512 mb ddr2(OLD) ram, 4 gb flash storage. there are $130 laptops and $60 tablets. 🙁

 

[Stardude82]

Actually, that's a pretty good deal considering you pay $10/month for that data plan in the States...

 

[cookoy]

that's $50 for 100mb per month for 12 months, ~$5/month. Still wouldn't buy anything with less than 2gb ram and 16gb storage.

 

[randomizer]

[citation][nom]de5_roy[/nom]there are $130 laptops and $60 tablets.[/citation]
In South Africa?

 

[de5_Roy]

no. not in south africa. and those two don't have bundled data plans.

 

[cats_Paw]

I thought the idea was to make faster and cheaper devices, not slower...

 

[feeddagoat]

[citation][nom]cookoy[/nom]that's $50 for 100mb per month for 12 months, ~$5/month. Still wouldn't buy anything with less than 2gb ram and 16gb storage.[/citation]
[citation][nom]cats_paw[/nom]I thought the idea was to make faster and cheaper devices, not slower...[/citation]
The market its aimed at will be happy to even have a laptop never mind a fast one. Nothing like looking a gift horse in the mouth.

 

[Pherule]

I wonder if there's an option to get one without the data plan. With the data plan I suspect the netbook will be useless to many people as far as price goes. Too bad about the 4GB storage. Nice that it's flash, but really, you can't do much with 4GB nowadays.

100MB per month - almost makes you wonder if they are on drugs. 5GB per month should be the bare minimum for that price.

 

[alidan]

[citation][nom]de5_roy[/nom]price is too high for a netbook with 800 mhz cpu, 512 mb ddr2(OLD) ram, 4 gb flash storage. there are $130 laptops and $60 tablets.[/citation]

that arm will last you how long though?
ddr2 or ddr3, doesnt really matter at all, speed wise, these aren't high powered machines and 512 of ddr2 was probably cheaper than a gig of 3
4gb flash is good enough for the os to boot, keep in mind, not ment for storage, just getting online, in touch with people and such

 

[vaughn2k]

I want one.

 

[nikorr]

Ubuntu 😎

 

[Guest]

It will be interesting to see how it does, sounds like something designed in the boardroom, I live in South Africa but would certainly not presume to speak for the poor. Are poor people more or less likely to spend their hard-earned cash on old, outdated, slow, limited devices? We will see.

 

[Guest]

This is not "the first [netbbok] to ship with a mainstream Linux distribution compiled for the ARM architecture, rather than x86", Genesi and Hercules have a similar one based on the Efika MX515.

 

[Guest]

Do not confuse Rands with any other currency such as Pounds or Dollars.

R1499 = £117/$185

This may seem a lot, but when compared to your salary, it is minute!

South Africa has some of the highest tech and car prices in the world. It produces most of its own cars, Imports are taxed heavily to protect the Internal Manufacturing market. Here in the uk, a 15yr old car generally ends in the Scrap Yard, In SA It will still be worth a few Thousand Pounds!

This Laptop is CHEAP in SA Standards! I see a large population who may just be able to stretch to this and become connected!

 

[spookie]

It realy needs a better CPU!
here in South Africa everything is over priced... especially Vodacom internet!! for R200 (R8.09/$ so that's roughly $25) you can barely get 4GB on vodacom. There is another network where you can get 10GB for the same price

 

[indian-art]

Now that Ubuntu has been ported so well to ARM laptops, I request Mark to bring it to tablets like Aakash. http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/special-videos/the-story-behind-indias-dirt-cheap-tablet-pc-aakash_602271.html

I completely agree with Mark when he says "Ubuntu’s founding principle is to remove the barriers of access to computing for everyone".

 

[spookie]

[citation][nom]moricon[/nom]Do not confuse Rands with any other currency such as Pounds or Dollars.R1499 = £117/$185This may seem a lot, but when compared to your salary, it is minute!South Africa has some of the highest tech and car prices in the world. It produces most of its own cars, Imports are taxed heavily to protect the Internal Manufacturing market. Here in the uk, a 15yr old car generally ends in the Scrap Yard, In SA It will still be worth a few Thousand Pounds!This Laptop is CHEAP in SA Standards! I see a large population who may just be able to stretch to this and become connected![/citation]
I agree on the overpriced part!! you can buy a car from Australia, ship it, and pay import tax, and it will still be cheaper than buying it here. Plus that car you buy in Aus comes out of the same factory (in South Africa) as the one you buy here

 

[randomizer]

[citation][nom]de5_roy[/nom]no. not in south africa.[/citation]
Then why did you bring it up when this is specifically talking about South Africa?

[citation][nom]Pherule[/nom]100MB per month - almost makes you wonder if they are on drugs. 5GB per month should be the bare minimum for that price.[/citation]

Again, consider the market. This is not for sale in the US. It would never sell there.

 

[de5_Roy]

Then why did you bring it up when this is specifically talking about South Africa?



Again, consider the market. This is not for sale in the US. It would never sell there.

i didn't mean to be off-topic.
once i tried to install ubuntu 11.04 from the live boot cd to a 4 gb flash drive, ubuntu stopped the installer and said it needed more than 4+ gb to install. the dvd version needed more than 14+ gb. so i got it to run from an 8 gb flash disk but it ran really slow (cpu was a 1.4 ghz celeron) one of the reason might be that i choose to encrypt the home folder(that option was selected already so i didn't change it).
i figured ubuntu should be run on a faster device and they deserved one for the price. may be the ubuntu on this netbook is a customized one, i'm not sure.

 

[sonofliberty08]

better go get the 10" ASUS EeePC with AMD C-50 fusion APU

 

[Guest]

it seems to be a Genesi Smartbook clone.