HP’s first Mini netbook to come running Linux – the Mini 110 – has landed in Australia for the bargain price of $499, although you’ll want to upgrade the storage on it pretty quickly.
The Mini 110 comes in two main iterations – the Linux powered version which comes with 16GB of flash storage, and the XP powered version with a 160GB HDD. Both have the latest Atom N280 1.66GHz processor, 1GB RAM and a 10.1-inch screen. However, the XP version will set you back $699 compared to the $499 for the Linux version.
The HD video card that we heard about with the US release seems to be an optional extra, as is a 6-cell battery and cases to match the three different available colours.
I love the fact that we’re starting to get 10-inch netbooks for under $500, but I do wish the Linux version had more than 16GB of storage. You’ll probably want to upgrade that as quickly as possible, I’d imagine.
[HP]
Bob Hepple
Monday, July 13, 2009 at 1:45 PMLike I said here before, just get yourself a Kogan Agora (1Gb/160Gb/10″ screen) for $499 – with linux pre-installed!!!!
I’m just a satisfied customer; no other affiliation with Kogan!!!
rm
Monday, July 13, 2009 at 2:11 PMNo need to increase the storage for some people – I run an Asus eee 701 with Ubuntu Netbook Remix and I have a 4GB hard drive.
Nathan
Monday, July 13, 2009 at 2:24 PMForgive my ignorance but how do the SSD drives interface with the motherboard? Is it IDE or a proprietry connection? Just wondering if you could replace the SSD with an IDE drive?
Bob Hepple
Monday, July 13, 2009 at 2:56 PMActually there seems to be some devilish conspiracy that prevents mfrs from shipping linux on anything but crippled configurations ie if they want to ship XL on _anything_ then they have to follow a rule such as “only ship linux on a machine that can’t run XL.”
I wonder if that’s legal or actually contra competition law – ACCC anyone?
Kogan can do it because they don’t ship MS on _anything_.
Kieran
Monday, July 13, 2009 at 6:55 PMIt’s a shame that HP’s site is so bad – there doesn’t seem to be a way to buy it!
john
Tuesday, July 14, 2009 at 5:22 PMI can’t find anywhere you can buy it either, I tried shopbot, the hp site and some other online retailers that ship hp laptops and can’t find any sign of it.
Tel
Friday, July 17, 2009 at 9:16 AMI too bought a Kogan Agora, and it has a fraction more screen space (1024×600), same 1.6G Atom, almost identical overall build layout to the HP except that the arrow keys a a bit bigger on the Kogan (better for games I guess) and the Kogan puts the touchpad buttons under the touchpad, rather than to the sides of it.
Kogan went with a 160G SATA drive, with an SD card reader on the side.
When I looked at the ACPI readings in Ubuntu Linux, I was impressed at how good the atom chip is with this whole laptop claiming to run at a mere 1 Watt! However, someone has messed up the ACPI somewhere, it really runs closer to 13 Watts normal operating power, which is still quite decent.