Hot on the heels of Raon Digital’s apparent demise comes word that Everex US have shut their doors. Best known for the Cloudbook, a rebadge of VIA’s original Nanobook reference design that met with middling reviews and relative consumer apathy, the company had most recently revealed plans for a WiMAX version and a touchscreen model.
With the netbook segment over-saturated with options, it’s proving difficult for manufacturers to differentiate their machines. Sadly FIC’s 10.4-inch CW001, freshly revealed by the FCC, doesn’t quite manage it, with the same old Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz processor, up to 2GB of DDR2 RAM, 2.5-inch SATA-II hard-drive and an ExpressCard slot. Unfortunately, contrary to some reports, there’s no integrated optical drive (which would have at least given the CW001 something to crow about).
GPS manufacturer MiTAC will release an 8.9-inch netbook later this year, according to Wired, with a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor and the gOS 3 Gadgets Linux-based OS. The MiTAC MiStation will have a choice of SSD or HDD storage, together with Bluetooth, WiFi and optional GPS.
Sylvania have made a third stab at the netbook market and, since their rebranded Everex Cloudbook and g MESO models didn’t exactly set the world alight, they’re taking no chances and partnering with MSI this time around. Come the holidays you’ll be able to pick up the Sylvania MAGNI, a rebranded version of the MSI Wind, with a 10-inch display, 120GB hard-drive and 1GB of RAM.
Everex are planning to take on the ASUS Eee PC 1000-series with a new 10.2-inch budget ultraportable notebook, according to sources at the company’s manufacturing partner FIC. The leak suggests that the devices will include 3G WWAN connectivity with WiMAX an option; a decision on processor has obviously not been made, as both Intel’s Atom or a rival from VIA’s stable have been mentioned. It will be joined by new 8.9-inch ultraportables, adding WiMAX to the Cloudbook range.
VIA has unveiled its latest ultraportable notebook reference design, the OpenBook mini-note, intended to promote its C7-M ULV based Ultra Mobile Platform. Combining the low-voltage and economical processor with the company’s own VX800 digital media IGP chipset, the OpenBook has an 8.9-inch screen and a choice of WiMAX, HSDPA and EV-DO/W-CDMA modules for mobile connectivity. The OpenBook also has dual 2-megapixel webcams (internal and on the outer lid) together with up to 2GB of RAM, which should cater reasonably for the choice of Vista Basic, XP or various Linux flavors.
Well, a lot has happened this past week and this is just a little recap for those of you that aren’t big fans of back reading through pages of articles. I highly recommend you at least skim through and make sure there isn’t something really interesting that you missed, but here’s a brief overview.
This particular CloudBook model packs in an 8.9” WVGA display, a VIA C7-M ULV processor, WiFi b/g, Bluetooth, GPS, and 2x 2MP webcams. But the most important feature is the addition of support for Sprint’s upcoming Xohm WiMAX network.
Desktops starting with Dell have begun being sold with Linux pre-installed, almost all of the new UMPC Eee-like notebooks that are selling in extremely large numbers these days are coming with Linux pre-installed, Everex is pushing Linux desktops through Wal-Mart, and lots of new computers are getting SLED certified or some other form of Linux certification. Add to that the increased popularity of all things Linux, the increasing ease of use of Linux as a desktop operating system and it has me wondering why there hasn’t been a spike in Linux’s market share?
Linux couldn’t even beat out Windows 98 until sometime between August 20th and August 30th of last year according to W3Counter. According to that same site, since the 10th of May last year until the 29th of February this year Linux has only seen a .76% increase in its market share, which still only brings it up to a market share of 2.01%.
So Henry Kingman got his hands on both an Everex CloudBook and a Zonbu Zonbook and pitted them against each other. First, let’s give a quick run down of their similarities, they are both made by Everex, they both run Linux, and they both run it on Via C7-M processors, that’s pretty much where it ends.
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