I’ve got an old Dell L400 laptop that’s really starting to show it’s age as of late so I’ve been thinking of trying to find a replacement, but even at the low prices laptops tend to have these days nothing was within my budget range. Then I saw an entry on Engdaget about an upcoming laptop called the Medison Celebrity that’ll go for the rather affordable price of $150.
Medison, a Swedish consulting company, has just unveiled its Medison Celebrity laptop, which sports standard hardware, a 14-inch WXGA screen, an optimized Fedora Linux install, and a downright criminal $150 pricetag. Sure, you’re not going to be launching Crysis on this thing anytime soon, with a 1.5GHz Celeron processor, 256MB of RAM, and VIA PN800 integrated graphics, but the casual user should find plenty to keep them occupied, and there’s room for Windows XP if you want to pony up for a license—which at retail costs more than the laptop itself. There’s 40GB of storage, a CD / DVD combo drive, 802.11g WiFi, and even what looks to be a built-in webcam in the pictures.
That’s not too shabby a setup for $150. They plan on introducing additional models in the months to come and the current one comes with a one year warranty. I don’t know much about Medison so I have no idea what the failure rate for these laptops might be nor do I know if you have to send your machine back to Sweden for any warranty work that it might need, but that price is very tempting. If the machines end up being halfway decent and the support isn’t too much of a pain in the ass then this could be an excellent deal. I’ll have to dig around some more to see if I can find out if anyone has one already and is happy with it.
Have you seen the laptop for the One Laptop per Child project?
I wouldn’t count on them being able to ship any notebooks though. There are lots of unclear issues regarding this company. Looks like all the customers are going to have to wait a lot longer for their notebook than 4-6 weeks.
We’ll see. I just ordered one, and will let you know what happens. I hope it’s not a scam…
Color me skeptical. Intel and OLPC have been working on this for years, and they get scooped by a shady company?
I’ve been following the One Laptop per Child project, but I was under the impression it wasn’t something I’d be able to partake of.
I think you’d have to be a priest or something.
What about God, that’s got to count for something?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6679431.stm Nope, sorry Webs, I’d say God has to sit on the sidelines for this one. He’s outgunned.
As a fedora user I hope this is real. Hell the more people with Linux the better. As for the price it seems about right for the hardware and the OS is free so I don’t see anything out of the norm.
p.s. When you get it google fedora “y” tricks and tips (with “y” as your release number).
One more thing INSTALL “KYUM” you won’t regret it.
How’d you pull that one off, zilch? I just tried, and their payment processor’s website karked out on me. Twice. And you can’t submit an issue ticket unless you have a login. If this a scam, it’s a pretty inept one. Screw it, I’m just gonna beg/borrow a laptop for vacation.
cubiclegrrl, while it took three tries, the order finally got through. Remains to be seen if this is just vaporware, though…
Hate to say this, but I heard about this through Slashdot a couple of days ago:
http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/25/1519256
Let’s just say that it doesn’t look good. At all.
Their web site is just a link to what you have.
I don’t trust it myself, but I hope I’m wrong. On the plus side you can get your money back from 2checkout.
On the topic of OLPC:
Nonprofit may launch $350 laptop by Christmas
Good news, except for the price.
That IS god news. Not to worry, market forces will “help” them adjust the price.
For more information on this possible scam, visit: http://medisonscam.blogspot.com/