You can buy the ultra-small Fit-PC
Remember my fit-PC post of a few days ago, in which the announcement of an ultra-small, somewhat-reasonably price, Linux-running PC wasn't accompanied by a working link on where and how to buy it?
Well, reader ludovicus came through with a working link at which to purchase the fit-PC in the U.S. and Canada. (Click here for worldwide shipping).
With the AMD Geode LX800 processor (500MHz), 512 MB of RAM, built-in WiFi, a 60 GB hard drive and preinstalled with Ubuntu 8.04 and Gentoo 2008.1 in a dual-boot configuration, the fit-PC Slim is $295 plus $20 shipping, also known as $315. (I'm not sure why more than a few users would want to dual-boot Ubuntu and Gentoo; I'd rather have one or the other.)
When compared to other small-PC offerings, the fit-PC comes out rather well, given its specs. Having the hard drive, half-megabyte of RAM and WiFi certainly puts it ahead of the competition. The Linutop 2 (pictured at right) has a faster AMD Geode processor (800 MHz), and 1 GB internal flash memory instead of a traditional hard drive (which one is preferable depends on your application). No WiFi, either. Linutop does its own Ubuntu-based distro which fits on the 1 GB flash chip and gives you 400 MB to spare for your files.
The problem with Linutop: It costs 280 euros, which is well north of $500.
The fit-PC is small and fanless, but some might be cautious about running a full Linux (or Windows) desktop in 500 MHz of CPU. Having the 512 MB of RAM (as opposed to 256 or 128 MB) will really help speed things up, but a test of this box is definitely in order. If the overall hardware (including video and sound) is good, performance should be acceptable. The problem with more CPU is the need for more power — and the generation of much additional heat.
In regards to what will and won't run on the fit-PC, start here. As far as what will run and how well, I'd love for Debian to be farther along.
The fit-PC box:
More fit-PC:
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Steven Rosenberg aims to learn what he does not know. He writes about it here.
Steven Rosenberg aims to learn what he does not know. He writes about it here.
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