I’ve been wondering what name the industry is going to settle on for the new low-cost sub-laptop devices like the OLPC, the eeePC, the Classmate, and others. (These devices are generally smaller than a laptop, but bigger than a handheld. They often run Linux, though higher-priced versions with xp are also available. They generally run from $200-$400, making them a good fit for schools.)

HP has called theirs a mini-notebook.

The term UMPC (ultra-mobile PCs) does not apply to these devices, but rather to the very small (and very expensive) tablets that run Microsoft’s Origami OS.

I’ve recent seen these devices called ULPCs — ultra-low cost PCs. That’s a name that makes sense to me.

What's in a name?
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2 thoughts on “What's in a name?

  • May 14, 2008 at 2:49 pm
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    I would humbly suggest a better term: 4P Computing, where performance, power, portability, and price converge for developing world solutions.

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  • March 15, 2009 at 7:05 pm
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    This may not be revelant but i figured i’d post this anyway. If you’re using ubuntu 8.10 you may be in for some issues with the network manager. For some unknown reason it stops functioning. You will need to manually set you’re resolv.conf with your ISP’s DNS servers. That file is located in /etc/network/resolv.conf

    Reply

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