Simmbook Netbook for Emerging Markets
IBM and Indian company Simmtronics are marketing their 10" netbook at a cost under $200.
The Simmbook netbook with a 10.1" screen at 1024 x 600 pixels (VSVGA) works with the Atom N270 processor (1.6 GHz and 533 MHz FSB), a GByte of DDR2 RAM (maximum 2 GBytes with a slot) and a 160-GByte SATA hard drive. Along with these are a 1.3 megapixel camera, a 3-in-1 (MMC/SD/MS/MS Pro) card reader (some manufacturers would call it 4-in-1), and three USB 2.0 ports. The 1.2 kilogram device also includes a Kensington locking port, but is rather sluggish in LAN (10/100 Ethernet controller) and wireless (802.11b/g) modes. Preinstalled next to Ubuntu Linux is the IBM Client for Smart Work, with Lotus Symphony and access to IBMs LotusLive cloud-based collaboration tool. Of course, nothing would prevent a user from buying additional Lotus applications.
The product is intended to fill the gap between low cost and performance with its equipment and preinstalled apps. The partners are targeting the product to small businesses, non-profits and educational institutions that cannot otherwise afford computerized collaboration resources. The Simmbook is available through an online order form currently in India, African countries, Thailand and Vietnam. IBM and Simmtronics, who had the netbook certified at Canonical for Ubuntu, are looking for additional partners to market the netbook in other countries at a competitive price.
Comments
comments powered by DisqusIssue 210/2018
Buy this issue as a PDF
News
-
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.5 Released
The latest release is focused on hybrid cloud.
-
Microsoft Releases a Linux-Based OS
The company is building a new IoT environment powered by Linux.
-
Solomon Hykes Leaves Docker
In a surprise move, Solomon Hykes, the creator of Docker has left the company.
-
Red Hat Celebrates 25th Anniversary with a New Code Portal
The company announces a GitHub page with links to source code for all its projects
-
Gnome 3.28 Released
The latest GNOME rolls out with better contact management and new features for handling virtual machines.
-
Install Firefox in a Snap on Linux
Mozilla has picked the Snap package system to deliver its application to Linux users.
-
OpenStack Queens Released
The new release comes with new features for mission critical workloads.
-
Kali Linux Comes to Windows
The Kali Linux developers even managed to run full blown XFCE desktop via WSL.
-
Ubuntu to Start Collecting Some Data with Ubuntu 18.04
It will be an ‘opt-out’ feature.
-
CNCF Illuminates Serverless Vision
The Cloud Native Computing Foundation announces a paper describing their model for a serverless ecosystem.
Wrong information
Everyone placing this article have been copying the wrong info without checking the facts.
The 160G + 1GB RAM is not sub-$200. With shipping and tax the 512MB, 8GB HDD $190 version is actually $270.
I have emailed IBM and Canonical for some info in South Africa. IBM did not know what I was talking about and Canonical said I had to buy direct from Simmtronics (incl the tax and shipping).
So please stop proclaiming this netbook as sub-$200 for the 3rd-world.