As laptops are getting cheaper they are becoming a preferable choice for everyone and people are going for them but these cheap laptops are no good to run latest Windows from Microsoft known as “Vista”. Vista do come in different version but still minimum requirement for even the basic version is way much higher then required by Windows XP or any other operating system.
Any one who would like to use Windows Vista needs atleast 1 GB RAM for normal performance and 2 GB RAM for pure performance but cheap laptops do not come with this much RAM. They mostly come with 512 MB RAM or 1 GB RAM at the most. So any one who would like to use Vista and have a cheap low memory laptop would need to purchase or upgrade its memory which would cost some extra money.
Many big companies like Dell, HP, Acer etc are selling Vista ready laptops which also do not have enough memory to run it decently as it eats a lot of system resources. A lot of Vista users have already moved to other operating systems such as Window XP and other Linux based operating system such as Ubuntu as they do not require high system configurations as Vista do and are easily operational on cheap laptops.
Dell who sells more low priced laptops then its premium laptops has already started offering a choice in operating systems to its new low-priced laptops customers. Dell has received a lot of positive feedback from its customers for offering this option and many other companies are also looking to offer the same choice to their customers.
So if look at the overall talk and reports it would be easy to see that Vista has already been kicked out as people who are buying/using cheap laptops prefer to either go with Windows XP or some Linux based Operating System.
Mary Lou Jepsen, former CTO of OLPC project who has started her own company called “Pixel Qi” aims to produce a $75 laptop which she calls “a next generation OLPC laptop”. Jespsen was a major contributor to OLPC project as she developed multimode screen for XO which is one of the most distinctive components of the laptops.
Jepsen’s 7.5” XO display supports two different display modes, 800×600 color mode and 1200×900 reflective black and white mode which is fully readable under direct sunlight and is also energy efficient as compared to other LCDs. Jepsen hope that in future her display technology can be used in phones, digital cameras and other kind of mobile devices and also she plans to commercially market her unique multi mode technique display technology that she developed for the OLPC XO laptop.
OLPC, a non-profit organization which is presently making low-cost laptops first aimed to make a $100 laptop but as the project went on price of each unit climbed from then $100 to present $188. Jepsen says that price of OLPC laptop would keep rising with the increase in manufacturing cost and the only way to bring down the overall manufacturing cost is to generate revenue from other commercial endeavors that would have positive impact on this project.
At Macworld conference & Expo in San Francisco, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs revealed the world’s slimmest notebook named Apple MacBook Air which weighs 1.36kg and is just 1.9 cm thick.
This notebook has standard 80 GB hard disk drive, 13.3 inch screen, 2 GB Ram but it does not have any CD or DVD drive. To use CD or DVD one needs to access it from another computer using its wireless connection capability. There is also an upgrade option of 64 GB solid flash-based drive instead of standard 80 GB hard disk drive.
MacBook Air is powered by one of the fastest Intel dual-core processors. Intel had to reduce the size of its processor by more then 60 percent which according to Intel chief executive Paul Otellini looked impossible in the beginning but still they managed to make this possible.
According to Jobs, MacBook Air features are inspired from Apple iPod and iPhone as this notebook uses a compact hard disk drive which is used in iPods and also it has a large multi-touch track pad that is presently used in iPhones.
Expected retail price of this master piece is $2,500 which would surely slim down one’s pocket.