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Mirus' $199 Linux PC keeps the trend alive, lands at Sears
For those who haven't been paying attention, the market for sub-$200 (or value-priced, if you will) rigs seems to be on quite the rise. Hot on the heels of the Everex gPC and the recently announced Shuttle KPC comes a $199 Linux box from Mirus Innovations. Available now at Sears.com, this understandably lackluster machine houses a borderline ancient 1.6GHz Intel Celeron 420 processor, a slightly more respectable 1GB of RAM, 80GB hard drive, a CD-RW drive, 56k modem, an Ethernet jack and a 15-in-1 multicard reader. Furthermore, you'll also get a set of speakers, a keyboard / mouse bundled in, and Freespire 2.0 pre-installed. Ready to delve into the bargain basement PC arena? Hope you've got about three bills sitting around, as this one only becomes $199 after an oh-so-dreaded mail-in rebate returns.
CE-Oh no he didn't! Part XLI: Sun's James Eagleton says Microsoft guilty of "patent terrorism"
In the most recent round of the Microsoft vs. Linux debate, Sun's systems product manager James Eagleton lobs the latest volley, stating that the Redmond-based software giant's business tactics amount to "patent terrorism," and that the current climate it's created is akin to a "cold war." Eagleton goes on to offer that Sun and even IBM have much fairer approaches to patent protection which don't go against "the spirit of innovation," in the way he claims Microsoft's policies do. If the dubious arrangements Microsoft has agreed upon with Novell and Linspire didn't convince you that something was rotten in the state of Washington, comments like sour-grapes-Eagleton's should at least make you take pause.[Via The Inquirer]
Ubuntu, Red Hat, and Microsoft: not really buddies
If you keep abreast of technology news (and we know you do!) then you've surely been following the latest chapter of the Microsoft vs. Linux struggle, wherein Microsoft gets Novell, Linspire and Xandros to put pen to paper on shadowy and vaguely suspicious agreements concerning "interoperability" and "indemnification", more than likely stemming from the 235 undisclosed patents Redmond claims Linux infringes upon. While some have bent to the will of Ballmer and Co., Red Hat and Canonical (makers of Ubuntu) are holding their ground. Red Hat says it will not pay "innovation tax" to Microsoft, while Canonical's Mark Shuttleworth more poetically describes the aforementioned deals as, "Trinkets in exchange for air kisses." As far as we can tell, that's the kind of talk that immediately precedes a bar brawl.[Via Digg]
Microsoft partners with Linspire for increased interoperability
Microsoft's announced a new partnership with Linspire that'll see the two companies work together to ensure greater interoperability between the two operating systems, as well provide some all-important intellectual property assurance. Among other things, that'll apparently see various measures put in place to increase document compatibility between Microsoft Office and OpenOffice, along with the inclusion of Windows Media 10 audio and video codecs in future releases of Linspire, increased compatibility between instant messaging clients, and the licensing of Microsoft TrueType fonts to Linspire. Linspire users will also soon find Windows Live Search as their default option. To round out the deal, Microsoft and Linspire have also worked together on a framework to provide so-called patent covenants from Microsoft, which customers will apparently be able to acquire for a little extra peace of mind, and no doubt a little extra cash.
Comparing iTunes to diet soda
Mr. Linspire himself, Michael Robertson, posted a little ditty about his love of diet soda. He then compares the short shelf-life of diet soda (Aspartame, in particular, doesn't last long) to the potentially limited life span of any DRM'ed music. His case is mycokemusic.com, which just went away once the iTunes invaded the UK. But he predictably turns his gaze to iTunes, the juggernaut of online music. The logic goes, DRM limits you, forces restrictions, which could hamper or completely invalidate your music collection someday. Right now, if you purchased a bunch of songs on iTunes and wanted to switch from an iPod to something else (people tell me others do in fact make portable music players), you would have to burn and re-rip your music as a bunch of MP3's. Or re-buy them all. Sounds like fun, huh? About as much fun as me copying the giant boxes of audio cassettes I have in the garage onto my hard drive, splitting up the tracks, labeling them, and storing them indefinitely. Always nice to see technology making life easier for us... The eternal question: DRM good or DRM bad? If Michael had his way, we'd all be rockin' to MP3's sans restrictions. But then, I don't see a lot of music labels knocking on his door...
The Mini koobox: AOpen's MiniPC in disguise
What do you do when you're a maker of just another mini PC? Relaunch under a new name of course. Calling itself the "first small form-factor Linux machine on the market" (which isn't even remotely true) the Linspire Mini Koobox is just the AOpen MiniPC running Linspire's flavor of Linux, all bundled up and shoved out the door of Mirus Innovations. Unfortunately, this ain't the Core Duo MiniPC CNET was so impressed with, this dog brings a 1.5GHz CeleronM 370 proc, 256MB DDR2 RAM, a 40GB, 5400RPM disk, slot loading DVD combo drive, and the usual suite of USB 2.0, Firewire, and media-outs. In fact, this is nearly the same box AOpen was touting last year only this time without the Mac mini, ehem, inspired dress. Priced at $400, they throw in speakers, a mouse, and keyboard this time and maybe even a little whine.[Via PRNewswire]
