Linutop, anyone buy one yet?

[NoiseFreeGuy]

The Linutop is finally out.
In Europe only, for the time being.
Has anyone here picked one up?

http://www.linutop.com/shop/?language=


I'm waiting for the North American version (will have the correct power supply).

I'm hoping that it will be plug'n play.
Linux will be a new experience for me but I'm open to it.
I'll be using it in the kitchen to quickly check e-mail and do very light web-browsing. That's about it.

It's supposed to be COMPLETELY SILENT.

[aidanjm2004]

looks really interesting. I'd give it a go, if it comes to Australia.

it is very petite:

http://www.linutop.com/images/linutop_desk_USBl.jpg

Hardware

[Only 6W ] AMD Geode LX700 (x86)
256 MB RAM
4x USB 2.0 ports
Audio in & out
100baseT Ethernet
VGA output
Size: 9.3 x 2.7 x 15 cm
Power: DC in 9V - 1,5A
Weight: 280 gr

Storage
Only external: Linutop comes with a 1 GB USB key containing the operating system and softwares.

Software
Linutop comes with xubuntu, customized for Linutop, including :
Firefox webbrowser
Gaim instant messaging
Abiword word processor

[butters]

The Linutop is finally out.

I'm hoping that it will be plug'n play.
Linux will be a new experience for me but I'm open to it.
I'll be using it in the kitchen to quickly check e-mail and do very light web-browsing. That's about it.

It's supposed to be COMPLETELY SILENT.

I think you'll be quite pleased. Almost any USB device is plug-n-play on Linux, with the possibly exception of a few PTP cameras and printers (although most are supported). You never need to install drivers for anything. If it's supported, you already have them on your system. If not, you're screwed, and you should write a friendly email to the hardware vendor. Include this link, so they have no reasonable excuses:

http://lkml.org/lkml/2007/1/29/345

This machine comes with Xubuntu, which is a flavor of Ubuntu Linux that comes with the lightweight XFCE desktop environment. Recent versions of XFCE include the Thunar filemanager, which is as slick as it is simple. The software repositories contain about 20,000 software packages that you can install through a simple GUI interface (Synaptic) or an even simpler GUI interface (Add/Remove Software), or by clicking on a .deb file you find on the web... or soon, an even simpler web interface (Click-n-Run) where you can also buy proprietary software.

However, you will probably need more than 1GB of storage to install much software on this puppy. I would get an 8GB flash drive for under $60USD and copy everything onto that. Then you can install lots of free software, including the latest versions of GNOME or KDE. They'll run with 256MB of RAM, but you'll probably need to set aside 512MB (max) for use by the swap file.

Unfortunately, you won't be able to use the 3D-accelerated compositing windows managers (Compiz and Beryl) with such meager hardware. This stuff is so much fun. I'm currently playing around with kiba-dock, which is an OSX-style dock applet, but with a built-in physics engine than subjects the icons to forces of gravity, friction, and elasticity. It's eye-candy for the sake of eye-candy, but we need something to do while the Windows folks still think Linux is difficult and unimpressive. If you didn't get the "Wow" you were expecting from Vista, come join our free software community, where you couldn't possibly hope to keep up with all of the innovation (trust me, I've tried).

[Aris]

if they come to the states, i'll buy one.

[NoiseFreeGuy]

The Linutop is finally out.

I think you'll be quite pleased. Almost any USB device is plug-n-play on Linux, with the possibly exception of a few PTP cameras and printers (although most are supported). You never need to install drivers for anything. If it's supported, you already have them on your system. If not, you're screwed, and you should write a friendly email to the hardware vendor. Include this link, so they have no reasonable excuses:

Thanks butters you sound like you have a lot of experience with Linux already.
As long as I don't have to muck around with the operating system too much I'll be open to it. But I don't have the patience that I once had with computers years ago.
I want to plug it in and have it work out of the box.

Adding bigger USB flashcards won't be a problem for me.
They made a last minute design change with the Linutop. They decided to go with an external operating system/USB key.

I guess they reasoned it would be easier this way to make changes and to port your personal settings with you. The system apparently will be used a lot in libraries and such.

[NoiseFreeGuy]

if they come to the states, i'll buy one.

If they keep to their schedule this time, the North American version should be out in May. Can you wait that long?

[NoiseFreeGuy]

if they come to the states, i'll buy one.

If they keep to their schedule this time, the North American version should be out in May. Can you wait that long?

Bump....

Well these units have been out for quite a few months now.
I'm still thinking of picking one up.

Has anyone here bought one or tried one out?
They're *completely* silent.

Just for e-mail and light web browsing.

[jessekopelman]

Eh, total price with delivery to US or Canada is E340. That's $460! There are similar, less expensive, domestic options. Man, I remember when a Euro was only worth 85 cents . . .

[NoiseFreeGuy]

Eh, total price with delivery to US or Canada is E340. That's $460! There are similar, less expensive, domestic options. Man, I remember when a Euro was only worth 85 cents . . .

OK, I'm game.

What are the "similar, less expensive, domestic options"?

Completely silent, no hard drive etc. etc.

[jessekopelman]

OK, I'm game.

What are the "similar, less expensive, domestic options"?

Completely silent, no hard drive etc. etc.

Buy this and this and this then add 512 MB of RAM and a good quality 2 GB CF card. I'd probably buy a FanMate too, just in case I needed help making the case fan inaudible. All that would cost me $347.62, including shipping to Massachusetts, from Newegg. I'd have twice the RAM and twice the storage that comes with the Linutop while spending $100 less, but I would have to install and configure a Linux distro myself. There are tweaks that might let me save another $50, especially if it turns out that the MB I chose supports booting from USB, but I think you get the idea.

[jessekopelman]

Also, if we want to just look at ready made systems; for $450 I'd be looking at used G4 Mac Minis or low-end/used notebooks. Maybe neither is completely silent but both are pretty close (especially when only taxed to the level of a Geode LX700) and both give you a great deal more flexibility. With the laptop you even get a "free" monitor, keyboard, and "mouse" and both get you a "free" optical drive.

There is also the Asus Eee PC, which should be available in a few weeks. It may be bigger than a Linutop, but it doubles as a fully functional sub-notebook and will be less that $300. Even if the price were the same I'd rather have this.

[z3r0]

May I point you in the general direction of the decTop, admittedly it does ship with a hard drive but it could always be replaced.
Also here is a guide for installing ubuntu linux on the decTOP.
If you want something with a little less hacking involved to get it running there is also the Koolu, it ships with Ubuntu pre-installed.
And finally there is also the Fit-pc.

[NoiseFreeGuy]

What are the "similar, less expensive, domestic options"?

Completely silent, no hard drive etc. etc.

Buy this and this and this then add 512 MB of RAM and a good quality 2 GB CF card. I

1. Too much mucking around.
2. When everything is put together including OS, prices are not that far apart.
3. Has HD, which is not noise-free.
4. Reviewers had problems with the components you listed.

Other than that, it looks perfectly acceptable!

[NoiseFreeGuy]

May I point you in the general direction of the decTop, admittedly it does ship with a hard drive but it could always be replaced.
...
And finally there is also the Fit-pc.

Unfortunately they've got HD's, which the completely silent Linutop does not.

[jessekopelman]

What are the "similar, less expensive, domestic options"?

Completely silent, no hard drive etc. etc.

Buy this and this and this then add 512 MB of RAM and a good quality 2 GB CF card. I

1. Too much mucking around.
2. When everything is put together including OS, prices are not that far apart.
3. Has HD, which is not noise-free.
4. Reviewers had problems with the components you listed.

Other than that, it looks perfectly acceptable!

No HD! The parts I spec'd included a CF-IDE adapter and a 2GB CF card to use as your storage. Reviewers on Newegg have problems with everything. Like the general population a sizable percentage of them are stupid. I agree it's more work than buying a pre-assembled system, but that's the fun part for many people. Anyway, prices are quite far about -- $350 is more than 20% less than $450 and my configuration had double RAM and double storage. Also, I'm also pretty sure you could forgo the CF-IDE adapter and just use a USB flash drive to boot, like with the Linutop. Going that way with just 256MB RAM and a 1GB USB fob, I bet my configuration is < $300, which would be more than 30% less than the Linutop.

Anyway, if you really want pre-assembled why not just order the Asus Eee PC once it's available? All solid state like the Linutop with the added benefits of costing much less and being a functional notebook PC.

[NoiseFreeGuy]

No HD! The parts I spec'd included a CF-IDE adapter and a 2GB CF card to use as your storage. ... I bet my configuration is < $300, which would be more than 30% less than the Linutop.

Anyway, if you really want pre-assembled why not just order the Asus Eee PC once it's available? All solid state like the Linutop with the added benefits of costing much less and being a functional notebook PC.

Thanks Jesse, I will have to take a closer look now at the system you're suggesting, seeing as it doesn't have a HD. Have you built it or is it something you're thinking about building?

As for the Asus Eee, I just did some reading up on it and discovered after much digging around, that although it doesn't have a HD it does have a fan and that would drive me batty.

[jessekopelman]

Thanks Jesse, I will have to take a closer look now at the system you're suggesting, seeing as it doesn't have a HD. Have you built it or is it something you're thinking about building?

As for the Asus Eee, I just did some reading up on it and discovered after much digging around, that although it doesn't have a HD it does have a fan and that would drive me batty.

Well, what I quoted to you has a fan too -- albeit one that you should be able to effectively silence with a FanMate.

Do you really think the fan in the Eee PC would come on very often? The fan in my ThinkPad only comes on when the system is under heavy load. I just can't see web surfing and e-mail leading to much use of the fan . . .

Anyway, sometimes you have to pay to get what you really want. It seems like the Linutop exactly meets your criteria so maybe it is worth it to you. Really, the only problems with it are that it must be shipped international and the dollar is so damn week against the euro right now. My original point was that for me, and most people I think, it's just not worth the money. However, it seems like it may very well be just what you want and thus worth the price.

[jaganath]

I'm pretty sure one could build a fanless, HD-less SFF PC for less than ~300 euros if it's just for email and webbrowsing. sempy 3200, some big-ass passive heatsink, any mATX board with BIOS undervolting, and use DamnSmallLinux on a USB key or some such.

[jessekopelman]

I'm pretty sure one could build a fanless, HD-less SFF PC for less than ~300 euros if it's just for email and webbrowsing. sempy 3200, some big-ass passive heatsink, any mATX board with BIOS undervolting, and use DamnSmallLinux on a USB key or some such.

I pretty much listed the ingredients for doing just that, a few posts up. Although I used a Via mini-ITX board for true SFF joy. Also, I still think you need a case fan, albeit one moving slow enough to be inaudible.

Anway, have you seen that Linutop? It's almost small enough to go on a key ring! I don't think you can really consider µATX to be SFF. In my book SFF means the largest dimension is 12". One of the smallest µATX cases is the NSK3300/3400/3480 and that is still more than 12" in two of the three dimensions. Anyway, the real problem is that for a real SFF you have no room for a serious heatsink. This means if you want passive you need a mobile chip or a Via or Geode. A cheap way to do this right now is to buy the Shuttle 915 box that takes the Pentium M ($150 on Newegg) and get a Pentium M off eBay for < $40. Still, while this is certainly a SFF, it still dwarfs a Linutop. Also, it still should have a case fan, but at least that fan could be a 5V Nexus 92mm which would be pretty damn hard to hear from more than a few inches away.

[NoiseFreeGuy]

I pretty much listed the ingredients for doing just that, a few posts up. Although I used a Via mini-ITX board for true SFF joy. Also, I still think you need a case fan, albeit one moving slow enough to be inaudible.

...A cheap way to do this right now is to buy the Shuttle 915 box that takes the Pentium M ($150 on Newegg) and get a Pentium M off eBay for < $40. Still, while this is certainly a SFF, it still dwarfs a Linutop. Also, it still should have a case fan, but at least that fan could be a 5V Nexus 92mm which would be pretty damn hard to hear from more than a few inches away.

Thanks Jag and Jesse for these great ideas.
I built my P-M 'silent' rig back in January '07 which I'm extremely pleased with.

I was thinking of picking up the Linutop as a second 'kitchen computer'
for e-mail and light web-browsing.
Its small footprint, and totally silent billing is what impressed me the most.
Also the fact that it's prebuilt.

Although it wasn't difficult to build my system, it did take a bit of digging around for parts, waiting for them to arrive etc. etc.
An assembled prebuilt is appealing because you have minimal hassles.

But I will keep your suggestions in mind.