Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Transmeta

Where Would You Buy A Crusoe Laptop? 185

Posted by timothy from the slim-pickins dept.
Misha asks: "I have been following Transmeta's news briefs for a little while and besides the stock's constant decline, there seems to be some life to the Crusoe. This story indicates that a new Crusoe-based laptop is appearing in China. Does anyone actually own one or an equivalent from some other manufacturer? Could you please post a review? Pros and cons from anyone reading would be appreciated." Unfortunately, it doesn't look like things have changed in the past year. Besides goods from specialty importers like dynamism.com (check out the Bluetooth camera!), the only Transmeta devices widely available in the U.S. seem to be the last few generations of Sony's Picturebook. I'd hoped for a tidal wave of them -- is there any hope of more widespread Crusoe laptop presence? Or are there good sources already?
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Where Would You Buy A Crusoe Laptop? More

Where Would You Buy A Crusoe Laptop?

Comments Filter:

  • Fujitsu (Score:2, Interesting)

    by OUStriker ( 463622 )
    Fujitsu has several crusoe models available.
    • When I was there last there were lots of crusoe models available in japan, from several manufacturers. Sony had the most, but yeah, there was Fujitsu, and NEC as well. If I'd got my notebook 6 months later I probably would have bought one myself. (They were pricey little toys to start off with)

    • Re:Fujitsu P1000 (Score:2, Informative)

      by hovik ( 257174 )
      Fujitsu Lifebook P1000/P1010 are available today, and are mighty cool. For sale here [bhinneka.com].

      Only tried the P1000 and it rocks. Really small and light. And the 8.8" widescreen is impressive. Weights under 1 kilo too, and is a bit smaller than the Sony Vaio with the build in camera. (And ALOT cheaper) It misses FireWire though.

      P1000: US$ 1,230 (533 MHz)
      P1010: US$ 1,450 (internal NIC and 600 MHz)

  • From your man Friday, of course!

  • Microcenter.... (Score:5, Informative)

    by foghorn19 ( 108432 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2001 @04:14PM (#2694987)
    I saw an one of the Japanese "ultralight" notebook PCs (NEC I believe) at the Microcenter in Cambridge (Boston). Had a 10" screen, ~ 3 lbs and looked cute. The CPU listed was the Transmeta Crusoe. Nifty look & feel, and seemed snappy enough for lightweight work (i.e. standard websurfing, wordprocessing, email etc).
    • Note: I am not a professional analyst. I am a slashdotter par excellance whose abilities in this arena lead into the real world. These are justifiable positions that I am putting in bit form here; however, prove me wrong and win a prize. (Prize to be disclosed later.)

      In the US and increasingly in the EU as far as I saw at the HAL2001 conference, the trend in portables is the 'portable workstation', also known as the 'why, indeed it HAS a kitchen sink' version. Look at the local high-end low-cost provider of hardware; no system is without at LEAST a 20 speed CD, and that's only on the most baseline of systems. Almost every system has a DVD drive, and some have combo drives. Even though the floppy is on the way out according to some analysts, it's also standard equipment.

      The screens on these laptops is a minimum of a 13 inch diagonal. The keyboards are full-size 87 keys.

      The ultraportables' market is in Japan and for those who want the small rigs. Not many in the US do, as the cost is significantly higher; the screens considerably smaller; and the needed peripherals often absent or very clunky.

      Battery life is increased in most ultras, especially the Crusoes, but the performance numbers stink badly. Sorry Linus, love the OS, but dislike the hardware.

      Hell.. most US systems can get up to 5 hours of life out of them (with extra batteries). Large systems with the same potential battery life as the ultras.. and the bigrigs are cheaper.

      Sorta kills the edge.

  • Fujitsu's P-2040 should be available RSN (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 12, 2001 @04:16PM (#2694992)
    Fujitsu's P-2040 should be available something like this week or next. I have had the opportunity to play with a prerelease prototype, and it's a really sweet machine. At a $1499 list price (don't expect big retail discounts), it is priced to move, too.

    Another box that you can get in the U.S. today is the NEC DayLite/UltraLite series, they are fairly expensive ($2499 list) but are extremely light, have *very* good battery life, and the DayLite version has a screen that is viewable in full sunlight, hence the name. Unfortunately the screen is somewhat dull when indoors. It also has some issues running Linux, although the ACPI changes in 2.4.16 improved the situation greatly.

  • ProGear (Score:4, Informative)

    by chuy ( 66622 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2001 @04:17PM (#2695003)
    I recently looked at a ProGear laptop. It has a touch pad screen that will run at 1024x768 with a 400MHz transmeta chip. It also ran a specialized linux kernel with X. Very impressive for only about $1800 dollars.

    go check it out at www.sonicblue.com
    • When I fist read your post I thought "Why would someone pay $1,800 for a 400MHz Crusoe laptop?" Then I saw the picture and description. Pretty cool! It is less of a laptop, and more of a tablet or appliance.

  • Picturebook (Score:5, Informative)

    by kuro5hin ( 8501 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2001 @04:18PM (#2695007) Homepage
    I have one of the Crusoe Picturebooks, and I'm perfectly happy with it. It's light, and runs a lot cooler than the mobile pentiums. Power consumption is good, though not as stupendous as transmeta claimed it would be. I get about 8 hours on the quad battery (which does double the weight of the machine). Other than that, there really isn't anything to report. The picturebook does feature a horribly broken APM compatibility layer, and ACPI on linux ain't working yet, so no power management to speak of. The crusoe's longrun stuff does work under linux though, as does pretty much everything else on the machine (except the winmodem).

    • Re:Picturebook (Score:2, Informative)

      by WildBill1941 ( 187641 )
      I'd agree with Rusty on the Picturebook. I've got a C1VPK - it's got the (fairly new) 667Mhz Crusoe, and it's got more than enough power to do what I need out of a subnotebook. And the battery life is good, too. On the battery the unit comes with (the "small" battery) I can watch a DivX movie on my trainride home (just over an hour trip) and have about 40% left on a charge. And this is under Linux; which, as Rusty said, has a horribly broken APM implementation on the Sony Vaio line. Longrun works nicely - the jogdial is fabulous - the camera's a great toy... but the ability to be banging out Perl scripts while listening to MP3s on the trainride home without worrying about my battery is one of the best things about it. I keep meaning to write a Linux-Picturebook HOWTO, but I can't seem to get together enough spare time to do that.
      I've upgraded mine to 256MB of RAM using the third-party IO (Japanese) upgrade - that made a ton of difference in performance. I understand there's a new Picturebook coming... it's supposed to have the 733Mhz Crusoe.
      And of course, the box runs fine under Windows. [ick]
      Linkage:
      My review of the Picturebook [nulldevice.net]
      SteveBarr.Com - the Picturebook Portal [stevebarr.com]
  • I might if I could get it from a reputable vendor. My big problem is that laptops are not cheap, and with Intel strongarming the industry to stick with their low-power chips, it seems that many of the OEMs selling Crusoe machines are the ones with nothing to lose.

    Of course, if Micros~t released a Crusoe-based web pad I would buy one, and spend the next couple weeks beating my head against the wall to get it running *NIX...

  • And why is it? (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by ocie ( 6659 )
    That it costs more to buy a laptop with windows and install Linux than it is to buy a laptop with Linux only preloaded?
    • That would be the laptop manufacturers. They are under threat of an increase of Linux's already high licensing fees if they sell too many windows laptops. Therefore, obviously, they have disincentives to buy windows, and price-gouge those that do.

      It's sad that this superior Windows operating system can't get a look in. Send email to your congressman telling them to support the DoJ in their case against Linus Torvalds, RMS, AC, XYZZY, et al.

  • From Transmeta's web site (Score:3, Informative)

    by CodeWheeney ( 314094 ) <JimCassidy @ m ail.com> on Wednesday December 12, 2001 @04:19PM (#2695015) Homepage
    A list of laptops and <A HREF="http://www.transmeta.com/everywhere/products /notebooks.html">ultra-light notebooks</A>

  • Crazy/Stupid Idea (Score:2, Interesting)

    by eAndroid ( 71215 )
    Since Crusoe can have different instructions sets how low level do these instructions need to be? Is it possible that it could be made to use a high level language's byte code?

    I'm not just thinking Java either - running Python or Perl apps on a dedicated CPU would be very cool. Is it possible at all?

    • Re:Crazy/Stupid Idea (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Yes, it is possible. This was one of the issues brought up by Transmeta when they were first preparing to deploy the CPU into the market. It uses VLSI for its instructions thus allowing you to do most anything you want. You just have to find someone to program it, or do it yourself.

      --I'm too lazy to get a Nick&Password.

  • The first is still the best afaik (Score:4, Informative)

    by FauxPasIII ( 75900 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2001 @04:22PM (#2695044)
    The first person to have Crusoe portables stateside, as far as I know, is Emperor Linux [emperorlinux.com]. I've never had anything but excellent experience in dealing with them.
  • I bought one from dynamism.com and installed linux. Comments and details [cmu.edu]

  • Transmetazone (Score:5, Informative)

    by istartedi ( 132515 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2001 @04:23PM (#2695053) Journal

    Transmetazone [transmetazone.com] should answer a lot of your questions.

  • I've been looking for a NEC LaVie MX [dynamism.com] for what seems like forever. I've seen one of these in action, and they're really cool. Underpowered by a power-user's standpoint, but it makes up for it in weight (1.39kg), battery life (11 hours claimed!!), and size (1.16 in thick).

    The only place it seems I can order one from is dynamism, but they are SOOOO expensive there $2500!

    So my point is, I'd love an answer to this "Ask Slashdot"!
    • Ooops... looks like I was off by a little, they're actually $3000! Damn...
    • Dynamism makes money by ripping people off! Those laptops are around $1400 US over here in Japan. You can also by crusoe laptops starting from around $800 for fujitsu and casio's super compact models (533mhz crusoe, 128M, 20G).
      It is actually about the same cost (airfare hotels and all!) to come here (Japan) and buy it yourself. The libretto on the dynamism sight is what $2200? It RETAILS here for $1200

  • Fujitsu P-Series (Score:2, Informative)

    by [AraGorn] ( 178502 )
    I have pre-ordered one of Fujitsu's P-2040 models it is scheduled to ship on December 27th though I think if you order now it is moved back to the middle of January. Here [fujitsupc.com] is the link to the product page.

  • PictureBook is Ok (Score:2, Interesting)

    by jsimon12 ( 207119 )
    I own a Crusoe SonyPicture book, and yes it does get good battery (something like 8-10 hours real useable time with my wireless netcard in and the quad battery). But they honestly seem to lack in speed, and as far as linux goes it runs in 586 mode. They are ok, but not the groundbreakers I had hoped for.
  • I have some friends and former colleagues who went to work for RLX Technologies [rlxtechnologies.com] in The Woodlands, Texas (north of Houston).

    RLX sells rack-mounted server products utilizing the Transmeta Cruesoe chip. Apparently the demand hasn't been that great for their product, even though everything I've seen so far looks pretty impressive. I know two people who work there who have been laid off in the past month.
  • Can any one get to this page this is what I get?

    Yahoo - Document Has Expired
    The requested document, `/bw/011212/120019_1.html', is no longer available.

    Any one know if this is a /. Efect or did Yahoo pull the page to keep from getting /.'ed

    Does any one have a copy of what it said? I like to read about Transmeta's progress.. I love to root for new tech. Transmeta's stuff is cool and could give the big boys a run for there money.
  • Casio has some Crusoe-based mini laptops. You can check them out here [casio.com].

    A quick check at Yahoo! Shopping shows a few places that have these available, including CDW.

  • Probably from a store that sold crusoe laptops...

    - A.P.
  • Not true, Timothy. Transmeta chips are faring very well in bladed servers. Check out http://www.rlxtechnologies.com/product/ [rlxtechnologies.com]. There've been a few Slashdot stories about us, and there've been some big name competitor products pop up recently, which is a good thing, 'cause it brings acceptance to a new market.

    This thread is about laptops specifically, but you made a pretty large generalization, Timothy, and I just wanted to clarify it a little bit.

    Requisite disclaimer: I obviously work for RLX.

  • Direct from the manufacturers (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Vito ( 117562 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2001 @04:32PM (#2695119) Homepage

    The US versions of the two Crusoe portables I was looking at in my previous Slashdot post about this [slashdot.org], the Casio Cassiopiea Fiva MPC-205E and 206E, and the NEC Versa DayLite, are both available online, direct from Casio [casio.com] and the NEC from CDW [cdw.com] or PC Connection [pcconnection.com].

    The Transmeta ultralight noteboooks page [transmeta.com] also has "How to Buy" links for all the listed US-market notebooks.

  • I picked up a Fiva 206E earlier this year, and have been very pleased with it. It's Transmeta based, and in addition has the truly unique feature of a hardware OS-selector switch. It comes from the factory with WinME and a reduced version of Linux (which they've targetted as a quick-boot MP3 player for when you don't want to bother waiting for Windows).

    Here [edkeyes.org] are some quick instructions on how to set up the system to get a full version of Linux on it and dual-booting in this manner.

    Note that Casio currently has some... issues... with their compliance of the GPL. I am still waiting for the promised CD of source code. Definitely was not included in the box.

    Anyway, it's a bit pricey, but it's tiny and reasonably powered as well. I love it... even with the extra-large battery (rated for 9 hours), it's just 2.5 pounds.

  • I bought a Libretto L1 (Score:5, Informative)

    by evanbd ( 210358 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2001 @04:35PM (#2695139)
    from dynamism.com.



    Very nice machine. 10GB disk, 128MB memory, 2.4lbs. I've upgraded to 256MB memory, and am running RedHat 7.1, though not without some adventures. For more info on this and other similar laptops, visit dynamism, or go read the Yahoo groups mailing list Libretto-L1. email me or post questions there for more info.



    Pros:

    Lightweight

    Sufficient CPU power for my tasks (email, word processing, web, Linux / devel system, though compilation is slow...)

    gorgeous screen

    usable keyboard, though some of my friends find it a touch small. I think it's great.



    Cons:

    low Linux compatibility (getting sound and pcmcia requires a custom kernel hack, sound is iffy at best after that, screen brightness can't be changed, pcmcia is a bit weird...)

    short battery life (2.5 hrs, tops. with windows it'll go up to 3.5 if you reduce screen brightness, which leaves it still perfectly usable. Just can't be done in linux...)

    Japanese keyboard and manuals. a minor annoyance, I remapped it as US keyboard because I touch type, and I know there are those who will love the extra keys to bind to things...

    There is no accessible bios or bios pw.



    Oh, and the full feature list:


    firewire, 1 pcmcia slot, winmodem, 2xUSB1.1, ALi sound, up to 256MB memory, up to 40GB disk, screen is 10" 1280x600 widescreen (two side by side xterms anyone?), VGA out. Triple capacity battery available.



    Price is currently about $1700 from dynamism, or $1100 if you import it yourself. Others will sell it for closer to $1300 I think. Dynamism is overpriced but great to work with, and they'll sell it without windows.



    Happy hunting :)

  • OK!

    here's a challenge. We all know the camera page is on the dynamism site. Now, I challenge you to find a click-path from the entry page that gets you to the page.

    I couldn't do it. I wonder what other nifty gadgets are hidden on the site?

  • Information... (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by roguerez ( 319598 )
    A lot of information about the Sony picturebook (of which I have the C1VE version with 600 MHz Crusoe, 128 MB, 12 GB HD) can be found on this site:

    http://www.stevebarr.com/ [stevebarr.com]

  • toshiba libretto l[123] (Score:4, Informative)

    by dizco ( 20340 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2001 @04:41PM (#2695174)
    I've got a toshiba libretto L2.. its pretty nice. Pics at dynamism.com, but i bought mine from a guy in korea that sells 'em on ebay.

    some of the highpoints:
    * it's pretty small. smaller and lighter than my vaio pcg-n505vx
    * the battery lasts a long time. Even with no control for the display in linux and a somewhat power-hungry wireless card, the battery consistantly lasts for greater than 2 hours.
    * 1280x600 display - thats a pretty wide display for such a small laptop.
    * built in ethernet
    * FOUR mouse buttons. i hate laptops without a third mouse button, this one's got a spare.
    * everything except the power management and the external monitor connector (and maybe the modem - i haven't tried it) works fully in linux.
    * it's reasonably fast (600mhz, but i'd say its slower feeling than a 600mhz intel or amd)
    * the keyboard is very comfortable. YMMV.
    * 256megs, not too shabby.
    * the screen is very bright.

    some low points
    * 1280x600 display - thats not very much height for a laptop.
    * odd trackpoint pointer - I like trackpoints, but this one seems to try to calibrate itself constantly, which results in an odd feel..
    * limited ACPI support. it doesn't support APM at all, and ACPI isn't quite up to speed (in linux)
    * the third and fourth mouse buttons seem to auto-repeat, like a keyboard. This may very well be a configuration problem on my side, i haven't messed with it (just noticed it last night in fact)
    * maxes out at 256megs.
    * the mic jack is mono only. no stereo line-in or anything.
    * no IR - how bizzare.
    * no bluetooth. From attempting to read english translations of japanese web pages before it arrived at my door, i thought there was a chance it might.

    Other notes:
    * its got a japanese keyboard. I don't mind this, but it took a few days to get used to. I suppose one day i'll map some of those spare keys to do interesting things...
    * it's got 2 usb ports, one ethernet, a headphone jack, a mic jack, rj11 for your phone line, one pcmcia, and video-out.

    I do use it as my main machine at home. before i got it, i used a vaio pcg-n505vx.

    --Sean

  • Transmeta at fault? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by coldmist ( 154493 )

    I've been waiting for a US-available Transmeta-powered laptop for quite a while. Dynamism [dynamism.com] was one source, but way to expensive. eBay has several Japanese-market laptops for sale all the time (Toshiba L1/L2/L3's) from a guy in Korea (very good reputation though!). I've even seen some of the other Japanese-only Transmeta-powered laptops on eBay from time to time (like the Fujitsu Bibio Loox-T).

    The problem is, at 600MHz, the TM5600 just can't quite do full motion DVDs without problems, which is what they promised it could do. There just isn't quite enough horsepower in it. And, the battery life is Good, but not Great. So, all the manufacturers have been waiting for the TM5800 (800MHz) cpus to come out.

    In general, the Japanese market is very aggressive with tiny electronic devices like the Sony Picturebooks. But in the US, it's more the bigger screens and CD-RW/DVD drives that sell more units. For this reason, Toshiba, Fujitsu and Sony have several Transmeta-based laptops for sale only in Japan, but not here in the US (yet).

    I've been drooling over the Fujitsu P-Series [fujitsupc.com] laptop ever since it was put up on their website a few months ago. 3.5lbs, 3+ hours runtime (up to 15 with optional batteries) with an integrated DVD/CD-RW drive. All for $1500 up. The "available by" date has kept creeping later and later though. It originally said in October, then November, then before 2002, and now it says "Will ship in January."

    Transmeta is having a few manufacturing problems at the fab, and it's pushing everything back. This also hurts the manufacturers in trusting the company any further.

    Also, Transmeta has had a high CEO rollover rate the last few months, causing worry about the internal health/vision of the company.

    The other problem is Intel got all worried about it and developed their Ultra Low Voltage chips which are also coming out in laptops over the next few months. Dell is rumored to have an ultra-cool 3lb unit with this chip in it. 700MHz, with the same power usage as Transmeta, same run time, but with the Intel brand name behind it. I bet this will sell very well, especially to the corporate/college student market.

    Overall, Transmeta was a good idea, but poorly executed for the laptop market. Intel will squash them in the next 6 months. But, Transmeta, with their code-morphing technology, has a lot of other markets to work with (low-power/small size servers, etc) and their TM6000 chip is supposed to be an all-in-one web-pad solution type chip. Small-footprint laptops is just one possible market for their technology, with a big gorilla hanging around the banana tree.

    So, instead of hoping for a Transmeta-based laptop for Christmas, wait a few months and get the best one you can find from the soon-to-be-released chips (with either Transmeta or Intel inside).

  • The local CompUSA had a VERY nice Crusoe laptop (actually more of a palmtop as it was the size of one of those wince devices) at about 600mhz with i think 64mb ram, ran msie fine i think it had about a 5 gb drive, it also ran office 2k i believe nicely the only downside was it had a funky resolution and everything came out kind of squished, but it came with a builtin camera kind of cool and the price wasnt too bad either for what came with it. (cant remember off the top of my head tho)

  • CNET: Transmeta revenue dives on more delays (Score:4, Insightful)

    by rjamestaylor ( 117847 ) <rjamestaylor@gmail.com> on Wednesday December 12, 2001 @04:47PM (#2695212) Journal
    This [cnet.com] story just posted at C|Net. More bad news for Transmeta. $1 Million in revenue for 4th Quarter. Yikes - that's low. There are Yahoo!Stores with higher quarterly revenue than that. This is the main reason there are no Crusoe laptops available: these chips were supposed to be available in June 2001 and now won't be in volume production until (nearly) 2 Qtr 2002.

    I watched the unveiling of Transmeta online and was holding off making a laptop purchase for a couple months after waiting to get a Crusoe...but I gave up (and the PictureBooks was not interesting in anyway). Out of sight out of mind.

    So, now I'm starting to consider getting a new laptop and passing my current Toshiba 2805 to my dear wife. I have a lot of requirements -- 15" LCD, speed, harddrive, RAM, ... but I honestly could not care less about the processor manufacturer and would NOT buy a laptop just because of the processor.

  • Sony had a Vaio laptop a while ago which really kicked serious butt. I haven't seen any lately, and I work at a Best Buy part time at the tech bench. I see a lot.

    I hope that the processor takes off more. It's a wonderful chip. But unfortunately it seems that it'll only maintain a niche position.

  • Asking the wrong question (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Soong ( 7225 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2001 @04:50PM (#2695234) Homepage Journal
    Maybe you should be asking "Where can I buy a laptop with long battery life?" or "Where can I buy a laptop with really low energy consumption?". Maybe the answer won't be a Crusoe laptop.

  • There is intrest (Score:5, Informative)

    by zmokhtar ( 539671 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2001 @04:50PM (#2695236) Homepage
    According to this article about Crusoe laptops [msn.com], it seems that Transmeta didn't deliver the chips in time to get them into the laptops:

    Sony Corp and Fujitsu Ltd on Wednesday postponed the launch of new personal computers originally planned for later this week, blaming the delayed development of Transmeta Corp's (TMTA) power-efficient chips.
    (Reuters)
  • I have a Sony C1VN Picturebook, and while I've been very happy with the machine itself, the power consumption is a constant source of problems for me. With the standard battery, I get about 90 minutes of use, with most of the power consumption settings set very low, i.e. dim screen, short lcd timeout, etc.

    Sure, I could buy a quad battery, but they go for about $450, and they add significant bulk. The biggest reason for getting a Picturebook is the size factor -- bulking it up for a lot of money doesn't appeal to me.

    Basically, I chalk it up to "what can I expect from such a small machine & battery", but my expectations from reading the literature put out by Sony and Transmeta were definitely much higher than what I got.

    Caveat: when the machine is plugged in, it's the greatest little gadget in the world.
  • I'd love to have an alternative to Intel, but I have not heard many good things about the Transmeta products. Their performance was never as good as was initially promised, many early chips had serious flaws that required a recall and the power consumption benefits are not that great now that Intel has produced better low power chips. I know at least one laptop manufacturer (I think Toshiba) who announced they were going to use Crusoe, but has since shelved the idea because of the aforementioned quality and performace issues. I'm afraid they're destined to be a novelty item.

  • NEC - very short review (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 12, 2001 @05:00PM (#2695313)
    My boss has owned a tiny cruesoe based laptop from NEC for around 6 months now. It runs at 600MHz supposedly (Model number is unknown but it's on the NEC website.)

    The build quality is fantastic: the machine is ultra thin and light but with highly important things such as solid hinges and the like. I mean, it's just so damn sexy to look at.

    Great screen. Excellent battery life. Good solid components, especially things that count like the keyboard.

    I'm primarily going to bitch however. The crusoe never seems to run past 300Mhz when unplugged (iirc correctly, this is deliberate, but a serious pain: booting fairly standard win2000 install takes ages after logging in)

    I have found the lack of real ethernet port highly annoying as well: basically several of the ports (eg modem and ethernet) use non-standard interfaces, which means you can't just jack in an RJ-45 connector, you have to cart around silly little "converters". This means they get either lost or broken quickly: He's on his third ethernet convertor (having lost one and broken one: if they get bent too much (eg contactly unplugging and plugging in again) then the wires come loose it seems)

    The newer versions have a faster processor, and with some reading of manuals, I could probbaly figure out how to force the processor into full speed mode on batteries.

    The laptop itself was bought after reading a review in the UK magazinre PC World (I think), which gave it their best rating (beating the ultralight version of the sony viao). It's used constantly every day and the fact it's so light and yet solid (aside from the damn ethernet port connectors..) means I'd look at getting one myself when I next upgrade. Nice piece of kit.
  • The local Costco has a VAIO ultra-mini Crusoe-based laptop... 1024x480 screen, built-in camera... for $1,899. I have no idea if that's a good price.

    I think the speed was 650MHz.

    Right next to it was a big P3 based VAIO with a bigger screen, docking station, and all the other perks for the same price. To be honest, I'd rather have the P3-based one out of screen size alone.

  • Pick your laptop based on merit. That means the speed,size,resolution,contrast,memroy,battery trade off. notice that the screen is a big factor in many of those! Choose your laptop based on features, and if it has a good chip, great.

    Now if you don't like one company, then not buying from it could be understood, but there are 3 companies producing x86 chips, so that can't be your factor.

  • Fujitsu P-1000 (Score:3, Informative)

    by asv108 ( 141455 ) <asv@nOspam.ivoss.com> on Wednesday December 12, 2001 @05:40PM (#2695523) Homepage Journal
    I know people have already mentioned that Fujitsu is coming out with some trasnmeta models but the Fujitsu P-1000 is available for order now and looks really promising. You can order one right here [fujitsu.com].

    As far as specs go the P-1000 weighs 3.5 pounds and is only 1.5 inches thick. This includes a combo DVD/CDR drive for only $1500 with 128 megs. It can be upgraded to 256 megs of ram.

  • I've got a rebel.com netwinder 3100, its not a laptop but its crusoe and its really cool

  • I have a Casio FIVA MPC-206e ... ideal for me (Score:3, Informative)

    by joe_n_bloe ( 244407 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2001 @05:52PM (#2695585) Homepage
    I have a 128MB MPC-206e. Aside from the ridiculous cost of the upgrade to 192MB (which I hope to get *some* day) it is ideal for me. 2.1 lbs with the standard battery. It goes into one of the pockets of an Eagle Creek "guide bag" and is just perfect.

    I have a couple Casio accessories--the large battery and the external CD. You must have the external CD to install Linux. Which I did. I replaced the 20gb internal drive with a 30gb one, and it dual boots RH 7.1 and Winbloze. With reiserfs no less--now THAT was a pain to bootstrap. (The 20gb drive still lives in an external enclosure in case I need some extra space/backup.) I also have a Digital Relay ... I can burn CDs on battery power! From Winbloze and Linux!

    The machine will play mp3s for me while I type from one coast of the US to another, or from Dulles to Heathrow. On one battery.

    Very cool. Exactly what I wanted to replace my pb2400. May Crusoe live long and prosper.

    -Joseph Nathan Hall
  • Right now we have a price war going on between Intel and AMD (which, as you can see from recent sales volumes, AMD is winning on volume). This has cut the prices and pretty much kept Transmeta out of the NAm/EU markets.

    As a result, Transmeta laptops are selling pretty much in Asia. But, along with the worldwide fallout in PC and laptop sales, there's some really bad economic goings on in Asia, and especially Japan.

    So, the short version is - if you want a Japanese manufactured Transmeta laptop, you can get it. But if you want one of the big box manufacturers here or in Europe, you won't see it for a couple more years at best.

    Some of this has to do with how people do things and how they live. In some societies, there's not a lot of spare space, and you have to fit in cramped on the trains. So a non-baking laptop is a good idea, especially with good battery life. When you live with a family of four in a space the size of my living room, you need small things that are portable.

    But here in North America and the EU, we have no such problems, so they just don't sell well, since we don't mind buying big boxes and have many rooms.

    -
  • I hate to sound too negative, but the question that first came up when I saw this article's title was "Why would you want to?" What are the advantages of a Crusoe based laptop over similarly priced Intel or AMD mobile chip-based notebook? If you are getting a slim-sized laptop to impress your friends, there are lower priced units using intel mobile p3 that have decent battery life; If you want a desktop replacement, the current 600-something Mhz max speed of Crusoe doesn't really cut it. Today, you can get 1.1Ghz "desktop replacement" notebooks for less than $1800 U.S.... Crusoe doesn't really fit anywhere in todays mobile computing, I can't imagine too many uses for it outside of oddball niche products...
  • Fujitsu is using the Crusoe in their smaller notebooks too- the 800 Mhz version, too
  • Why in the world would I put my hard-earned cash on a barely competing technology that has a hard time finding a home, and didn't live up to ANY of the hypes they've blattantly generated, why would I want to support it in the first place?

    I don't want to be a troll (well I don't care, karma tops at 50 anyways :) ) it's just that personnaly, I'd support technology that are doing more work in the labs than in the PR room. But that's my opinion and that's why I am saying "ask", can someone enlighten me? (with something else than a flamethrower please :) )
  • Slashdot introduced me to the PaceBlade notebook. You remember the one launched at CeBIT that had the removable LCD? It had the 400- and 700MHz Crusoe models inside, I think. (I might have the incorrect clock speeds here.)

    Anyway, I would've loved to have gotten my hands on one, but they're just a mite too pricey. Maybe it will come down in price, since I suppose that PaceBlade must be feeling the same pinch that all the PC manufacturers are going through. Tough time to be pushing a new notebook, I suppose.

  • Twinhead (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Twinhead has a pretty sweet laptop with a Crusoe CPU.
    10 inch monitor
    MMC and SD slots
    External CD burner

    They are sellling for US$ 1,400 here in Taipei.

    I forget the rest of the specs. I had to leave the shop before I wound up with an unplanned stocking stuffer.

  • My Ultralite review (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I wrote a review for the japanese equivalent to
    the NEC Ultralite for epinions.com a month ago,
    check it out at:
    http://www.epinions.com/content_47934312068 [epinions.com]

    About availability, neither CompUSA nor Frys stock
    NEC notebooks. Apparently the only way
    NEC is able to currently sell their
    notebooks is through their own website...
    Is this true for Fujitsu as well?
    Is there are particular reasons for this?
  • It weighs less than 3 pounds and has battery life of something like 11 hours on one battery "under optimal conditions".
  • Well, I live in Japan and I own a CASIO
    FIVA 206 Notebook - very small (only 990
    gr.), 20GB HDD, 128 RAM, Crusoe 600Mhz.
    It is very popular now - and it costs only 99000 yen - about 750$ :)
  • At Yahoo Japan [yahoo.co.jp] with Linux and the much sought - after PHKL feature!!!
  • Well, while you might be able to get Crusoe Laptops in the US or in Japan, in Europe it's nearly impossible. The only laptop that actually comes close to the requirements I'm looking for (not too small, but equipped with a fast Crusoe, long battery uptime, etc.) seems to be the Fujitsu LifeBook P Series. I asked Fujitsu to find out whether I could get one in Europe.
    Fujitsu USA does not ship them to Europe, and currently it is not planned to sell them in Europe, the only way to get them seems to be to try ordering from Japan.
    I wonder why so few Crusoes make it to the European market.
  • Linus made it, nobody came.

    I hate to break it to you, but the Crusoe has pretty much been a flop. I've seen a few cool things, like the server blades that RLX makes, but I haven't really heard of them selling too well.
  • Does anyone apart from IBM sell laptops with no Windows license?

    And no, selling laptops with a Windows license but Windows erased from the hard disk isn't good enough for me. I don't want Microsoft getting the money.
  • I was in Chicago only last week. I went into the SONY shop on N.Michigan and picked up a Sony Vaio running on a Transmeta chip.

    Wasn't quite a laptop - the machine was about half the size, but was running WinXP.

    So, they are there...

Slashdot Top Deals

Remember, UNIX spelled backwards is XINU. -- Mt.

Close