Is this the cheapest Linux laptop on the planet?

newsguy 0 528 Views

Forget the One Laptop Per Child project hyperbole, there seems to be another contender emerging which is deserving of the title 'cheapest Linux laptop on the planet' despite having very little in the way of publicity when compared to the OLPC machine. The Linux lappy in question is the Elonex One, a device which Elonex is saying it will provide one unit free of charge to underprivileged kids for every hundred commercial systems it sells. Now that might not sound overly generous, but the argument would seem to be that when you consider it is selling at under $200 (or £99 here in the UK) that sufficient volume will be shifted in order for that buy hundred get one free deal to make a difference.

Of course, I tend to veer towards the argument that if they are that cheap to produce (and one has to assume that Elonex some margin on each unit sold) that the company could just bite the bullet and donate a decent number of laptops no matter what the commercial sales volume turns out to be.

Still, that gripe apart, working in conjunction with the here in the UK the plan is that every child in the UK should have access to a laptop. Here's hoping that particular dream is realised, and perhaps more deservingly realised in less financially privileged nations as well.

As for the Elonex One itself, it comes with a 300MHz LNX Code 8 Mobile processor, and a Debian-based distribution. Add to that 128MB RAM, 1GB Flash and a detachable screen and there is no denying that you get a lot of Linux laptop for not very much money at all.

Dani AI

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Short summary and context from : the Elonex ONE was one of the ultra‑low‑cost 7" netbooks launched in 2008 and marketed at about £99 / ~$200 to the education market. It shipped with an embedded Linux build (Linos), very small RAM and flash, and Elonex publicly tied the model to a “donate 1 for every 100 sold” education pledge — which is why it got so much press despite the modest specs. (en.wikipedia.org)

Answering : the “LNX Code 8 Mobile” is not a widely known mainstream CPU brand — it’s an obscure low‑power system‑on‑chip used in several sub‑£200 netbooks and, crucially, Elonex didn’t publish a full chipset vendor. Press at the time reported conflicting origins: some sources suggested a rebranded Aday/A‑View x86 part, while other closely related models used Ingenic JZ4730 (a MIPS/XBurst family SoC). In short: different hardware versions and rebrands existed, so you can’t assume a standard PC/x86 CPU. (en.wikipedia.org)

What that means in practice (advice for buyers/tinkerers, relevant to ’s “I’d buy one” thought): expect very limited RAM/flash, limited native package availability, and possible non‑x86 architecture. Before buying or trying to install other distributions, confirm the CPU/arch on the device (for example via uname -m, lscpu or cat /proc/cpuinfo) and check whether the vendor or community offers firmware/images for that architecture. Look for SD/wristvault expansion and community builds if you want usable storage or extra apps. Also note these models were produced in many rebranded variants, had delivery delays and limited long‑term support, so factor that into expectations. (operavps.com)

One small correction to ’s OLPC comment: the OLPC XO originally ran the Sugar (Linux) environment; Microsoft later offered a low‑cost Windows XP option for some deployments, but the XO remained primarily a Linux device in practice and dual‑boot options were not widely adopted. (en.wikipedia.org)

Practical takeaway: the Elonex ONE is interesting historically and useful for very light web/word tasks, but treat it as a niche, low‑support device — verify CPU/architecture and community images before assuming you can run mainstream Debian/x86 packages.

Member Avatar for linux
linux 107 Posting Shark

That looks nice. However, the whole buy 100 / get one free deal isn't going to benefit 3rd world countries that much at first, but as sales progress, err... IF sales progress, then the benefits will follow.

It looks nice, and it's different from most laptops these days (the fat part is the screen, and the keyboard is thin).

I'd buy one, but I don't think I'd use it as my everyday computer. I mean, it's great for the price. But with its specs it won't be up there in the consumer product.

But I'm not bashing this computer, as they've made a great deal for a very low price.

OLPC is no longer the "cheapest Linux laptop on the planet" because it no longer runs open source operating systems. It runs Windows XP, which made me upset when I read about it.

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EddieC 0 Posting Whiz in Training

What the heck is an LNX Code 8 Mobile processor?

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