Stories about: Everex

Another US$400, 2-lb. Linux-based mini-laptop will be arriving in Wal-Mart stores in the US by the end of this month to rival the Eee, AsusTek Computer's ultraportable.

Greeted with fanfare and kudos when its prototype PC was shown off by Nicholas Negroponte and United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan more than two years ago at the World Symposium on the Information Society in Tunis, the One Laptop Per Child project is now beset by waning orders and competition from commercial vendors that threaten to sideline the nonprofit effort.

As component prices drop, the aggressive pricing of commercial Linux notebooks could hamper efforts by One Laptop Per Child to supply inexpensive laptops to children in developing markets.

PC vendors haven't been eager to know how many users run Linux when it's preloaded on their low-end PCs, and how many replace it with an infringing copy of Microsoft Windows. Everex, the latest company to introduce a low-priced desktop Linux system, will have the information, however, thanks to the software update system behind its Linux distribution.

After introducing a US$198 Linux desktop this week, PC vendor Everex said it will bring Linux laptops under US$300 to users next year.