Seems the Chinese are now in the market for producing low cost laptops that utilise open source software for the operating system and productivity software, with the production of the HiVision MiniNote Linux Laptop – for the princely sum of $98!

The following announcement appeared earlier this month on the Tech Video Blog:

“HiVision makes the worlds cheapest Linux laptop at $98 using a new cheaper MIPS based processor (perhaps the Longsoon or the Ingenic), WiFi, 1GB flash storage, it runs Linux, has 3 USB ports, Ethernet, SDHC card reader, audio in and out, voice-chat, skype, multi-tabbed Firefox browser support and Abiword for word processing. Automatic and secure online software updates. Their current model is running a smooth and pretty snappy Linux user interface. In this video, I got to borrow a review sample of the laptop overnight, and I try to show you all the browser and other software interfaces in this extended video review of this cheap MIPS based laptop. Embedded is the way that I hope that most cheap laptops are going to be based on in the near future, Google will hopefully make a great Chrome browser for this kind of Laptop and hopefully that OLPC soon will announce that they will work to improve Embedded Linux based laptops in the upcoming XO-1.5 and XO-2 designs.”

All goes to reinforce that there is a promising future in the open source world, and the development of inexpensive, cloud-connected devices such as this! Here’s a short clip from Youtube that explains it all…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKQbN6tpYXw&w=425&h=344]