HP Mini 1000 in the wild

Ubergizmo unboxes the HP Mini 1000, a fashionable companion to the company's first netbook, the Mini 2133.

The main differences are a lower price, modest specs (512MB RAM, 8GB flash drive, 9" display) and a case design sporting art by Vivienne Tam. It'll be $400 with Windows or $380 with Linux, and you can upgrade to the 10" display for $50 more.

Pros would be the price and 60GB hard drive option, but the cons aren't insignificant: 1024x600 displays, at both sizes, and still no WWAN option.

HP Mini 1000 hands-on photos, full specifications [Ubergizmo]

[#1 posted by dculberson , October 29, 2008 7:14 AM]

Only $20 off to eliminate Windows .. well, I guess they did have to spend time (and thus money) getting the Linux config set up and everything. But I do still wonder what the cost of that Windows license is to HP.

It's a shame Microsoft uses those stickers instead of a paper license on their OEM software now. It makes transferring the license a lot harder. You could buy the $400 unit and sell the Windows XP on eBay for $50 - $60.

[#2 posted by mavrc , October 29, 2008 10:15 AM]

@dculberson: Actually, even if you had an easy way to physically transfer it, you couldn't legally transfer it. Microsoft's OEM licenses have been nontransferable for a very long time.

(Per http://download.microsoft.com/download/4/e/3/4e3eace0-4c6d-4123-9d0c-c80436181742/OSLicQA.doc, sorry, it's a .doc...)

[#3 posted by Dillenger69 , October 29, 2008 10:26 AM]

bleh ... 1024x600 = fail.

[#4 posted by R , October 29, 2008 10:56 AM]

How is this any better than the Acer Asprire One? It has half the ram and half the storage for 50 bucks less. Right now I'm waiting to see if anything can beat out the Aspire One's specs at a price close to $400 before the beginning of December, because if not, that's what I be getting for X-mas ;).

[#5 posted by dculberson , October 29, 2008 1:45 PM]

Mavrc, that is actually unenforceable. I used to have a chat with a Microsoft rep about that every now and then, but there was nothing they could legally do about the end user reselling it. They can stop a distributor or retailer from doing so, by not selling to them any more, but they can't stop an individual from reselling it. The doctrine of First Sale says so.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-sale_doctrine

there's even a bit about the fact that Microsoft tried suing a college student who bought and re-sold educational software. They dropped the case after he counter-sued, settling with him on the counter-suit.

[#6 posted by dculberson , October 29, 2008 1:55 PM]

Also from the same Wikipedia article:

In 2008, in Timothy S. Vernor v. Autodesk Inc., a U.S. Federal District Judge in Washington rejected a software vendor's argument that it only licensed copies of its software, rather than selling them, and that therefore any resale of the software constituted copyright infringement. Judge Richard A. Jones cited first-sale doctrine when ruling that a reseller was entitled to sell used copies of the vendor's software regardless of any licensing agreement that might have bound the software's previous owners.

[#7 posted by Lonin , October 29, 2008 4:05 PM]

I'm disappointed in the lack of a whore-red reference.

[#8 posted by Rob Beschizza , October 29, 2008 6:33 PM]

It spoke for itself.

Seriously, you can practically hear the stiletto heels click when you open this thing.