[GRLUG] Pre-installed Linux on laptops

[Bob Kline]

On Tue, Jan 26, 2010 at 3:16 PM, Michael Mol <mikemol at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 1/26/2010 3:09 PM, Bob Kline wrote:
> >
> > What I find strange is that most of
> > them come with 160GB drives now.
> > I'd thought the trend would be to
> > a few GB of RAM, and maybe 16GB
> > of flash.  All for fast bootup, and
> > ruggedness.  For portable use one
> > doesn't need a hard drive IMHO.  And
> > I'm sure they eat up a lot of the cost
> > of the devices now.
> >
> >      -- Bob
>
> 160GB 2.5" magnetic drives are the sweet spot right now.
>
> At this point, I expect increasing demand on on flash media will
> actually cause a shortage, rather than drive down manufacturing costs as
> part of economies of scale. IIRC, silicon memory manufactures were
> convicted of antitrust and/or price fixing activities *twice* in the
> last two decades.
>
> Of course, if China follows through on its promise to stop shipping the
> rare earth metals that go into the supermagnets used in magnetic
> spinning disk drives, then the price equation will change dramatically.
>
>
If I look at Amazon, or newegg.com,
flash drives are coming down fast.
Don't know about big SSDs, but I
wouldn't need 256GB anyway.

Re rare earths, good point.  Oddly,
China apparently has the bulk of the
known sources right now.  The US has
some, owned by a small oil
company, and China tried to buy that
a year or two ago, no doubt to seal its
near monopoly.  Congress stopped the
sale at the last minute.

I suspect these are not the only
sources, and if the prices go up
enough, someone will start looking.
Lithium and uranium are two other
metals that seem to be concentrated.
Australia produces a lot of the world's
output of uranium just now.  Bolivia,
or some country nearby, has vast
amounts of lithium salts.  Think
electric car batteries, at least some day.

    -- Bob
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