Kogan launches 10-inch, Linux-powered netbook

The Kogan Agora Netbook has a 10-inch screen and ships with gOS

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Marketing success story Kogan Technologies has announced what it claims is Australia’s cheapest 10-inch netbook computer powered by the Linux-based gOS operating system.

At $499 the Agora Netbook has an Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz processor, 1GB RAM, three cell battery, gOS pre-installed and weighs in at 1.2Kg.

Its 1.5Kg bigger sister, the Agora Netbook PRO, costs $539 and includes 2Gb of RAM, a Bluetooth module, and a six cell battery.

Both products have a 160Gb hard disk, Intel 950 graphics, a 1.4 megapixel webcam, 802.11b/g wireless, three USB ports, a multi-card reader, and will (hopefully) ship to customers on April 10.

Kogan Technologies founder and director, Ruslan Kogan, said customer feedback was essential in designing “the best value netbook in the market”.

“Through our blog we directly asked our customers what sort of features they wanted to see in the Kogan netbook,” he said.

“We had tremendous feedback, with many of the suggestions making their way into the final product. We worked hard to balance the desires of our customers with the ongoing need for value for money.”

Kogan said the Agora brand is based on “open source principles”.

“I’m a strong believer in the values of an open market place, which is where the Agora naming originates,” he said. “As such, the Agora Netbook range will ship pre-installed with an open source operating system.”

“By using the gOS operating system, we are bringing our customers one step closer to cloud computing. The operating system facilitates easy access to a number of Google services, as well as a host of easy to use, powerful open source programs.”

The Agora Netbook range will come pre-installed with gOS - a [[xref:https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DerivativeTeam/Derivatives/gOS|derivative of Ubuntu Linux – but the support team will guide customers through the process of installing other operating systems.

Kogan Technologies has tested several alternatives, all of which worked “very well, including Ubuntu Netbook Remix, KDE4 [presumably Kubuntu], Windows XP, and Windows 7 [presumably a beta]”.

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