Intel reveals Ubuntu OS-powered Compute Stick priced at $110

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INTEL HAS MADE AVAILABLE a new version of its Compute Stick pocket PC running Canonical's Ubuntu operating system.
 
The Ubuntu 14.04 LTS-powered STCK1A8LFC has been up for pre-order for some time, but we've had limited details on specs until now.
 
Intel officially announced the new flavour of the pocket PC today, priced at $110 (about £70) with a stated sale date of "next week". 
 
However, the Ubuntu falls short when compared with the Windows version. The Ubuntu model has half the RAM at 1GB, and a quarter of the on-board storage at 8GB.
 
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$110 is a good price for a stick PC, but the specs seem somewhat low especially the 8GB of storage. The 1GB of RAM is okay for Ubuntu Linux if you use the LXDE or Xfce lightweight desktop environment, or mainly use Ubuntu in command-line mode.
 
The Raspberry Pi 2 seems like a better deal since it is only $35, and runs Debian which is what Ubuntu is based on. But, you need to use your own MicroSD Card, HDMI, case, and Micro-USB power adapter. Although Adobe Flash Player will probably work better on the Intel Compute Stick than the Raspberry Pi 2 because Adobe Flash seems to work best on AMD, and Intel chips in my experience.
 
I agree, I would expect better specs for a PC made by Intel which cost $110. It is too bad that Intel is selling less powerful Ubuntu Stick PC.

There are cheaper alternative for Stick PC  Users. Amazon sells a $104.99 MeeGoPad Windows 8.1 Stick PC with 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and Intel Bay Trail Z3735F Quad Core Atom 1.83 GHz CPU which has nicer specs than Intel Compute Stick with Ubunto.

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I bet, installing Ubuntu on the MeeGoPad Stick PC is possible. Users can always run Ubuntu on a virtual machine like VMWare and VirtualBox in Windows 8.1 to run Ubuntu within a virual machine window in Windows.
 
This is simply too low to have any meaningful practical use. 1GB of RAM is barely enough for phones nowadays let alone a 'PC', I feel they went backwards a little bit with this release.
 
Rux said:
This is simply too low to have any meaningful practical use. 1GB of RAM is barely enough for phones nowadays let alone a 'PC', I feel they went backwards a little bit with this release.
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There are still many phones with 1GB of RAM like the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, and cheaper Windows Phone and Android phones like the Motorola Moto E which run at a good speed with 1GB of RAM.

I mainly feel the price is a little high for a PC with 1GB RAM, and 8GB storage. The price should be around $80-100, but I guest buying PCs from Intel is more expensive like buying PCs from Apple, and Alienware.

Ubuntu Linux, and other Linux based operating systems like Puppy Linux are pretty lightweight, and can work well even on PCs with 1GB of RAM, and 1GHz CPU which is enough to play higher quality video, web browsing, office work, and do other daily tasks. Ubuntu can also play less intensive games like Assault Cube, Quake 3, and Tux Racer on slower machines.

Ubuntu Minimum System requirements are very low compared to other modern operating system.

700 MHz processor (about Intel Celeron or better)
512 MiB RAM (system memory)
5 GB of hard-drive space (or USB stick, memory card or external drive but see LiveCD for an alternative approach)
VGA capable of 1024x768 screen resolution
Either a CD/DVD drive or a USB port for the installer media
Internet access is helpful
 
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Oh, so Ubuntu doesn't need that much RAM to function, but still. That's too low. I had a 1GB netbook a few years ago (won it from a competition at school). It had Windows 7 Starter and it was consuming %50 RAM and CPU from that alone. I installed XP instead. While it didn't lag when I had nothing running, it was almost impossible to start more than two programs at a time, and if you're using more than one tab on a browser, forget that other program or everything will crash due to lack of memory. How 1GB will be practical for a PC is something I can't wrap my mind around.
 
Rux said:
Oh, so Ubuntu doesn't need that much RAM to function, but still. That's too low. I had a 1GB netbook a few years ago (won it from a competition at school). It had Windows 7 Starter and it was consuming %50 RAM and CPU from that alone. I installed XP instead. While it didn't lag when I had nothing running, it was almost impossible to start more than two programs at a time, and if you're using more than one tab on a browser, forget that other program or everything will crash due to lack of memory. How 1GB will be practical for a PC is something I can't wrap my mind around.
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That's a pretty nice for a school prize since schools usually give things like a T-shirt or Cup with the schools logo on it here.

The Netbook slowdown problem could be caused by heat problems. Netbook's CPU and Memory usually slow itself down when a netbook CPU temperature is too hot to prevent heat from damaging the netbook.

1GB of RAM can still be enough RAM  for a computer depending on what you use your PC for. I run Ubuntu 15, Windows Vista, 7, and 8/8.1 on an old desktop computer with 1GB of RAM, and an Intel Core2Dou 1.86 GHz CPU. I mostly use the PC for web browsing, editing text and html files, watching video, listening to music, office work, basic photo, sound, and video editing, and printing, and scanning documents.

When I was in school a few years ago, the Windows XP desktop computers ran on a Intel Dual-Core CPU with 1GB of RAM, and they ran Microsoft Office 2007, Dreamweaver, Windows Media Player, Virtual PC/VMWare, Visual Studios, and Math and Educational software pretty well.

I own a PC with a Pentium 4 1.6 GHz CPU, 1GB of RAM, and use Windows XP as its operating system, and it runs pretty well for web browsing, listening to music, watching video, and office work. I can also run 2 or more program installers on the PC at the same time to install 2 programs at once, and there are no slowdown problems.
 
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