HP Coupons

Introducing Mini Mi...

Last year, several sections were added to Themebot for laptop deals with coupons from various computer vendors. That area of the site was pretty small. I would hand-pick the best deals and post them there so that visitors could save money. The main focus was computer companies that provide laptops with Linux pre-installed. Shortly after adding a section for HP coupon codes, I decided it would be better to move this to a completely separate website, so that it could be more easily maintained and expanded to provide many more coupons and deals than what is possible in a small section on Themebot. Thus, Coupons Dealuxe was created and the HP Coupons section was transferred over. Be sure to check it out if you are looking to buy a new HP laptop or desktop. The HP coupons for laptops tend to go very quickly, sometimes reaching the redemptions cap in less than 24 hours.

Recently, I won an HP Mini 1000 Mi Netbook in a drawing. WOOHOO! I was even more excited when I found out that the Mini 1000 Mi would be shipping with an operating system based on Ubuntu. I was a little concerned that HP may have neutered Ubuntu to provide the Mobile internet experience. "Mi" is an acronym for "Mobile internet". I guess HP didn't want to scare anybody with the idea of using Linux :P

So, I got the HP Mini 1000 Mi about a week ago. Let's just call it Mini Mi.

Does Dr. Evil approve?

Yes! The Mini Mi is better than frickin' sharks with laser beams attached to their heads!

I haven't even gotten around to writing a full review for my New MacBook yet and I already have another new toy to play with. I don't know if I should start feeling geeky now that I own three laptops. Well, technically the Mini Mi is a netbook. However, I could see owning one as an only computer for people who aren't power users. It would also make a great secondary computer for people who are power users and need a toteable laptop to use when away from home. The Mini Mi is a well-equiped and an amazingly feature-rich laptop considering the size, weight and price (starting at $329).

Back to Ubuntu. I believe that this is the first consumer oriented HP laptop / computer to ship with a Linux operating system pre-installed. And, I was very happy to find out that HP didn't neuter Ubuntu. In fact, it ships with a full-blown Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy install and I have full access to everything I would want to configure in Ubuntu. I was able to open up a terminal window and edit the xorg.conf file, etc. HP provides a very nice looking theme for Ubuntu and a simplified launch panel for running applications etc. I'm probably going to try installing Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope when it is released about a month and a half from now. I think most computer users will appreciate the Mobile internet experience and the customizations HP has made. And, advanced users will appreciate being able to fine-tune and do advanced Linux stuff with Ubuntu under the hood.

As far as I know, Dell is the only other big name computer company shipping laptops with Ubuntu or even shipping mainstream consumer-oriented computers with Linux at all. Hopefully, more companies will start doing this.

Okay, I'm off to play with Mini Mi. A full review should be coming soon.