Ubuntu Linux Powered Steampunk Laptop (Pre-order, now!)

If you have over $5000 to spend and looking for an Ubuntu Linux powered laptop that also has the ability to run MS Windwos XP, well then you might be interested in the Steampunk Laptop. And when considering the price the first thing that I thought was, we'll be getting a pretty powerful, high-end laptop, in fact it is not. The price actually represents the handwork of the developer rather than the hardware specifications :).

To be honest this is a bit new to me and according to the developer the original design idea has been lying in his site for few years (,over 5 years) and maybe because of the "demand", he says that now you can actually pre-order it. It's not yet 100% completed, but he's close (over 85% completed).

The outer "shell" is made out of wood but underneath lies a HP-ZT1000 Laptop model and let me be clearer about one thing, the ZT1000 does not carry latest hardware specifications. It's been there for a while and when considering things like the...

*. Intel Pentium 4 CPU 1.9-2.2 Ghz.

*. 512MB RAM.

*. 15" Display screen.

*. 40GB HDD.

Oh, it is something!...

*. DVD ROM (combo drive).

*. No Wi-Fi but Bluetooth and v.90 dial-up modem (what tha! :D).

*. Comes pre-installed Windows XP by default. 

*. Little over 2 hours of battery life... as you can see it ain't a "shocker", oh wait, I think it is, in a way ;-).

He wasn't kidding, it really runs Ubuntu (a bit older edition it seems)...

But the Steampunk Ubuntu powered Laptop is not for everyone. So if you want to have a Laptop that comes with a weird looking Victorian style look-n-feel, antique copper keyboard & a mouse, an antique clock embedded into the cover, claw feet, a huge clock winding key mounted closer to touchpad area + the developer has included a PCMCIA Wi-Fi card...  then the Steampunk is pretty good.

As mentioned, when considering the hardware details, don't hope it to run Unity desktop with all those compiz effects but I should be able to run Natty Narwhal in Gnome classic pretty decently. He also seems to build another Steampunk Linux Laptop with an Acer model as well.

Seriously for my taste, it looks ugly as hell :/ but if you have a thing for antiques and computers (they don't go that well together... not yet) and can spend over $5000-7500, oh well, then this might get you interested. I'm pretty sure when you reveal this Laptop to your friends who has a passion for antiques... it'll be a shocker!.