Microsoft gives away free Netbooks in Australia

By: Pallab Jyotee Hazarika

Make sure to make it to the Microsoft TechEd 2009 Australia next month

Microsoft has a history of giving out free software licenses to developers who attend the technical conferences that is held every now and then. Not that they are cheap, but Microsoft lures the techies by offering something or the other. This might just be the pinnacle of that. Now the US-based company is not only giving TechEd Australia 2009 participants a pre-release copy of Windows 7, but it’ll be installed on a complimentary HP Mini 2140 netbook!

You pay as much as a Macbook Pro to get there by the way, so an HP Mini 2140 that’s already being phased out by HP might not sound like that cool. Although the original entry price is $1999, you’ll get an early bird discount of $300 by registering till 14^th July Mid-night. There are other benefits like Group discounts in multiples of $1000s and 40%off on Certificate exams.

The conference runs from September 8th through 11^th in Gold Coast, Queensland. By that time the RC of Windows 7 is expected anyway. But the full version of Windows 7 won’t be available to the public until October 22^nd, or even later.

HP Mini was the first premium business netbook from HP, and it collected quite a few accolades along the way. The Mini 2140 netbook is equipped with a 10.2-inch 16:9 display. The included processor is the Intel Atom N270 CPU with 1.6 GHz and the Intel 945GSE chipset and an Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 was built in as well. The netbook’s RAM could get expanded up to 2 GB and a common hard drive with a capacity of 160 GB was installed as well. There are also two versions of the drive: one with 5.400 RPM and one with 7.200 RPM. Its biggest drawback is the absence of 3G though, which is the main reason for which the 2140 is being phased out.