Following up on my earlier post about these mini-PCs, I see that the company has a “buy 3, get one free” special right now. After factoring in shipping costs, that would drop the unit price to $85.52.

Except I don’t need 4 of these things. If any of my local readers want one, we could do a little group-buy and save a bunch of money. Comment or email if you’re interested.

EDIT: Josh had a good idea; I’m willing to re-ship the machines to anyone who wants in. Cost would be $85.52 plus actual shipping to you; I’m not looking to make any money on this.

If you’re interested in having me pre-install an operating system for you, that can probably be arranged… just leave a comment or email.

So, among all the serious computer geeks on my blogroll, I’m sure at least TWO of you want in on this

UPDATE 2: As existingthing pointed out, and as I should have pointed out, these machines can run Linux. They’ll also work with NetBSD and Windows CE. Looking at the specs, I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t run Windows 98 or 2000, but I can’t guarantee that.

Also note that they ship with blank hard drives and no CD or floppy, so you’ll have to get a bit creative when it comes to OS installation. You can install Linux, NetBSD, or (probably) Win2k from a USB flash drive. Alternately, you could remove the hard drive, put it in another PC or an external enclosure, install your OS of choice, and then put it back in the decTOP. I’m going to use a flash drive to install Linux on mine.