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Mandriva Linux pre-installed on Intel's Classmate
Posted by
Hemos
on Mon Apr 02, 2007 08:23 AM
from the a-brighter-tomorrow dept.
from the a-brighter-tomorrow dept.
boklm writes "Mandriva announced it will have a version of its Mandriva Linux 2007 pre-installed on Intel's new low-end laptop for students in developing countries, the Classmate PC.
This laptop comes with 256MB of RAM, 1 or 2GB of flash memory, 802.11b/g WiFi, 10/100Mbps ethernet, 2 USB ports, a 7-inch LCD display and 4 hours battery.
Produced in Brazil, shipping is expected to begin in the second quarter of this year, and will be available to Mexico, India, and developing countries."
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OLPC Clone? (Score:3, Insightful)
But what the hell, WHY NOT.
Re:OLPC Clone? (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
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256MB RAM? (Score:1, Interesting)
And no, you don't end up telling students to use TWM, SIAG Office and Links...
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Suites also work well internally to share libs. KDe takes less RAM iff you use Konqueror iso FireFox, and KEdit iso OpenOffice. Mixed suites eats RAM.
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One important point: with such a small screen, it's unlikely the users will want to keep too many apps open at once.
There are virtual desktops.
KDe takes less RAM iff you use Konqueror iso FireFox, and KEdit iso OpenOffice. Mixed suites eats RAM.
Gold truth, but I'd have settled for something XFCE based maybe (Xubuntu comes to mind).
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On the countrary (Score:2)
But flash tends to be sensitive to writing-intensive softwares.
Four hours battery? (Score:4, Insightful)
The spec sheet also shows Windows XP pro as one of the operating systems. What up wit dat? I thought Linux was the os of choice because it could be stripped to just the essentials.
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Tiny screens. (Score:2, Funny)
Good to see they thought to include essentials... (Score:4, Insightful)
1.2: now with 50% more potentially restrictive evil!
Third world countries (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Third world countries (Score:4, Interesting)
On the other hand, they are quickly going to need more Mandriva distribution mirrors in the countries where these new computers are sold, and Mandriva is going to need to work on keeping them reliable.
Parent
Nothing but control: TPM, remote monitoring (Score:2, Informative)
Better for west than OLPC (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm sure there are plenty of brits here who used Acorn Archimedes at school and know how useless it can be getting taught on an obscure OS.
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Yep, I'm a Brit that remembers using an Acorn. I'm not sure of the OS - the newer ones loaded and ran Windows Terminal Services (ugh) which may have been on top of Archimedes (sadly I never paid much attention to the OS back then). I'm surprised at your sentiments about being taught on a so-called "obscure OS" though. I think it's a Damn Good Thing(TM). It's often repeated here that most folk don't learn how to use computers; they just learn to repeat steps that achieve the desired result (eg 'reboot to fix
This is great! (Score:2)
When will Linux desktop shipments outstrip Mac OSX? Microsoft Windows? I evaluated as of Oct 24 with the release of Fedora Core 6 that the Linux Desktop is on parity with Windows. Novell SUSE, Madriva, and Ubuntu are all great desktops. Some features are superior to Windows. Some need some polish. W
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http://www.serviza.com/2/Notebooks.htm [serviza.com]
That's a fast processor you've got there. I didn't even think they made dual core 2.2Mhz processors.
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Dooh! That was supposed to be the 8MHz semi-processor. Thanks for pointing out the error.
Tim
grown up version soon? (Score:3, Interesting)
Why can't I get one of these!?!? (Score:3, Interesting)
OS non exclusive (Score:2)
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"The survival of the fitest".
My prediction: many (if not all) will choose Mandriva Linux.
Peace!
It's a totally offensive colour!!! (Score:2)
Who is the ignorant insensitive clod who designed this hideous offensive brick?
Do they not know that you just do not package anything coloured turquoise if you wish to sell it anywhere in the Islamic world?
Well they do now.
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http://travel.webshots.com/photo/10955124820501667 00BhIQko [webshots.com]
Re:OLPC Memories? (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
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People in USA or other "developed" countries might just not be able to understand this. But I know the availability of these kind of computers is something beneficial for Mexico.
Take as an example something that happened some 4 years ago (more or less, around 2003). I was somewhere in Mexico in a friend's Internet Cafe who also sells and repairs computers (btw beige bo
Re:OLPC Memories? (Score:4, Interesting)
To add another data point, I spent time in rural southeastern Mexico and the campesinos have plenty to eat -- farmers rarely go hungry except during severe drought and the like, and fresh water isn't a problem in the rain-soaked tropics -- but computers are almost unheard-of luxuries. In many cases, electricity is something of a luxury, too, so a standard PC would be basically unusable, even if it could be purchased. These people would get a great deal of benefit from the OLPC, both because it would help educate their children (who often live too far from a school and have to work too much to make attendance feasible) and because it would provide them with a way to get useful information about farming and markets. I could see a young, computer-savvy campesino taking the bus into town to do research on farming techniques and grabbing a download onto his OLPC so that others could read it back home.
Information is power, and the OLPC is about empowering those who are surviving okay, but don't have the opportunity to rise above their present condition.
Parent
Re:OLPC Memories? (Score:5, Insightful)
But on a serious note, these people don't need toy computers, especially when the actual cost of a real computer is not that much more.
(Note: I'm not sure if you're talking about the Classmate or the OLPC. I'm responding about the OLPC)
You need to learn more about what the OLPC is. It's not a toy computer, and it's certainly not just a scaled-down, limited version of the PC that you use. Unless you're still in high school, it's more powerful than the computer you learned on, and it's a computer that has been designed from the ground up as an educational tool for kids. It provides a toolset for kids ranging from those who can't even read yet (the basic UI is completely icon-based -- no text at all) through those who want to engage in serious hacking, and provides a smooth continuum of computer use experiences in between. Along the way, it also provides a vehicle for electronic texts, computer art, communications, simulated labs, etc. A "real" computer could do most of the latter, but not all, and does a fairly poor job of the former.
There are also hardware-related issues. "Real" laptops aren't nearly as durable as the OLPC, don't provide the same wireless networking infrastructure and pose significant problems in areas where power isn't easily available.
Not only does a real computer not accomplish the goals of the OLPC as well as the OLPC, it also does cost "that much more". To you and I, the difference between a $130 OLPC and a $300 low-end laptop is insignificant, but only because $170 isn't really significant to us anyway. To people to whom $130 is a lot of money, more than doubling the cost is a big deal. Of course, the OLPC project doesn't plan on selling to the people directly, but to the governments, and any large organization buying millions of anything cares about a 130% price difference.
More than likely when these things are given away, they will for the most part end up on eBay after having been converted to something that these people find more useful, money.
Undoubtedly, that's a problem. I don't think it's a large problem, however.
I spent two years living and working with very poor people in Mexico (and they're actually well off by the standards of some of the areas targeted by the OLPC -- they almost all have electricity, for example) and also spent a bit of time with people in similar situations in Jamaica. One thing I noticed was that most of the parents placed a huge importance on their children's educations. They knew very well that the only avenue available for their kids to obtain a better life was to acquire a good education, and these parents sacrificed a great deal to make sure their kids could learn as much as possible. Of course, even with all the parents could do, the opportunities were limited. Only rich kids' schools could afford computers, of course, and many of the kids had to work part time so that the family could eat. They tried to arrange things so that this word didn't interfere with schooling, but sometimes it just wasn't possible.
I really, really doubt that such families would even dream of selling their children's OLPCs, unless they got into a situation where they truly were starving to death. The idea that their kids could jump into the computer age, learning high tech skills that would allow them to compete internationally for high-paying jobs (yes, taking our jobs away) would make it clear that the value of keeping the OLPC and using it for its intended purpose vastly outweighed any short-term monetary windfall they might percieve.
Keep in mind, too, that these parents want their children to get ahead not just because they love their children, but because their own futures depend on the kids' success as well. For better or worse, the industrialized world has moved away from the idea that adult children are responsible for the welfare of their aging parents, but in much of the world the idea is not only prevalent, it's the only way for elderly
Parent
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A computer adopted to the needs of a specific market and that is part of a project including software, support, and related products and services targetted to that markets needs—as the OLPC is, though the Classmate seems less so, at least from what I've heard so far—is not a "toy" simply because it is not adapted for a completely different market's needs.
But, ye
One more time around this block (Score:3, Insightful)
With the right information, you can increase the yield of your agriculture industry, like much of the world did in the mid-twentieth century [wikipedia.org]. You can increase it a *lot.
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Your answer about the right information increasing your yield is correct. However you left out that it was done without computers. In the poorest countries it may make
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In the US all (most) of the schools can afford textbooks. OLPC could very quickly pay for itself and increase the availability of up to date information. These are problems that only the worse of US schools have so there is not a real parallel.
You ask why not use the local people to write the books and print them? I ask why not use local people to write the lessons in HTML?
Things like tests can be distributed for free, instead of written out by hand.
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You could but then you are not creating jobs in country for the people doing the printing, makeing the paper, growing the trees or plants you make the paper from, harvest the plants or trees that you make the paper from, and distributing the text books. Most of the costs of a text book are profits for the publishers. Printing is cheap and every penny kept in country is less d
Broken window fallacy (Score:3, Informative)
You ask why not use the local people to write the books and print them? I ask why not use local people to write the lessons in HTML?
You could but then you are not creating jobs in country for the people doing the printing, makeing the paper, growing the trees or plants you make the paper from, harvest the plants or trees that you make the paper from, and distributing the text books.
Keeping education based on paper to boost the paper industry is much like vandalizing shops to boost the glass industry [wikipedia.org]. That's not education; that's Animal Crossing. If an XO laptop is cheaper than a set of books, then it is a more efficient use of scarce resources.
Basic grammar and spelling doesn't change
O RLY? See Wikipedia articles Language change [wikipedia.org] and Spelling reform [wikipedia.org].
Why not pay a little more and build them in say Mexico, Brazil, or any number of countries that are not exactly at the bottom of the economic ladder but also not at the top. That way you would increase their technical level and economy as well?
That could very well happen under OLPC as these economies grow.
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Well I think creating the text book is educating. The people making the paper and running the press probably are not qualified to be teachers. It was more an example of how one could think that the OLPC isn't a clear cut "great idea".
The real point is that people in the poorest counties need JOBS. They need opportunity. Microloans are a great idea and should
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Alas, no. You're clearly very informed, but this line of argument is just an extended broken-windows fallacy, as another replier points out.
What the people in the poorest countries need is GROWTH. Genuine economic growth, based on economic problems being solved in the most efficient way possible. Which, I agree, is often through microcredits, giving the native population a leg up so they can use their intimate understanding of those economic
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but you see that is the problem. You get blanket statements like the OPLC is a great idea and other that say that it is a total waste. It is really easy to just write a blanket statement and frankly this is slashdot so short messages without depth are to be expected. What I find so sad is that a statement like the OLPC is a waste seem to inspire people that thi
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For example, developed-world farmers fab a lot of their own equipment, including converting old buses and trucks into effective tractors.
A new tractor may be just a dream for a poor farmer, but bobbing a truck chassis and adding hydraulics driven from the power steering pump might be doable.
OLPC is for helping people who really leverage information. Most will probably go to waste, but tha
Re:OLPC Memories? (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem is, you don't teach people to use computers, administer computers, build computers, repair computers, and program computers if you don't have enough computers to make these viable career choices. Once the people get their hands on these systems and learn to use them, there will be a market for higher-end systems, and a skilled workforce ready to use them. Much of the world skipped wired phone systems and went straight to cellular. This effort looks designed to skip the steno pool and the industrial manufacturing economy. If developing countries can go straight to lightweight manufacturing plus information economy instead of going through the heavy manufacturing phase most of today's big economies did, it'll be faster for them. It'll also be better for the world economy, less polluting, and maybe even cause fewer wars over access to resources.
Parent
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Yeah! And what of these charities that teach them literacy and give them medicine? What the hell. They need food, not books and healthcare. They dont need condoms, or clean clothing either. Clean water? For what? Like you said they need food only! Schools are for overfed westerners only.
Obviously, the goal of the olpc and 99% of charitable donations in third world countries is not related directly to food. Lets not pretend that it is. Everytime I hear 'they need food'
Re:Low end? (Score:4, Insightful)
I doubt you will convince them that a $400 laptop == $4,000 laptop for their purpose. They are impervious to reasoning.
Parent
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Since Mandriva presumably wants to make money instead of "just" being a non-profit charity I seriously think they should go the route of FreePlay radio. Market in the first world and charge at an appropriate sweet spot -- if only to help support the 3rd world effort.
Just because I have electricity doesn't mean I didn't love my original FreePlay. They probably sold as many in the 1st world as they did in the 3rd.
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