Mandriva Linux pre-installed on Intel's Classmate

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."

OLPC Clone?

Certainly looks like an OLPC Clone to me.

But what the hell, WHY NOT.

Re:OLPC Clone?

An OLPC clone is exactly what it is. Most analysts give OLPC little chance of long-term success. But if any aspect of the OLPC experiment reveals a previously unknown market for computers, the big players like Intel and Microsoft want to be prepared to move in. The potential upside is huge. Currently computers are only sold to a small fraction of the world's population; finding a way to turn the billions of non-computer users into new computer consumers would be a market far to big for any computer company to ignore.

256MB RAM?

Erk. Imagine running KDE/Gnome, Firefox and OpenOffice.org simultaneously on that machine! Not to knock Linux, but it's very weighty on the desktop (although Vista has caught up!) and you really need 512MB if you don't want thrashing.

And no, you don't end up telling students to use TWM, SIAG Office and Links...

Low end?

Why is this a "low end" system? Is it because it is targeted at the non-US, non-EU market?

I'd consider it "efficient" rather than low end. It's efficient because it will not come with a load of hardware that is not needed at a cost that is not needed.

There are people spending $4K on a system with a 7"-ish monitor who will use it only for email. Perhaps this would be a better system for that market.

Re:Low end?

Those same people spend $6.00 for a coffee with a fancy, nonsensical "foreign" name and a 500% markup on designer cigarettes that don't even come with designer cancer.

I doubt you will convince them that a $400 laptop == $4,000 laptop for their purpose. They are impervious to reasoning.

Four hours battery?

The school day around here is a lot longer than four hours. OLPC paid a lot of attention to the power supply. The spec sheet for this one just shows the battery and mentions an adapter. I'm presuming that the laptop would take the place of text books and as such it would be on all day.

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.

Tiny screens.

I for one, welcome our new acquired-myopia suffering young overlords.

Good to see they thought to include essentials...

TPM 1.2 [wikipedia.org]

1.2: now with 50% more potentially restrictive evil! :P

Third world countries

Heh. Making them use RPM should keep them third world for a long time.

Re:Third world countries

For what it's worth, Mandriva has for years (OK, from when they were Mandrake) used RPM-format packages, with package management called "urpmi", which you could think of (if you wanted to) as a slightly improved improved apt-get. You can also use apt-get if you like. Or rpmdrake or Smart. All of which, including urpmi, will download packages automatically, including all dependencies.

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.

Nothing but control: TPM, remote monitoring

When you compare the features and goals of the OLPC with the Intel Classmate PC, it's almost as if Intel is pushing it as an instrument of control. Don't forget that Mandriva Linux is only one of the available options and the unit comes with a TPM as standard, enhanced 'remote surveillance' and censorship software such as 'Teacher Control' and 'Parent Control'. The unit is a complete antithesis to the OLPC and appears to be nothing more than a cost-down PC with 'Big Brother' features. What a shame since I was praising Intel this morning over their new d80211-based open source wireless LAN driver for Linux - and now I see this.

Better for west than OLPC

This seems to be a much better system for Western school kids (and geeks). A 900mhz ULV intel opposed to a 350mhz AMD Geode will be a huge huge difference. Also key is the fact it's using a real life OS, either XP or this linux distro. The OLPC uses a highly customised OS which bears little resemblance in terms of usage to anything else and despite being OSS, doesn't have a great deal of compatibility from what the devs are saying.

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.

This is great!

So is Win-Tel dead now that Intel is selling Linux? Imaginge the millions of people running Linux and contributing to Open Source. Sourceforge is going to have to innovate fast to keep things running efficiently.

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. We even have offered an "OpenBooter" with the top desktop Linuces pre-installed. Simply plug into your USB and fire away. (Of course old computers need to boot from a helper CD due to their BIOS not being able to boot from a USB drive.)

TimJowers, http://www.serviza.com/ [serviza.com] 2007 will be remembered as the Year of Open Source. The year the market realized its technical superiority in many areas and its order-of-magnitude faster development cycles.

Does this still have a M$ tax

No matter what OS comes on this, I will bet that the usual Microsoft Tax is still included.

We should have broken up Microsoft during the DOJ trial, but I think this could be renewed as soon as the White House switches parties. This time , put some real muscle behind it and break up Microsoft.

The USA needs to do this to even think of remaining competitive with the rest of the world.

Cheers

I'd rather get XP on it!

One of the screenies has it. Doubles the price though, I suppose.

http://www.classmatepc.com/photos/cmpc-3.jpg [classmatepc.com]

grown up version soon?

If only they'd kill the toy-like design and fitted these 7" screens on grown up laptops, I'd be one happy email/OpenOffice user. And they even used NAND instead of harddrives for longer battery life.. must be a tease...

and a million little hackers

are born...

Why can't I get one of these!?!?

Why can't I get one (or five) of these! This would be perfect for a low end semi-thin client. Get a single powerful server machine for the house, and run CPU intensive tasks from there, and get one of these for each person in the family. It's still powerful enough to use on its own for tasks outside of the house, and it looks small and light enough to actually take places. If it just had a hand crank for power....

OS non exclusive

What the poster forgot to mention is that Mandriva is one of the possible option available for the Classmate, the other being Windows XP. I wonder given the choice how many kids would opt for Mandriva...

How do you say Mandriva in english?

I find it curious that, at the time of my posting anyway, not one person seemed interested in discussing this article from the perspective of Mandriva's future plans. All discussions seem to be based on the value of the OLPC or an OLPC clone, or the value of cheap systems to third world nations, food vs. education, etc, etc ...

Considering Mandriva has attempted to make inroads into certain African nations recently, and remembering that they still have the easiest to install and maintain system out there for the average Linux rookie, I would think a gang of Linux geeks (such as is the norm on /.) would be speculating as to the future goals of our favourite french distro.

Shouldn't we at least have a distro flame war or something? :-)

It's a totally offensive colour!!!

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.

Pre-installed?

WtF does pre-installed mean? They installed it before they installed it? Perhaps they meant "Comes with Mandriva installed". Pre means BEFORE, not ahead of time. The more you know!

Re:OLPC Memories?

Bah, what part of "these aren't for the starving people instead of aid" do you not understand? these are for people who have food but lack a complex economy which would be needed to take advantage of the global world's purchasing needs. Maybe if they had these computers they could start to learn SKILLS which will be useful to them in generating money for themselves and their region.

Re:OLPC Memories?

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

Re:OLPC Memories?

But this gives you a panorama for how is there people that do not have a computer but is also not *starving*to death

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.

Re:OLPC Memories?

Silicon chips. They're like potato chips, only slightly crunchier.

One more time around this block

I wonder if some of you realize it's pretty *offensive to assume that everyone outside of your own affluent country is a barely-human organism subsisting on tree bark or whatever. But here's how laptops feed them:

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.

Re:OLPC Memories?

These are not in place of food. They are meant to address a bootstrap problem. A good way to get a country from "developing" to "developed" is to introduce a skill-based service economy. There's no carbon emissions except from the power sources for the computers. There's no huge 8-lane highways needed to ship materials. Intel can sell more chips to them once they start buying higher-end replacement machines. ;-)

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.

Re:OLPC Memories?

>starving people in these countries,

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' not -insert something they also need- jsut shows the ignorance of the person saying this. Maybe we westerners can do with some charitable donation to help with our ignorance problem. Like some kind of wiki thats also an encyclopedia. So we can look things up before we post about them online. Yeah, that would rule...