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."

256MB RAM?

[Anonymous Coward]

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...

Better for west than OLPC

[abigsmurf]

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.

grown up version soon?

[bazorg]

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...

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

[Anonymous Coward]

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....

Re:Third world countries

[Ankh]

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.

Re:Four hours battery?

[flyingfsck]

They should put Vista on it too. It would make an excellent demo for Linux, having two machines side by side - one running Vista/XP (and practically unusable), the other Linux.

Re:One more time around this block

[AvitarX]

Part of what OLPC does though is make teching cheaper.

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. This allows for more time to be spent on productive things which is what computers are all about.

Re:OLPC Memories?

[swillden]

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.