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Registered Member #505
Joined: Sun Nov 19 2006, 06:42PM
Location: Yorkshire!
Posts: 329
It's going to be available for sale to the public too - however, you have to buy two, with one going to the developing world )from BBC News)
This is quite a good way to persuade people to buy one for fiddling with whilst another one gets sent to the developing world - an almost ethical compulsive technology purchase!
Registered Member #27
Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 02:20AM
Location: Hyperborea
Posts: 2058
What else is there. Or maybe they should use some imbedded type stuff like Freescale semi type thing.
SPARC, MIPS, ARM and about 5 more are more power efficient for a lower price. They are also are suitable for integrating everything on a single chip to halve the price and reduce the power consumption.
I agree with the Linux, It's free, you can't beat that.
The logic is not good, we are talking about one hundred million to a billion computers. Using a bad choice because it is cheap and will attract hordes of mediocre programmers means that the computer is more expensive since it needs more powerful hardware and hundreds of millions of users will pay extra every minute they use the thing.
In this application the only valid reason for not making the computer more efficient would be "We don't know how and spending $100 000 000 to $5 000 000 000 does not help." The money would come from the $1 to $5 saved on the hardware in each computer. For the reasons that Steve mentioned I am sure they did not even consider it, after all it is about making money, not making a good product.
Another thing is Linux can be scaled up or down to accomadate pretty much any hardware out there.
That it uses two minutes to boot on something that would be considered a supercomputer a couple of decades ago shows that it does not scale down well at all for this kind of application.
It's going to be available for sale to the public too - however, you have to buy two, with one going to the developing world )
Since the price is $150 then it would be $300 + $50 in handling. Not a very cheap laptop, but if it is as rugged as they claim it might still be very good value for money for some users.
Registered Member #65
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 06:43AM
Location:
Posts: 1155
Ah yeah.... linux has been clocked at 200ms boot up to application launch. ( )
And there are people who have replaced most of a normal system bios with a live kernel. Hence it could out-clock even dos. ( )
The trouble is with people who don't understand operating systems and platform specific optimizations. Or use the default bloated monolithic Redhat kernel as a benchmark.
xwindows was a bit of a curse for linux. There were gui's that could fit in under a 2.8MB footprint, but lacked numerous things like compatible applications.
Registered Member #27
Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 02:20AM
Location: Hyperborea
Posts: 2058
It turns out the true price including the extras is $208, that combined with the fact that they really are pushing it as a toy and not as a useful tool makes me believe in Steve's most cynical suspicions.
Registered Member #63
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 06:18AM
Location:
Posts: 1425
I don't think I'm the guy Steve knows, but I'd consider buying several for running half the CNC machines in my workshop here... it sucks having to dedicate a PC to each of them, but I can't find enough reliable 486s with parallel ports by the side of the road. Hell, they only need to run DOS 6.22...
Registered Member #49
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 04:05AM
Location: Bigass Pile of Penguins
Posts: 362
balsamplack wrote ...
I don't think I'm the guy Steve knows, but I'd consider buying several for running half the CNC machines in my workshop here... it sucks having to dedicate a PC to each of them, but I can't find enough reliable 486s with parallel ports by the side of the road. Hell, they only need to run DOS 6.22...
Now theres an idea, I've been trying to find a good cheap way to do the same for a while. I tried running TurboCNC on a DTR-1 , which would have been very sexy, but without a math coprocessor it was....... slow.
Registered Member #27
Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 02:20AM
Location: Hyperborea
Posts: 2058
Nicholas Negroponte, former director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab now head of the nonprofit One Laptop Per Child project, gave analysts and journalists an update on the OLPC project. Two big changes were announced - the $100 OLPC is now the $175 OLPC, and it will be able to run Windows.
Through the Partners in Learning program, Microsoft today announced the Microsoft Student Innovation Suite, an affordable and reliable software package for governments purchasing and giving Windows®-based PCs to primary and secondary students for their personal use at home and for schoolwork. The education suite includes Windows XP Starter Edition, Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007, Microsoft Math 3.0, Learning Essentials 2.0 for Microsoft Office, and Windows Live™ Mail desktop.
Microsoft will offer this suite in the second half of 2007 for $3
I don't think the two are directly related but the whole OLPC project smells fishy.
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$100 dollar laptop (now $188)
