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CherryPal's $99 "Odd Lots" Netbook
Robotech_Master writes "CherryPal, which Slashdot last covered back in 2008, has released a $99 netbook, the Africa, aimed at the developing world but (unlike the OLPC) available for sale to the consumer. But unlike most netbooks, the Africa is not actually made to a set design. Instead, it uses a hacker-like approach similar to the way home PC builders build their cheap beige boxes. CherryPal purchases odd lots of whatever components are available most inexpensively, builds netbooks out of them, and calls them Africas. The resulting machines will at least meet and may exceed the minimum specs given on CherryPal's website, and may be built around an ARM, MIPS, or X86-based CPU depending on what parts CherryPal has on hand at the time. The device ships with 'at least' Windows CE or CherryPal's custom 'Green Maraschino' Debian-based Linux distro."
They're slogan should be "works with nothing." How can you develop much of anything with such a shotgun approach to hardware. It's more like a phone family than a computer. I'm sure it can be done, but nothing will run quickly (since everything has to be interpreted for the processor installed) unless it's compiled across all chipsets. Talk about a driver support nightmare.
This would be good for the hacker kids of the 1970s/1980s - lots of time to play around, no mature apps (that cost less than $1000), and no real expectation that you could get real work done on a small computer.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
> I think this product is great even if for nothing more
> than the conversations it can generate that will bring
> more awareness about the needs in developing countries.
These so-called "developing" countries were doing just fine, and had a lot less problems *before* we had *any* awareness of their existence.