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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."
Considering you can get legit hardware in a netbook now for around $200, getting what is essentially a bag o' crap for half that isn't much of deal.
mmmm...forbidden donut
That's not bad for an open device that will run hostap. At that price, these are essentially disposable. 1800mah is fully powerable by a 28 watt solar charger. You could build motion capture field cameras or something out of them. I love it when tech gets cheap.
Have you ever heard of linux?
Debian (the basis of Ubuntu and by the sounds of TFA the basis of the cherrypal distro) has most applications compiled across very many architectures. It's already in place, drivers for a lot of stuff will be in the kernel. No problem!
(well, not quite, but it does help).
If you:
1. Have a 2 year-old who's obsessed with daddy's laptop who really needs his own so he'll stop bugging you
2. AND you don't want to have to hunt on ebay for an OLPC child-proof laptop that costs the same as it did when it was purchased two years ago
3. AND you don't want to pay over $100 for something that will get destroyed in the first 6 months of usage
Then it's not a bad deal.
Oh come on. For heaven's sake at least standardise on an architecture. I've no problem with some hardware variance (although god help you if you want to image the things) but completely different architectures? It's like feeding Africa by posting out half-eaten leftovers rather than aid parcels.
it's because they're *cheap* - if you want guaranteed hardware for 3 years, you buy corporate desktops and laptops: case in point - Dell have the inspiron and lattitude range of laptops. Pretty much the same thing inside usually - but the latt's are slightly better at taking abuse, fit docking stations, and *guarantee hardware for a set period*. All big vendors do this: IBM, Fujitsu, etc.
You assume they need to offer binary compatibility for different architectures; they don't. You install everything from the repositories, which will have ARM, x86/x86_64, MIPS etc versions for everything; and those versions will have been tested by the large Debian community for each architecture. All that is needed is source-code compatibility, which is usually ensured in FLOSS.
Now, WinCE is another beast. I have no idea about their plans for that; but in Linux, there is no problem with this strategy.
Thank you for your anecdotal evidence, it's completely useless.
"It's what the OLPC should have been.
Commodity hardware, whatever's cheapest.
And a Linux-based OS"
OLPC is that and more: sunlight readable screen, robust, wireless mesh networking, even more energy efficient than this "Africa" device.
Why would you do that?
These things are going to be built in batches, not in one-off weird configs. If I'm reading it right. There may be a bit of work every time the hardware changes, sure, it's not a trivial thing, but I didn't get the impression that every one was going to be a unique snowflake.
Yeah, they were doing just fine with cannibalism, genocidal wars, civil wars, and general instability.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
I hope they charge a restocking fee at least. It wouldn't be unreasonable, and would curb that problem.
Yes, it was all cake and ponies before the white man showed up. The intrinsic nature of mankind as a whole is pure and wholesome. Greed, war, slavery, and famine were new concepts originated by Europeans.
There may be truth in what you say, but if so, I think the underlying causes have to do with economics and technology. Basic human nature is roughly similar across cultures. Right?