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CherryPal's $99 "Odd Lots" Netbook

Posted by timothy on from the cool-approach dept.

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."

39 of 234 comments (clear)

  1. In other words by jyoull · · Score: 4, Funny

    they're using the "Dell Method"

    1. Re:In other words by chill · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Dell has NOTHING on Packard Bell. I'm not sure what happened to them, but their equipment was shit and totally random. There are a few differences with CherryPal, though.

      Since CP has their own Debian distro, people won't have to wonder if their are Linux drivers for the hardware found in the system. If it ships, it works and has drivers. Packard Bell was a challenge. "Oh. They shipped one of THOSE parts this time!"

      PB wasn't guaranteeing minimum specs, they were saying exact specs on CPU, RAM and HD. CP's "at least this" is an interesting idea.

      --
      Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
    2. Re:In other words by RMH101 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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.

    3. Re:In other words by chill · · Score: 2, Informative

      Yeah, I know. With two major exceptions, I've had fairly good luck with Dell desktops, laptops and servers.

      The first they fixed, after lots and lots of threats to pull my business. It only worked because I had a $20,000+ order pending that they made good on swapping out a defective system. I wasn't interested in yet another repair.

      The second is a laptop with the same issue (nVidia graphics chipset that had substrate issues and fried itself) that I just gave up on and purchased a replacement motherboard variant with the Intel chipset. Dell just insisted on sending out repair techs every month when it fried itself again. After the third time I told them never mind and purchased a motherboard from Ebay. I just won't but laptops or desktops from them ever again. Servers, okay. Other PCs, no way.

      --
      Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
    4. Re:In other words by MBGMorden · · Score: 4, Interesting

      As a former Packard Bell owner, I must agree. My Packard Bell (originally a 486 SX 20Mhz with 2MB of RAM and an 80MB hard drive) was the most non-standard thing I'd ever seen.

      Motherboard form factor? Completely made up by them. It had 2 PS/2 ports in the back, a serial port, and a parallel port. It had 4 ISA slots but they were on a riser card. Not reusing this case for anything else.

      Power supply? It was reminiscent of the standard AT power supply in that it was hard on/off, but that too was custom. Instead of cables attached to a switch which completed the circuit (or a switch actually on the box), this thing had a giant plastic arm that ran the length of the case from front to back and into the power supply to toggle on and off.

      The memory expansion slots? It had 4 empty ones - the base 2MB of memory was soldered straight onto the board. To upgrade the thing you had to fill all 4 slots - all or nothing.

      Processor upgrade? They made it an option in the stupidest way. The CPU was soldered straight into the board much like the memory was. If you wanted to upgrade the processor, they provided a SECOND CPU socket that shipped empty. You want to upgrade you had to plug a new CPU into the replacement socket and then use a jumper to tell the board to use that socket instead of the built in CPU.

      I did eventually do some upgrades on it. The 80MB hard drive got moved to 800MB. I bumped the RAM from 2MB to 6MB. Put in a sound card and CD-ROM drive. I also eventually got an Intel Overdrive chip for that extra socket and moved from the 486 SX 20Mhz to a 486 DX 75Mhz (strange that a 55Mhz increase in clock speed made such a difference - back then the machine was several times faster - these days 55Mhz isn't even noticeable :)).

      Still, upgrading that system always was a hassle to find things that worked. Aside from laptops, that was the last mass produced system I ever owned. I just like having the freedom to mix and match parts as I see fit.

      --
      "People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
    5. Re:In other words by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Thank you for your anecdotal evidence, it's completely useless.

    6. Re:In other words by Schnapple · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The 486DX has a built-in co-pro, but the 486SX lines "didn't". Well they did, but it was disabled.

      Boards would have 486SX (soldered on usually, but not always) and a co-pro sockets which was actually just a normal 486 socket. When you bought a 487 math co-pro unit it was actually a full 486DX - it didn't just take on the extra job like the 387 and 287 chips did, it actually took over from the 486SX chip completely. Overdrive sockets and chips were the same thing: just a standard socket and 486DX with a different label - plug it in and the motherboard turns the other processor off.

      I had this exact computer he's referring to and I remember all this. I had always heard conflicting stories - either they just went through and intentionally disabled the coprocessor so they could sell this for less money to a different market, or these were 486DX chips where the math coprocessor was broken (similar to how these days AMD will sell a "tri core" processor which is a quad core processor where one of the four cores is defective)

      Either way it was asinine and brilliant - they sold less expensive processors to those who wanted them and then if they wanted an upgrade they sold them a second processor.

      --

      Schnapple

    7. Re:In other words by oakgrove · · Score: 2, Informative

      I also eventually got an Intel Overdrive chip for that extra socket and moved from the 486 SX 20Mhz to a 486 DX 75Mhz (strange that a 55Mhz increase in clock speed made such a difference - back then the machine was several times faster - these days 55Mhz isn't even noticeable :)).

      Yes, that would have made a huge difference. Something like going from a 1.2 GHz Core2Duo to a 3.6 GHz Core2Duo (this is a simplified example for all of you pedants out there). You have to think of the new clock speed as relative to the old (assuming similar processor family), so going from 20 MHz to 75 would have definitely been over 3 times faster not to mention the addition of faster bus speed and a functional math co-processor.

      --
      The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
    8. Re:In other words by MBGMorden · · Score: 2, Funny

      Thanks for the explanation, but I already knew that ;).

      I was merely commenting on the fact that it was only a 55Mhz jump that did that. Kinda like old folks reminiscing about how sodas used to cost only a nickel :).

      --
      "People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
  2. Interesting by stoolpigeon · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I first heard about these via the white African (a tech guy in Nairobi). There is some interesting discussion there that revolved around capabilities, how realistic the $99 price point is outside the developed world and durability.
     
    Getting these in the U.S. at $99 is pretty easy, but could one get them into an African country at that price? Max Seybold says yes, but I'd like to see it first. Then the question is how well it will sell, even at that price point when up against used hardware with better specs.
     
    I'm all for more choices at the lower end of things. And 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. But ultimately I wonder if this kind of thing is just a stop gap anyway until cheap smart phones and reliable data access are global.

    --
    It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
    1. Re:Interesting by Darkness404 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yeah, they were doing just fine with cannibalism, genocidal wars, civil wars, and general instability.

      --
      Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
  3. seems a bit pricey by castironpigeon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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
    1. Re:seems a bit pricey by Yvan256 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Even worst, a bag o' random crap.

    2. Re:seems a bit pricey by killmenow · · Score: 5, Funny

      A bag of random crap shouldn't cost more than a dollar. But at that price, I'd buy three.

    3. Re:seems a bit pricey by spike2131 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Depends on how easy the crap is to swap out of the bag.

      $200 and no ability to fix things is way worse than $99 and an easy way to replace what breaks. Especially in Africa, where everything breaks, and jury-rigged fixes are the norm.

      --
      SpyDock: Scientific Python in a Docker container
    4. Re:seems a bit pricey by b0bby · · Score: 4, Insightful

      And you'd pay five bucks shipping...

    5. Re:seems a bit pricey by LanMan04 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Assuming the website doesn't crash.

      Oh BoC, why hast thou forsaken me?

      --
      With the first link, the chain is forged.
  4. Hmm, I wonder if I can cherry-pick parts by davidwr · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I wonder, if I'm willing to wait or pay extra, can I specify parts, like "any x86" or "anything but x86"?

    --
    Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
    1. Re:Hmm, I wonder if I can cherry-pick parts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Cherry-pick your Cherry-pal? Genius!

  5. cool by Sir_Real · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  6. Re:It's the anti-apple by Nursie · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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).

  7. Specs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    they are:
    a 400 MHz processor
    256 MB RAM,
    2 GB flash memory,
    Ethernet,
    Wi-Fi,
    2xUSB
    a 7 screen

    (from here) as the links are down

    1. Re:Specs by Robotech_Master · · Score: 2, Informative

      They were when they started shipping them, according to Max's blog post.. They could be offering anything at this point. The only thing they guarantee is that you'll get at least those minimum specs. They don't guarantee that you'll get anything better, but they say you probably will.

      My gut feeling is that you'll almost always come out ahead of the minimum specs on at least one or two facets (like, you might get a better processor if nothing else, or more disk space if nothing else) just because given how prices fluctuate on parts it would be impossible for them to exactly meet the minimum without specifically trying. They would deliberately have set the minimum to be a fallback position that they knew for a fact they could always better at that price range.

      --
      Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
  8. Niche Market by Ukab+the+Great · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

  9. Re:It's the anti-apple by MonsterTrimble · · Score: 4, Informative

    How can you develop much of anything with such a shotgun approach to hardware...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.

    How do we develop programs for anything? We have OSes that run on LOTS of different sets of hardware, and there are lots of programs that run across lots of different OSes. We talk about these daily on Slashdot: Firefox, Thunderbird, Open Office, Pidgin... the list goes on and on. And there is no way you can call any of those apps NOT mature.

    --
    I call it 'The Aristocrats'
  10. ARM/MIPS or X86? by RMH101 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:ARM/MIPS or X86? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I'd be more concerned about the prospect of getting a mix of linux and WinCE, myself.

      Obviously, none of your standard corporate IT minion strategies are going to work with this stuff; but I'd take a mix of architectures, all running linux, over a bunch of machines of a single architecture, running a mix of linux and WinCE.

      Once you get beyond the bootloader, debian/X86 feels almost the same as debian/ARM. WinCE feels like neither linux nor real windows.

    2. Re:ARM/MIPS or X86? by Robotech_Master · · Score: 3, Informative

      You specify which OS you want at time of order, in the "order instructions" box. If you say "give me all Linux, please" they'll do it for you.

      Windows might be more of a standardization issue. From reading between the lines in their blog post (where Max said you'd get "at least" Windows CE, but not Vista or 7), I got the feeling that you might get either Windows CE or Windows XP, depending on which OS the processor they had available that day would support.

      --
      Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
  11. Re:It's the anti-apple by Steve+Max · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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.

  12. Re:I can't wait to see this avaialble in the UK by Robotech_Master · · Score: 3, Informative

    Actually, according to their website, they'll ship anywhere in the world for $19 flat rate shipping. So it will cost whatever $119 comes out to in pounds whenever you order it.

    --
    Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
  13. This is democratisation of hardware by tyroneking · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It's what the OLPC should have been.
    Commodity hardware, whatever's cheapest.
    And a Linux-based OS to boot (no pun intended).
    For f***s sake - how easy they do it - and OLPC had to make things so freaking difficult.
    Obama - please give your spare bank-bailout cash to these guys and get less developed nations on-line before we all go to hell...

    1. Re:This is democratisation of hardware by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "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.

    2. Re:This is democratisation of hardware by sowth · · Score: 2, Interesting

      So? If you get laid off, it isn't as if you will have to starve to death. Even if you didn't save any money, you probably have some charity nearby which will give you food (and shelter, if needed). Even if you were laid off and you came down with a serious illness after your health insurance had expired (assuming your country doesn't have socialized medicine), they would still let you in the hospital, treat you, and if you

      Then again, maybe you live in a stingy asshole country who won't do any of those things for the less fortunate, but I doubt it since even the US does such things, more or less.

      In "less developed" nations, assuming they don't have family which can take care of them (and it would be a real hardship to the family), a person would probably die of starvation if they couldn't find a job after a few months or became disabled from an illness (much more likely without access to good healthcare). They die of illnesses we take for granted. You may think getting laid off is a great setback, but it is nothing like what you'd experience in those countries.

  14. Re:It's the anti-apple by mcgrew · · Score: 4, Funny

    They're slogan should be "works with nothing."

    Dew knot truss yore spill chucker.

    --
    Free Martian Whores!
  15. They will get buried in returns by joeflies · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It doesn't matter that everyone will get at least the minimum configuration. What will happen is that people will find out what the other guy got (posting their configs on the net), and then anyone who didn't get as good of a configuration will return it and get another until they get one with similar spec as the best one out.

  16. How do i get one by robinstar1574 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I can't find out how to get one of these, but I have made a habit of buying one of each major computer posted on slashdot. How do i get one of these?

  17. Re:It's the anti-apple by RMH101 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Seriously? You have nothing better to do than repeatedly install an OS on different hardware? I'd rather play with my arduino...

  18. Re:It's the anti-apple by Nursie · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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.

  19. Can that really be cost effective? by AusIV · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I always thought the reason it was cheaper to build a system from parts than buy a pre-built box was just a matter of scale. It's not hard to find a handful of parts that are on sale because they're beginning to be antiquated and retailers are trying to get rid of them, but I always assumed the price I paid for the parts was still above the normal wholesale price.

    I can imagine that in bulk and with the right connections, you might be able to get these parts a bit below the normal wholesale price. The thing I have trouble with, is the idea that you can get enough of a discount to offset the cost of supporting random hardware configurations and software for several different CPU architectures.

    Is this really cost effective?