The $100 (E 83,-) laptop computers that Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers want to get into the hands of the world’s children would be durable, flexible and self-reliant. Among the key specs: A 500-megahertz processor by AMD and flash memory instead of a hard drive with moving parts. To save on software costs, the laptops would run the freely available Linux operating system instead of Windows.
that was fast in the 1990s but slow by today’s standards
The aim is not to get those kids playing Half-Life 2 (or even Half-Life). 500 MHz is a rocket for write processing, e-mailing and accessing the 99.9999% of non-stupid Flashy websites.
My desktop is a dual pentium pro 200Mhz with 128MB ram.
If it wasn’t for firefox’s memory hogging, it would be pretty fast. But even with firefox it’s still very good.
I got it out of a dumpster a few months ago.
I’m running gentoo with ratpoison on it,
I hardly see the point in upgrading.
But then again, I’m not the average user that uses a lot of bloated(gnome,kde,openoffice) software.
– Jesse McNelis
I wonder have you tried Opera on that computer? I’m not trying to randomly insert Opera into the discussion. I’m just curious how much faster, if at all, it runs on old hardware.
Well I haven’t had such a slow computers for years but way back then when I had a 200 Mhz machine, Opera was the fastest thing around. And judging how it runs now on my 1 Ghz machine I am pretty sure it’ll run well.
Remember Opera exists for Symbian devices and is quite a nice piece of software. The expertise in writing software for limited machines definitely has an influence on the desktop version.
I definitely agree, that machine is enough for any serious task.
My experience:
I underclocked my Centrino to 600 MHz and the ATI video card to 1/2 of bus and core speed of default values, the hd is a slow one for typical entry level- midrange notebook (4200 rpm with 8 MB cache) and I have 512 MB of RAM.
So, 600 MHz, underclocked notebook video card and slow hd, definitely under actual bottom line for PC “alleged” performances.
But the system doesn’t suffer from hw bottleneck nor sw problems so I actually run VERY nicely, fastly and responsively with XP+Office 2003+anti$(whatsoever fears win users)+Photoshop or with Suse+KDE (or Gnome) +OOo+Mozilla suite.
On that machine I do programming (even with visual tools), web developing and some (non-web
) graphic, and of course I watch films, browse the web, do some videogame and enjoy GUI effects, and it’s definitely NOT slow and it’s more responsive than many “super” PC with bad software configuration or badly balanced hardware (or hw conflicts, or firmware problems) that would crush my one in benchmarks.
Definitely I belive that a well build, well balanced machine (hw+sw) can give a VERY good user experience even with so reduced resources like the ones featured in the machine from the MIT.
Right alt + U (on most keyboard national schemes) = €
Right alt + U (on most keyboard national schemes) = €
Yes, but my guess is, is that the Euro sign will screw uo our RSS feeds. So I just use ‘E’ in the teasers.
My keyboards all have Eruo signs, as I’m Dutch.
Use either € or EUR to indicate European valuta.
E.g. a capital U doesnt mean dollars.
&euro
ok lol, osnews systems seems not to support simple html references ,
and why is this reply on another thread ending up in this thread?
more things broken?
I have to say that 500 MHz is not slow at all. One of my desktops at home is a PIII 600 MHz (okay, but it’s just a touch faster than 500MHz) with Slackware-current using KDE as the desktop environment. Even Firefox doesn’t slow it down.
What will be slow on this laptop is the flash based hard-drive (for lack of a better word). Read/write will “possibly” be as slow as a 2400 rpm hard drive. Unless they’ve really improved flash drives’ read/write speed recently.
Flash advantage is a zero seek-time.
I doubt even 100000 rpm hdd could seriosly speedup your OS, unless you are working with very large files.
…in contrast to many others who tried previosly.
I wonder what exactly are the processors inside…the big question is whether those are Geode (x86) or Alchemy…I wonder if choosing NON-x86 architecture would be a good way to prevent gray-market a bit and convincing parts manufacturers to supply them considerably cheaper (since the laptops wouldn’t be a competition for their primary wintel market). And since it’s Linux it’s not a big deal when it comes to architecture…
Also, worth noting IMHO will be software choice once it’s announced – simply because those software titles will become one of most widely used IN THE WORLD, no only when cosidering Linux desktop.
What are your guesses?
Since I think this laptop will be also a bit RAM limited, I think they’ll choose something light as possible, but easy to use also…XFce perhaps? Epiphany/Kazehakase? Opera? (I wouldn’t be surprised if Opera agreed to port their browser…it’s free anyway, and they would get HUGE usage boost; of course there’s the question what licensing principles this project has…)? Abiword? (KOffice would be nice also…but KDE wouldn’t :/ )
BTW…too bad probably it won’t be available for me probably :/ I’m too rich apparently 😐
kde is just the most used desktop under linux….
about 70% of the market under linux
But it’s too heavy for those machines…remember, they’re made as cheap as possible, but still useable. Which means probably 128MB of RAM or something like that…FURTHERMORE, there’s one very important difference to our typical laptops/desktops – swap is to be avoided at all costs (flash based – limited number of read/writes and…slow). Personally, I would modify the kernel/desktop enviroment (or something) that it will not allow launching of new apps when physical memory limit is closing in (eventually – allow, but display something like “to assure longevity of your laptop, please close applications you’re not using)
BTW, where does this 70% number come from?
“BTW, where does this 70% number come from?”
It comes from web based popularity polls and old ones at that. At best it measures how big a market share KDE has among geeky hobbyists that read Linux community web sites regularly. Most likely it is even useless at measuring that.
“kde is just the most used desktop under linux….
about 70% of the market under linux”
You know nothing about this. The only “studies” done on this are web based polls, which are useless as a statistical measure.
There are many strong reason why the GNOME market share is higher than what you think:
* It is the default on Red Hat, the dominant player in the industry. These users are MUCH less likely to vote on any web based poll than hobbyists.
* GNOME is targeted directly towards the “I don’t care as long as it works” crowd, who doesn’t want or need to tweak everything. These users are also MUCH less likely to vote in any web based poll. This group is also by far the majority among computer users.
It seems to me that the average GNOME user is much less likely to care enough about either Linux or desktop environment to vote in a web based poll on some Linux community web site.
KDE is probably dominant among hobbyists, but there is little or no information available suggesting how the market share is overall.
DSL Linux would be a good choice for these machines. Combined with ICEWM or QWM, Epithany Web browser, Balsa Email, Pan newsreader, Abiword, Gnumeric, Scribus. etc
All this would fit onto a 128mb flash disk, and yes this setup is extrememly fast. In fact, if you try it, you will not believe how fast your computer can be.
I read that before, and I also read that it can be started inside Windows just by double-clicking on an icon that installs on the disk.
Puppy is blazingly fast on even a 500MHz CPU.
And ideal for booting off Flash and running in ramdisk.
The live-cd is only 53M, has everything, nothing
cut-down, so ideal for kids.
There’s even an OpenOffice “Chubby Puppy” which is only
91M.
Perfect choice for the $100 laptop.
http://www.goosee.com/puppy/news.htm
Or damnsmalllinux or arch or whatever…
A custom built linux distro (LFS, gentoo etc) would do, everything compiled for those exact specs, put on a cd and installed on them all.
Fluxbox would run blazingly fast on those specs, and XFCE ain’t heavy neither.
I realize they aren’t targetted at me, but the specs are more than sufficient. Put Opera on ’em and they’ll fly.
If this project is a success, what will happen to the price of high end laptops. When you’ve got $100 laptops running at 500 MHZ and potentially 1 to 5 gigs of flash Hard drive space, can you really justify a $1000 Dell laptop using a Celeron M processor running at 1.4 GHZ with 256 K of memory and a 40 GB hard drive. Could the success of this project bring the avaerage cost of a laptop down to around $500?
FYI, I’ve recently been pricing Dell laptops for a friend who wants a cheap laptop (he’s a poor college student). Dell has a laptop with the specs you mentioned (I assume you meant 256M, not 256K) for $500 (not $1000). To me, the Dell seems like a much better value, but if all you have is $100, this new gizmo definitely sounds like a viable alternative. I would find one of these interesting for times when I might want a computer in a less than hospitable set of conditions. It would allow me to use a computer, but if something happens to it, I am only out $100 instead of the $2000 that I would normally spend on a laptop.
Let’s hope so. It would be very nice to start to see an overall drop in the prices of decent technology.
/2 cents
no
How about one for $300 with a lil bigger flash drive, lil more RAM, lil faster processor, no hand crank, and none of this dual mode screen?
I’d buy one then!
That defeats the purpose of a $100 laptop for third world countries.
Ok, so how about 350$ with the hand-crank ? 🙂
Seriously, why do you think there isn’t a market for dirt cheap mini laptops?
For example if you want a small linux NAT “server” that uses very little energy but don’t want an old thing? I mean you’ll never get USB2 on an old system. Maybe they could sell the same at 150$ for richer countries and use the difference to offer them for free to some children in poorer areas of the world?
If these are in the 2-3lb range and have decent keyboards, I’ll probably pick one up to use as essentially a portable typewriter. Most laptops are overkill – I shouldn’t need the weight of a laptop and the bootup time/overhead of a fullblown OS just to do some writing. And most laptop keyboards are either horrible to type on, cramped because there’s an inch and a half of wasted space on either side of the touchpad, or both. PDAs are too small and I’d rather not do a lot of writing with my thumbs. And tablets, of course, are usually keyboardless.
The last portable computer I saw that was an ideal mobile tool for writers were those old RadioShack laptops that ran on disposable batteries.
Just noticed from the article that Negroponte was the originator of the idea(wrote Being Digital and the back page column in Wired before it started to suck). Smart, pretty well-regarded guy, gives me a bit more confidence it can be pulled of.
I generally think this is a great idea, but am a little disturbed that Negroponte wants it “to be a stigma for anybody except a student or a teacher to by carrying one”. There are millions of entrepreneurs in the developing world who could benefit GREATLY from a device like this; they should have access to it as well. Current computers — being too expensive and, in particular, lacking a hand-crank — are out of the question for many of them.
Good point. A reasonable compromise might be to produce two versions, identical except that the “school” version is bright orange and the “commercial” version is more reasonable (light grey, perhaps).
They could also be manufactured such that case swapping would be difficult (for example, motherboard plastic-welded to case such that it’s hard to remove it without badly damaging the motherboard). The problem is that such techniques would make repair (if it’s an issue) more difficult.
The larger the market, the cheaper they will become, as well.
Good point. A reasonable compromise might be to produce two versions, identical except that the “school” version is bright orange and the “commercial” version is more reasonable (light grey, perhaps).
They could also be manufactured such that case swapping would be difficult (for example, motherboard plastic-welded to case such that it’s hard to remove it without badly damaging the motherboard). The problem is that such techniques would make repair (if it’s an issue) more difficult.
The larger the market, the cheaper they will become, as well.
Good point. A reasonable compromise might be to produce two versions, identical except that the “school” version is bright orange and the “commercial” version is more reasonable (light grey, perhaps).
They could also be manufactured such that case swapping would be difficult (for example, motherboard plastic-welded to case such that it’s hard to remove it without badly damaging the motherboard). The problem is that such techniques would make repair (if it’s an issue) more difficult.
The larger the market, the cheaper they will become, as well.
You mean, as opposed to “Expensive $100 Laptop Unveiled”? The “cheap” is redundant. Style would be better served by removing it.
With a decent power managment module and good “sleep” performance, that hand crank will be pretty nifty I think. But it will definately add weight and bulk to the device.
What this essentially is, tho, is a large format PDA if you think about the basic design, it just happens to run Linux and X.
There is no mention of a battery, and I’d guess the hand crank is cheaper and lighter than a battery. Sp as an alternative to a battery it should subtract rather than add weight.
I think it wouldn’t have a sleep function as it only has a flash based hard drive which most likely would be too small to support it at this price point. I guess you would just have to make sure you save your data often if you aren’t running from mains.
It *must* have a battery. In fact, if you had read the article, you would have noticed it does have one, in the fat hinge.
I mean, think! You use the crank. Ok. Where do you store that energy while you use the darn thing? Do you hire a kid to turn the crank while you use it????
Think harder. You might come up with one word, eventually…
Namely: spring.
I like that idea!
India also tried to produce a low cost laptop-like computer (the simputer), I believe theirs was originally going to sell for $200. The first guys out of the box (Amida) are charging over $400 for specs much less powerful than this prototype. I don’t think a production version of such a laptop would meet the price set if it came out this year or even the next.
Let’s see if MIT can make a difference.
1. Ubuntu, XFCE4 and Firefox are running well on my P2 ~266 machine with a 2GB hard drive. Launching applications is a little slow but it’s not sluggish.
2. I just upgraded from a 700MHz PC runnking Win2K which I used for development at work for the last four years (Java programming). Never had any complaints about speed once I switched Norton off.
As far as I can see, 500MHz should be plenty for a reasonable deskop,
The design is to provide computers to residents in third world countries..not us. Its a noble cause with the end result of creating a higher standard of education world wide good luck to these guys.
Almost fast as a Mac(i own 2)
Well right off I have to wonder about the use of flash memory since, well, doesn’t that have limited read/write capabilities WAY below the durability of a standard HDD? I’d love to see how long that flash is gonna last holding a linux swap file or worse, web cache.
On top of which, how long do you think it will be before the parents of these kids hock the laptops on the black market for FOOD… or the Military shows up and takes them away at gunpoint just like they do the food, clothing, clean water and everything else in these third world {censored}-holes. Most of these places don’t even have POWER!!!
What’s next? PDA’s for the rape gangs made up of 8-12 year olds in Sierra Leone? This is ALMOST as ‘special’ as the powerbooks for the homeless nonsense. Send the kids the damned $100 USD, it’ll feed them for two years.
“Send the kids the damned $100 USD, it’ll feed them for two years.”
You’ve heard about “give a man a fish…”?
I’d prefer they would help to educate the next generation, thanks to which those people will feed themselves for the whole life…
Possibly a very good point. Though, is it really that drastic?
Well right off I have to wonder about the use of flash memory since, [speculative second guessing…]
how long do you think it will be before the parents of these kids hock the laptops on the black market… or the Military shows up and takes them away at gunpoint… [etc]
What? You want us to be surprised that outrageous abuses are occuring all over the world, every minute of the day and night?
News flash! It’s been going on for centuries, nay longer. If you were a peasant in Bordeaux in 1349 or anytime during the next 120 years or so during that jolly party known as The Hundred Years War, roving gangs of bully boys from both sides of the putative “war” were stealing your food stores, burning your crops, raping your wife and daughters, etc… Wonder if that’ll ever get better?
O.K., so maybe the $100 laptop won’t work. Maybe the laptops will be sold or stolen (I’m sure that some percentage of them would be). Maybe we should tell poor people to off themselves so that you won’t have to be offended by proposals to help them.
Is it just me that thinks having flash as the hard drive is a bad idea? I dont know what has changed recently but doesnt flash have only a certain amount of writes untill it dies? Just think of what happens when they bring up firefox and it is already swaping. Flash drives can only take so many writes before they die. So would this be the best choice?
So would this be the best choice?
There must be a reason, whether it be physical space or money or availability. I trust MIT.
I expect this decision is based on flash being more durable than a hard drive and probably uses less power as well. I would also expect they wouldn’t use swap, even if this means they don’t use firefox. I think flash has enough writes (I believe it is 10,000 though may be more) to be useful for a long time as long as they minimize the amount of writes to just what is absolutely necessary e.g. mounting partitions with “noatime” so access times aren’t written to the disk and turning off logging.
If this price-point is doable. Why isn’t it already being done?
Computer hardware is a very competitive market and its hard to believe that if it was possible to offer a USD100 laptop, HP, Dell et al would each have their “value” model.
Don’t get me wrong, as an AMD stock holder, something like this would be a good thing for my bottom line, but is there a reason Via’s cool running low powerchips aren’t suited for this?
I think it’s a fantastic idea. $100 won’t get laptops into the hands of the poorest, but it will get them into the hands of the working poor.
It would also enable philanthrophists and civic minded businesses (yes, they do exist) to buy a few thousand and then donate them.
Also, in remote areas, a few of these low cost laptops (the grey “business” ones) could be purchased with a microloan and a cybercafe could be set up very cheaply. Rates for use could be something like 10 cents an hour. (I’m thinking of the Bangladeshi woman who took out a microloan for a cell phone, and since she had the only phone in her village, made a decent living charging something like 5 cents a call.)
I guess AMD will turn out cheaper…one of their embedded CPU models (bot in x86 and MIPS32 flawours) is basically system-on-a-chip
I want one
And effective against MS’s monopoly.
I remember doing my homework in high school on an 8088 with CGA graphics. It ran MSDOS with Word for Dos, Lotus 123, etc… but it was all I needed for school. I realize that this would be too light for internet use as a minimum of VGA graphics would be needed but surely if they were going to ship tens of millions of units they could justify writing lean and mean versions of the software that could run on units that where striped down even more. Please note that at half the cost again they can open up access to the technology to 10 times as many children who can then afford it.
i think its great that there trying to get comps in to the hands of kids who otherwise might not be able to i think if I had a computer when i was a child i woulnt bre racking my brain trying to teach myself code now;