Submitted by Red Hat’s OLPC lead has written an update on the OLPC project on his weblog. “I wrote up a long update on where we are in the software and hardware for the One Laptop per Child project. We’ve gotten a lot done, but I don’t think that’s been communicated to the outside world very well. So, for the first time, here’s an update of where we are.”
Not that they need to be scared of Apple, but if PC manufacturers like Dell and HP want to give Apple a run for its money, the OLPC model may just show them how.
1. Take a free OS that runs on commodity hardware
2. Build a highly focused and coherent hardware platform
3. Tweak the OS to support the platform goals (i.e. low power consumption, fast startup, etc.)
This way, vendors get to provide sophisticated hardware with the much-vaunted benefits of a matched hardware-software platform without locking users and developers into a proprietary model like OS X.
It’s was quite a good read, I don’t follow this project closely so it was a quick way to get up to speed.
I don’t want to read the whole thing. I need to run to a meeting.
I wonder why they didn’t large;y deal with hardware first, and then use some other Linux distro. Also, why not Ralink or Realtek wireless?
I think using RH as a base is just silly. However, a new version of Deli is out, and with plenty oflead time before they might want to think about supporting some of the OLPC hardware (hopefully by the time it’s out, important bits will be in the main kernel).
I think they went with RH, because RH is doing it…….
yeah, I get that (as you might see if my comment gets by). I said using RH as a base. As in I have a P166 here w/ 16 or 32MB RAM (not sure which) that I’m about to try Deli on. No USB 2, only small HDDs supported (3GB installed), crap video (as in no driver in modern Xorg), and it’s as heavy as any new laptop. I’m going to try Deli on it, which would probably also be a great OS for the OLPC machine, which should, in all but raw CPU power, beat this thing significantly.
They have no real choice, because RH and Novell are basically it. With luck, we will have choice soon after the product is released, and other (subjectively superior) distros will get in support.
I wonder why they didn’t large;yhttp://wiki.laptop.org/go/Image:1st_working.jpg deal with hardware first, and then use some other Linux distro. Also, why not Ralink or Realtek wireless?
Think about a videogame console development. They use a hardware prototype to develop software because the final version is still incomplete. In fact, 2B1 which is the name of OLPC ran a thin version of Fedora Core 5 for a demonstration. http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Image:1st_working.jpg
Check out the hardware specification for more information
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Hardware_specification
I think using RH as a base is just silly. However, a new version of Deli is out, and with plenty oflead time before they might want to think about supporting some of the OLPC hardware (hopefully by the time it’s out, important bits will be in the main kernel).
Like above poster mentionned, Red Hat is selected to develop software. If you have followed OLPC news, you will notice a big progress in the kernel development for OLPC http://laptop.media.mit.edu/laptopnews.nsf/latest/news?opendocument…
2B1 is primarly aimed for education purpose.
Marvell was selected because they were willing to do the work to get mesh networking capability in the firmware. To achieve really, really low power and to ensure that when the laptop is sleeping that it is still actively part of the mesh network (and therefore routing other kids packets), you need to have the wireless chip powered up and performing the routing, but keep the main CPU in S3 sleep. That’s ~400mW of power, instead of typical 1 – 2W with CPU on.
Marvell was willing to modify their firmware specifically for OLPC to make this work. Nobody else was. Hence, we use Marvell. They are also making the CAFE ASIC that has the NAND flash controller, the camera chip, and the SD controller. They are eager and willing to help and dedicate people to the project, which not many other companies were willing to do.