What On Earth Classmate PC

What on Earth is... Classmate PC Why would children in countries that barely have the infrastructure to feed and clothe their populations benefit from a low-cost, open source ? Mike Saunders explains the whole “give a man a fish…” situation.

Classmate? Does it sit next to you, they need to be on the same educational playing most common tasks, that checks in at 200 quid. making silly noises and getting you into field as more prosperous countries. is cheap, RAM is cheap, and small trouble during lessons? LCD displays are inexpensive when bought in the Well, it shouldn’t do – unless you’re browsing some OK, but even with the best will in the kind of quantities that manufacturers require. Also, strange websites of course. This is ’s effort to world, a bunch of kids browsing Wikipedia remember that hulking great PCs require constant, bring computing to developing countries, focusing isn’t going to turn somewhere like Mali into powerful electricity supplies, whereas small on education. The Classmate PC is a small Switzerland overnight, you know. can operate intermittently on very little (245x190x44mm) laptop reference design, that No, but it’s orders of magnitude better than a stack juice. That’s hugely important in poor countries has been designed to encourage widespread of dusty, bland textbooks that may be out-of-date. with unreliable infrastructures. mass-production of machines based on the same With access to the internet, third-world children Laptops have another benefit, of course: specification. can broaden their learning, understand new portability. If you’re giving these machines to kids, technologies and develop skills important for the they need to carry them around between classes, Whoa, one second: don’t developing 21st century ‘global village’. (Yes, that’s a tacky take them home, and not be tied to a specific countries really need clean water and term, but it’s hard for countries to be completely location. In effect, the laptops replace a stack of good healthcare? Why throw gizmos at them? self-sustained today.) textbooks – and they can be updated via the net. You might think that you have a point, but there are Take language, for example. Whether we like it countless government initiatives and charities or not, English is the lingua franca of the world So, how does the Classmate spec up? already working on the water and health problems. today, and any country with an English-speaking Given that it’s designed as a learning tool It’s also important to make sure the young are population is going to fare better on the world rather than a MegaBlaster 3000 gaming rig, the educated – after all, they’re the building blocks of stage. There’s only so much you can do with specs aren’t all that impressive. But they’re fine for any country’s future. In today’s global world, a textbooks – but if youngsters have access to the basic typing, learning and net browsing work: a skilled workforce is essential for a country’s internet, they can read websites, listen to English 900MHz Intel CPU, 256MB RAM and 2GB flash (as the hard drive). The 7" 840x480 LCD display is powered by an Intel 915GM chip, and “If your country wants to compete in a connectivity is provided by 801.1bg WiFi, ethernet and two USB ports. global marketplace, you need a young In terms of build quality, the unit is suitably chunky and plasticky, more tolerant of classroom workforce with computing experience.” bumps and knocks than similar form-factor notebooks like the Eee. A blue covering atop the lid economy, so it’s vital to give kids a good start. If radio, watch news footage and expand their and base forms a handle for carrying the unit you can give them the internet, effectively the language skills enormously. around. The keyboard is reminiscent of late-’90s largest library in the world, then there’s no limit to Or take outsourcing. Currently, India is one of Toshiba Librettos – rugged and deep – and the what they can learn. the hottest places for programming; many lack of a spinning hard drive adds to the durability. companies employ blocks of programmers there We have a test machine here at LXF Towers, and I didn’t have the internet at school, and I to work on projects. If you’re in charge of Burkina while we don’t want to perform extensive thrown- did alright! Wouldn’t it be cheaper and Faso’s economy and want to compete, you need a out-of-window stress tests, we’re satisfied that the easier to send more textbooks? young workforce with computing experience. The machine can sustain plenty of knocks and bruises. Yes, but that doesn’t get a country out of the Classmate provides this opportunity. doldrums. Even the poorest countries in the world Surely it runs , right? can get hold of basic educational tools. But while Then why a laptop? Surely some random Absolutely! We wouldn’t get this far only to the developed world is interconnected and sharing white-box PCs will be cheaper? announce that it runs Windows XP. Well, knowledge, these developing countries are left Not necessarily – look at the Eee PC as manufacturers do have the option to pre-install XP behind – they have no way to catch up. To build reviewed in the last issue of LXF. It’s a reasonably (see the controversy about Nigeria’s on/off their economies and improve standards of living, specced micro laptop, more than adequate for relationship with Windows in last month’s News),

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but Mandriva Linux is another alternative – and it’s Does it come with anything else? the OLPC X0-1 laptop. Originally boasting a $100 the distro supplied with test units. For the most Why yes: a very cool digital pen. Attach a price point, the X0-1 is now set to cost $188, a part, it’s a vanilla Mandriva installation, using KDE USB-connected clip to the top of a sheet of paper, jump that has some countries wary – will it for the desktop and supplied with OpenOffice.org start drawing with the special pen, and you can see increase even more in future? There’s no official and Firefox. The Mandriva team has made a few the same image on-screen. While this is an line yet on the Classmate’s price, but when tweaks, such as a bunch of large panels on the entertaining gimmick for us, it could prove to be widespread production kicks-off Intel is hoping to desktop for launching applications, but otherwise hugely valuable in classroom environments, with hit the $230 mark. But don’t expect to see it in it’s standard Linux fare. kids making notes the ‘old fashioned’ way but your local PC World, though; like the X0-1, the Now, it’s too early to start pointing fingers and storing them on the Classmate for later retrieval. machine won’t be on sale to normal customers dealing out harsh criticisms, but we do have a few through the usual channels. beefs with the Linux setup. Whereas the OLPC When will production ramp up? X0-1 laptop – a similar venture – has a highly Right now, Intel is piloting the Classmate in Where can I find out more? customised interface, the Classmate’s default several countries including India, Brazil, Vietnam Intel’s Classmate Portal at www. Mandriva installation uses a stock KDE desktop. and the Philippines. Trials in Libya have been so classmatepc.com is the place to start – it has Kids don’t need OpenOffice.org (which takes 24 successful that the government there has ordered news of the latest pilot schemes and which seconds to cold-start), when AbiWord and 150,000 units. As mentioned, although Intel can countries are getting involved. This is part of Intel’s Gnumeric would be great replacements. Again, supply a large number of units, the ultimate goal is grand ‘World Ahead’ program, which looks at these are early days, but we’d like to see a more to get more manufacturers on board with their own technologies for connecting ‘the next one billion’ tailored distro for a low-spec, turn-on-and-go implementations of Intel’s reference design. people beyond the developed world: www.intel. children’s laptop. Naturally, the Classmate’s biggest competitor is com/intel/worldahead/. LXF

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