$100 Puppy

[Lobster]

In my capacity as Official Cructacean I have written to this project
http://laptop.media.mit.edu/

At the moment Red Hat are the proposed Linux but hey Puppy would look real cool in a Red Fedora . . .

We at PuppyLinux.com believe we have the perfect Linux for a $100 computer

Puppy Linux runs in ram - making HD writes infrequent, in fact a HD is not a requirement

We believe Puppy could be stored on an internal IDE ram card

It is a reliable, generic (similar to MS windows in look) and Free Linux OS

- it is already being used in two embedded devices that we are aware of


If you are interested in further info:
http://www.goosee.com/puppy/wikka/


Ed Jason
Puppy Linux Project

[Bancobusto]

That's a really cool initiative... Good work. That would be great if they get in touch.

[Lobster]

They did respond

Nia Lewis wrote:
> Dear Ed Jason,
>
> Thank you for your e-mail and your interest on out project. Please know
> that Red Hat is a partner in the One Laptop Per Child project.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Nia

This is what I wrote back . . .

Hi Nia

Red Hat is an excellent distro
Can they run Open Office with all the trimmings and an Operating system
in less then 100 meg?

Chubby Puppy does. Puppy can run a basic system in 256 of Ram quite sufficiently.

Will Red Hat be providing a service contract or a community service
0$ partnership?

Do you require more diverse partners on this project or is
it all finalised?



Good luck to you

Ed Jason

Oh well maybe we need an Open Source version of this . . .
http://userful.com/products/library-ds-demo

BladeHunter I know was doing something for a German cybercafe . . .
maybe along these lines?

[Lobster]

Dear Ed,

Red Hat is one of our founding partners. I regret we are unable to partner
with your company.

Best wishes for success.

Nia

[raffy]

There was the Indian simputer, then this OLPC $100 laptop - both mobile devices (OLPC = one laptop per child). And this laptop model stands a better chance, as even advanced cities will be interested to buy hundreds of them.

The key to either initiative is numbers of actual buyers. OLPC has assured itself the numbers by initially partnering with a big country (Brazil). However, OLPC will face a long lead time. Things will be different by the time the laptop ships.

I noted that Via is not in OLPC's partners. Via is bent in announcing its "Terra PC" this year. Its public liaison is
Werner du Plessis
International Marketing Specialist
Email: Werner@via.com.tw

Again, a common weakness here is lead time. And during this lead time, the GPLed Puppy will be possibly copied by the other distributions...

Now, remembering that it is the number of users that drives things, why not follow OLPC's example and deliver Puppy PCs to institutions, NOW?

It won't be difficult to find tiny mainboards and other parts to build a client PC (often called thin client). Or as some members here do, find and refurbish old PCs.

What may be important is that everyone comes back here to feed the numbers of PCs so equipped with Puppy. Babbs will be just too happy keeping the count

BTW, Ed, it's good they never asked about the entity whom to deal with. Is it actually a foundation? My feet are into Littlecandle.Net, but it is not yet a foundation. If ever it becomes one, I will persuade it to be an affiliate of the Puppy foundation.

[babbs]

I can only count what I can see... As for Chubby Puppy, I can see the stats for one of the ways people can acquire it... Those are the numbers I report. (I'm just glad that Barry is allowing me to contribute the web server space/bandwidth to the Puppy project since I haven't programmed in years. )

[raffy]

Yes, your efforts are most acknowledged, Babbs.

Here are some details of the $100 laptop:

The laptop will run Linux.. The distribution hasn't been decided upon yet but the project is in serious discussions with Raleigh, North Carolina, Red Hat Inc. and Beijing's Red Flag Software Co. Ltd...

The first generation machine will be based on a 500MHz processor from Advanced Micro Devices Inc., which is one of the project's main backers, and will have 256M bytes of main memory, 1G byte of flash memory in place of a hard-disk drive and a wireless LAN connection, he said. The machines will automatically connect with others, forming a mesh network to support communications and also Internet connection sharing and they'll run software including the Skype voice-over-IP application

See http://www.itworld.com/Comp/1290/050516negroponte/

Why, even Bladehunter can smile with this news

[rarsa]

Hey Lobster,

What their first response realy meant was:

"We are receiving money and professional support from Red Hat"

the second response meant:

"Actually, we ARE part of Red Hat"

And they actually thought you were trying to sell them something.

A project like this requires a professional organization behind it. and puppylinux.com isn't even a legal entity. It's Barry plus all us puppy users enthusiasts. (Unless I missed the incorporation anouncement).

I have to agree. Puppy is very suited for a $100 computer but it does not have the infrastructure for thousands of 'paying' TC customers requiring professional support. The success for a $100 computer depends on economy of scale.

This is not to discourage anyone working with puppy, just to point out that if you are the enterprenurial type you would have to create an organization first.

[Lobster]

Sadly or rather gladly Barry is not a "bread head". I believe there is a way to do this.

Ingredients:

One Puppy

One cell processor cellphone
with connection to keyboard and monitor (does not exist yet)

Broadband wireless (being implemented in many countries)

One Puppy Foundation

How much is a phone? Keyboard? Monitor?

[raffy]

Just to clarify, the point seems to be that Puppy IS the software for a $100 PC, but that to prove this point, there must exist a puppy breeding ground, or new Puppies by the hundreds of thousands (if not millions). Taking from Rarsa, the professional organization tending to this flock should be created, or some existing entities can offer to do that role.

Creating the org will be easy - people in Lobster's list already qualify as incorporators. Then Barry just grants some rights to this org, or joins it.

Next question is, where to register the newly created entity...

[kethd]

Umm...
Actually, what we want to propagate, really, is not Puppy per se, but wonderfulness.
We think there is some special wonderfulness in Puppy. We work on/with Puppy to nurture it.
But the wonderfulness is memes that are embodied/manifested in Puppy, and can spread more widely. Which is fine! We can let Puppy go with contentment whenever the wonderfulness has spread more widely, been built on, and exceeded.

If the $100-laptop MIT people are smart-wise, they will carefully study what Puppy has to offer, and incorporate the best in their new product. If they fail to use the best there is, others will improve on whatever they do.
It is unclear how "locked" the MIT device will be, but they seem committed to resisting SirGates. I am guessing that since there will be so many millions of their new cheap gadget, the knowledge about how to hack it will flourish.

[J_Rey]

This topic has been and is still being discussed in many other related forum topics (among others):

The future is up to you . . .
A real World Challenge for Puppy Developers
Puppy Linux on CNET

[bongmaster]

if u can make a puppy that can run a plasma server (Cyan worlds Until UrU) then that would be great xampp may be usefull in that sense

some of u may already know the Myst games, and UrU is one of them

here is the plasma server/Until UrU site:
http://plasma.cyanworlds.com

[Petr]

So the issue is hardware. Which hardware companies are NOT involved with the $100 laptop, and would like to be?

For the conspiracy theorists of course Ubuntu is bloat ware AND is supported by hardware vendors for exactly that reason. If Barry wants to get rich, then make it look like it is about to happen and he'll get bought out. (so to speak)

The hardware supplier needs to be hungry, and _want_ to be a player - preferably for ideological reasons. Phone manufacturer is a great idea. Nokia? Good socialist country - and the company has too much money... Can they source screens? A $100 laptop with colour 12inch screen, permanent wireless mesh internet and crank handle to charge it... I would move to a third world country to be the first customer.

Petr Ivanovich.

Oh and dust proof (its a Mars issue)

[Pizzasgood]

What n-th world is Mars considered? I'm guessing fourth world, due to its position, but if you count from the outside in it would be a sixth world.

[Lobster]

What is the Operating System running on these protypes?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pete/sets/ ... 143224765/

Is it open source?
Closed source Linux? Where do we download to compare, test etc?

Not for this child . . .

[rarsa]

What is the Operating System running on these protypes?

picture #5 shows the Fedora background.

That should be an indication.

[raffy]

Try this link

The main link has all the news

http://laptop.media.mit.edu/laptopnews.nsf