

Indian government explores $10 laptop - hsuresh
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Rs_500-laptop_display_on_Feb_3/articleshow/4049914.cms

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radu_floricica
There was an article these days about how companies are starting to wish for
the other face of Moore's law: computers getting cheaper every year at the
same performance. The article was about the next Windows, but I always thought
it applies much better to laptops.

I'd say there are three levels of performance suitable for such mini-machines:

\- The equivalent of the last 486 or the first pentiums: can play mp3, browse
the web (without the bells and whistles), display a pdf, run simple office
applications, have ethernet and usb, may not have wireless. This is what a
real $100 laptop should be like, and what readers could become (keyboard?)

\- Can show movies, run a contemporary OS and application suite (including
last versions of Open/Microsoft Office) - pretty much everything an office
computers does, without the games and other needy apps. This is already
covered, as there are many cheap laptops just like this.

\- Sub $100 laptops. This is a very interesting field, because anything can be
done. Text-only and monochrome displays, dedicated applications, the field is
huge and the prices can be as low as any hand-held chinese game ($10 is not at
all absurd). There are two big issues here: compatibility and net
connectivity. I don't know what an USB or Ethernet chip goes for, but it it's
$2 it's too much.

~~~
old-gregg
You'll be surprised if you find an actual PC with 486. I have installed XP on
a Pentium II machine with 256MB of RAM and it was barely usable even for web
surfing. Without bells and whistles: scrolling simple text+picture pages in
IE/FF was very slow.

Launching any non-trivial application also took terribly long. Not just the
Office, but even Firefox felt more like Photoshop. I couldn't believe how
bloated the software had become.

These $100 machines you're talking about can't run normal software, you'll
need Microsoft to start selling Win98 or you'd need a stripped-down Linux with
XFCE or something. The key to performance IMO is smaller binary sizes: those
CPUs had tiny caches and pathetic memory throughput. Pentiums ran on 33-66Mz
FSB, compare it to 1066Mz of modern machines.

~~~
omouse
Isn't it amazing how software bloats and slows down so that it only fits the
latest generation of hardware?

We were doing web browsing of the simple text+pictures kind back in the early
90s. Word processing and spreadsheeting has been done since the late 70s,
early 80s (I think).

~~~
10ren
Totally agree. I wonder, with a market of a billion users, does a set of
software apps that are not back-compatible with our bloated legacy become
plausible?

You could use old Windows or Unix apps. Or DOS apps. Or even old Apple ][
apps. Or, you could write an entirely new set of apps - a fresh start, in a
fresh market, on fresh hardware. Doesn't that have a certain appeal?

Freed from back-compatibility with bloated software, does a $10 laptop become
plausible?

Maybe something like the hp200lx: DOS, 24x80 LCD screen with incredible
battery life (2 AA batteries), came with lotus 123 spreadsheet etc. Or, even
lower specs than that.

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mdasen
They're launching a laptop for $10? With 2GB of RAM? You can't even buy 2GB of
RAM for that price. I really hope this is real, but when you put together the
costs of a display, RAM, some sort of persistent storage, heck even the
keyboard is going to run more than $1.

    
    
      Keyboard $1
      Trackpad $1
      RAM $1
      Small amount of flash memory $1
      Screen $1
      Labor $1
      Shipping $1
      Processor $1
      Motherboard $1
      Ports $1
    

And none of that is going to be $1.

~~~
critic
> Screen $1

We may have to go back to blinkenlights for displays.

~~~
mbowcock
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lite-Brite>

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anuraggoel
Government subsidies can not be ruled out - that would change the equation
completely.

Additionally, this device will probably not be available for general
consumption - it sounds like they plan to use it exclusively for education. If
not, reselling 2 GB RAM sticks imported from India could become a lucrative
business.

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kqr2
The $10 looks like a transcription error. It should probably be $100 and the
current version costs $200 which is consistent with what an OLPC XO laptop
costs:

[http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/01/30/10-laptop-coming-
from-i...](http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/01/30/10-laptop-coming-from-india-
on-february-3rd-or-so-they-say/)

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ph0rque
I'll believe it when I see it.

~~~
hsuresh
They are apparently launching it on Feb 3rd. We'll know soon.

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jcl
I'd love to know how they calculated the $200 "hidden cost" of the OLPC
laptops. I'd also wonder what that figure is for other platforms, and how they
plan to avoid it for their $10 implementation.

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TweedHeads
You can find cheap pocket translators or pocket calendars on walmart these
days.

Not far from solar-powered pocket netbooks, like old calculators, I say.

