| OLPC comes up with stable Linux build |
Mar. 19, 2007
 The One Laptop Per Child program reported today that after 303 builds, it finally has a satisfactory version of its Red Hat Linux-based Sugar operating system that is considered stable, according to OLPC president for software and content Walter Bender.
"After a final few bugs that had hidden in corners were driven into the light, we issued Stable Build 303 along with Q2B76 firmware this week," Bender said in his weekly email report.
Highlights of this stable build, according to Bender, include:- A working mesh network
- An updated Web browser that scales on the high-resolution screen, making for an improved web experience
- Gnash, the FOSS Flash player (still somewhat unstable), is pre-installed; Adobe's Flash 9 is also known to work but is not packaged or installed as part of the build
- A touch-pad driver fix for jumping cursor: The touch pad should be more usable, and the tablet is enabled on B2 systems
- Boot time has improved due to a scheduler fix
The Cambridge, Mass.-based project says it shipped about 2,500 test laptops to eight nations last month. Earlier this month, OLPC shipped 100 machines to children in a Nigerian test school, Bender said.
The experiment was a prelude to mass production of the kid-friendly, lime-green and white laptops scheduled to begin in July, when 5 million are scheduled to be built, according to Taiwanese laptop maker Quanta.
State educators in Brazil, Uruguay, Libya, Rwanda, Pakistan, Thailand, and possibly Ethiopia and the West Bank received the first of the machines in February's pilot prior to a wider rollout to Indonesia and a handful of other countries, according to the project.
Background on the project
OLPC aims to distribute -- free of charge -- millions of low-cost, self-powered, low-cost Linux laptops to needy children around the world, with governments making the purchases. The original cost target for the OLPC laptops was $100, but that number has drifted upward slightly, over the past year or so, to about $150.
The idea behind the OLPC laptop is to provide children with the opportunity to learn about learning itself -- to explore, experiment and express themselves, an OLPC spokesperson said. The laptops will be distributed in schools.
Key features of the OLPC laptop include a 7.5-inch 1200 x 900 pixel LCD screen, a keyboard that switches between languages, a digital video camera, built-in 802.11b/g wireless connectivity, a hand crank to charge its built-in rechargeable battery, and a customized version of Fedora Core Linux tailored for remote regions.
The device is based on a low-power, x86-compatible AMD Geode "embedded" processor clocked at 366MHz. It has 128MB of DRAM, along with 512MB of nonvolatile flash memory for program and data storage, and is equipped with three USB 2.0 ports for expansion. It boots via LinuxBIOS into Linux.
The OLPC project, based at the MIT media lab in Cambridge, is well into its second year. OLPC founding include AMD, News Corp, Google, Brightstar, Red Hat Linux, Nortel, Marvell, eBay, Quanta, Chi Mei, SES/Astra, and Citigroup. The United Nations and Inter-American Development Bank are its non-profit partners.
More about the OLPC Project
For lots of background on the OLPC's Linux-based low-cost laptop project -- including features, specs, and a timeline of announcements -- be sure to peruse our comprehensive OLPC special report:
(Click here for further information)
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