Puppy Linux wags tail for $100 OLPC laptop

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Apr. 07, 2006

Puppy Linux, one of the smallest-footprint distributions available, has offered its services to the One Laptop Per Child project spearheaded by former MIT Media Lab head Nicholas Negroponte. OLPC plans to distribute laptops to children around the world for $100 apiece.

Negroponte left MIT in February to concentrate on OLPC, the nonprofit organization that he helped launch while at Media Lab.

Because Red Hat joined OLPC (along with Intel) as a major sponsor, it is possible that there may be no room for any other distros in the project. The OLPC team, however, apparently hasn't made a decision on an operating system. At least there has been no public announcement to that effect.

Puppy Linux weighs in at around 60 MB.

Ed Jason, public relations officer of the Puppy Linux Foundation, approached the OLPC last fall via email and inquired about the possibility of his project joining up.

"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," wrote Jason in the distro's discussion wiki. "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."

After receiving a response from OLPC's Nia Lewis saying, "Please know that Red Hat is a partner in the One Laptop Per Child project," Jason responded with, "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?"

Red Hat's response -- if any -- wasn't posted.

Negroponte has said he wants a version of Linux that's doesn't require fast new processors or large amounts of memory.

Taiwan's Quanta Computer has been selected to produce the $100 Linux laptops, which will eventually be distributed to children in developing countries. Between five and 15 million units are expected to be provided to children in China, India, Brazil, Argentina, Egypt, Nigeria, Thailand, and other countries, the OLPC said.

Quanta outbid three other manufacturers for the project -- Compal Computer Inc., Inventec Co., and Wistron Corp.

For more information on Puppy Linux, read our coverage...

...and visit Puppy's website.

Join the discussion

Raffy Mananghaya, interim chairman of the Puppy Linux Foundation, has posted a few comments on this topic in a talkback thread in the DesktopLinux.com discussion forum.

Join the discussion here

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Use of this site is governed by our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Except where otherwise specified, the contents of this site are copyright © 1999-2008 Ziff Davis Enterprise Holdings Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Ziff Davis Enterprise is prohibited. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. All other marks are the property of their respective owners.