First Review of Intel's New Classmate PC 79
An anonymous reader writes "Intel gave the press a sneak preview of its 3rd generation Classmate PC at IDF. It looks like this guy managed to kidnap the only working sample for a while and write up a full report. It looks like a major departure from the original, with a rotating touch screen and Atom processor. There's no official word on pricing yet, but no doubt the OLPC guys will try to rain on Intel's parade."
meanwhile, OLPC firmware gets edits to support XP (Score:5, Interesting)
Among other things [laptop.org], of course.
OLPC seems to be plugging away as hard as ever since all that angst over XP.
And some users are figuring out how to install regular linux desktops [reactivated.net] in an easier way. (Sugar's pretty hard for expert users to get used to.)
Obligatory on-topic snark: does ClassmatePC come with a virus checker?
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I thought the XP version that was allowed on low cost PCs had restrictions that prohibited using touch screens. Did Microsoft change those rules?
no kidding (Score:2)
Perhaps it will have to ship with Vista.
Intel's parade? (Score:1)
Wow... frankly, that's pretty dick.
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Re:Intel's parade? (Score:4, Funny)
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(I think there's an 'In Russia...' joke in here somewhere.)
Let's remember who started the parade (Score:5, Informative)
OLPC started the whole sub-mini notebook craze. It was Wintel that did the raining*. It's bad enough the American monopolies had to get their greedy paws in the OLPC pie; let's at least keep the facts straight.
[*] - http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article4472654.ece [timesonline.co.uk]
Re:Let's remember who started the parade (Score:4, Informative)
the American monopolies
American monopoly. Not plural. Intel isn't a monopoly anymore with AMD becoming more than just a clone manufacturer of x86 CPUs. And actually in most physical stores, AMD is just as common, if not more common than Intel CPUs. MS on the other hand, clearly has a monopoly.
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I suppose those various anti-trust investigations in various countries were just a horrible case of mistaken identity?
Yeah, that's it; they were actually after the other Intel that has a monopoly in the earwax removal market but they always get it confused with the perfectly innocent chip maker.
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MS on the other hand, clearly has a monopoly.
Oh, clearly. I mean it's not as if I can pick from one of a hundred alternate operating systems ranging from mainstream (Apple, several Linux distros) to obscure. Definitely a monopoly, because I literally have no choices but to buy Microsoft products. Apple doesn't exist. There aren't dozens of Linux distros for various purposes. It's just crazy how much of a monopoly Microsoft has.
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Flamebait is unfair on this post. It is validly pointing out that the GP calls MS a monopoly while excusing Intel. There are far more viable alternatives to MS products than there are to Intel. Intel at the moment, only has AMD, which only challenges it in its server space. AMD is not a realistic competitor, as things stand, in the laptop space.
MS on the other hand is embattled even in the desktop space, its traditional area of total hegemonic dominance.
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WTF? The OLPC may have started th fad but Wintel mini-laptops existed well before OLPC ever started tooting their own horn. The Gateway Handbook, the Toshiba Libretto's, the OQO, the various UMPCs, the list goes on and on.
Re:Let's remember who started the parade (Score:5, Informative)
You want to know why Wintel hates OLPC and astroturfs so vindictively, yet we love them?
Got it yet?
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Oh, and did you even read the link you gave? That thing claims that we were promised a $100 laptop with a high res color display and a cool Star Trek keyboard. It claims we were promised this on a computer that w
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So, the one laptop per child may usher some interesting innovations, bu
OLPC is about the software, not the hardware... (Score:2)
Why does nobody seem to be able to figure this out?
The idea behind OLPC is to teach, not to teach how to use a PC.
Re:OLPC is about the software, not the hardware... (Score:4, Interesting)
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Are these kind of devises more for the show or ... (Score:3, Interesting)
Personally, I always find myself writing notes faster with a pen and paper. I have tried several alternatives ranging from Palm, Pocket PCs, having a laptop with me
If anybody here know a good solution, I would be glad to know how I could find a good replacement. My principal issue with paper notes is that it is easy to lose and take more time to classify them.
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I am as quick when using an already booted computer ...
For quick note taking, nothing beats paper and pencil, I believe. (To take audio recordings is annoying for your environment, and it takes much more time to re
A good dictophone. (Score:1, Informative)
Newer ones are basically flash based mp3 players using a different recording codec. Most plug directly into the usb ports on your pc/laptop like a flash pen, so you can just chuck the files on to review or transcribe at a later time.
If you've got some well trained Voice-rec software, even better.
What? (Score:2)
Only working sample? Really? (Score:4, Interesting)
Then how come in one of the photo the laptop has the "intel inside" sticker and in another photo it's not there?
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very valid point though
Two Photo Sessions? (Score:2)
Rotating screen (Score:4, Insightful)
That tiny pivot in the middle seems like a good target for kids to break the computer.
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--
So who is hotter? Ali or Ali's Sister?
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The XO-1 has that same issue [wikipedia.org]
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Actually it's not quite the same issue. As steveha said under a different thread:
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Not to mention all the ventilation slots for sand to get into...
I remember... (Score:4, Insightful)
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As far as I know OLPC hasn't ended. And... why can't we have both? There's helping the poor but why shouldn't those that can afford better computers be allowed to buy them?
XP to prepare kids for adult life (Score:5, Insightful)
From TFA: I can understand why a Windows environment would be considered desirable in an educational tool, since the children will be learning to use the OS and applications that theyâ(TM)ll be encountering in their adult life.
What a brillant insight!
See, a kid using Windows XP in high school will encounter Windows XP applications in ten or fifteen years. Why, he will work with only Windows XP his whole adult life. Otherwise, he'd have to be trained to be flexible and to learn by himself as soon as high school.
This brilliant insight also explains why Vista has failed on the marketplace. Why, when the average worker left high school school in the 80s, all the Apple IIs and C-64s in the school computer labs were running only Windows XP! No wonder he refuses Vista!
Thank God we have good, insightful journalists in this country. Otherwise, we might see all kind of crap printed on the web.
Note: yes, that was sarcasm. All of it. Thank you for noticing.
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(not the same AC as grandparent)
You seem to forget that the OLPC was supposed to be an educational tool, not a cheap laptop.
It was not about giving children an early experience with business software, it was about educating them, through constructivism.
Even if we forget the educational side, even if we assume winxp will be out there for a hundred years, yes, it is better for kids to learn to adapt to any OS than just have them trained in WinXP.
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I think students should be exposed to all the current OS's they may encounter in the workplace (XP, Vista, Mac, Linux) during their schooling, not just what-ever the teachers are able to figure out.
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.
Vista hasn't failed in the home and SOHO markets: Top Operating System Share Trend [hitslink.com] In these - global - webstats Vista is the only OS showing any significant growth at all.
See, a kid using Windows XP in high school will encounter Windows XP applications in ten or fifteen years.
He will most likely be using apps that will be recognizable descendants of those first published for the Mac OS in 1984 and Win 3.1 in 1992 and Win 95
Re:XP to prepare kids for adult life (Score:4, Informative)
According to those numbers, vista is a failure. It isn't success if you're primarily gaining usershare through hardware failure.
From September to July on that chart, the xp+vista+2k goes from ~90.4% to ~89.6% I was almost "generous" and went to lump "other" in on the assumption it was 95/98, but then the drop would be nearly 1.5%
A .8% loss isn't horrible, but Macs grew 1.12% and Linux grew .33%
If Vista is growing(in gross numbers, as opposed to percentages), Linux and Mac are growing faster in relative terms according to your chart.
It isn't hardware failure that drives sales. (Score:2)
.
It isn't hardware failure that drives the home and SOHO user to upgrade.
It is the chance to massively upgrade hardware and software at the OEM price. The HP Quad Core 64 Bit Vista Premium PC with 4 GB RAM and NVIDIA 9600 graphics and 1 TB of storage is $1000 at Walmart.com.
The Duo Core 32 Bit Vista Premium PC with 2 GB RAM starts at $329 at Walmart.com.
A .8% loss isn't horrible, but Macs grew 1.12% and Linux grew 33%
If V
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He will most likely be using apps that will be recognizable descendants of those first published for the Mac OS in 1984 and Win 3.1 in 1992 and Win 95 in 1995
In other words: "I never look at alternatives because I'm going to be running the same OS for the rest of eternity".
Yep, M$ loves it when schools subsidize M$ with free M$ product training. Typical M$ alley-cat ethics. No wonder M$ has so many enemies.
---
DRM breaks ownership, the basis of capitalism and the free market.
In what ways has the office changed? (Score:2)
.
How difficult would it be the young woman who entered office work as a typist in 1888 to adapt to the office of 2008?
The young man in accounting?
Local museums have ledgers, correspondence and promotional material - paper ephemerals - from local businesses active in the 1850s ---and it is all quite familiar.
You can turn the clock back another century to the fur-trading posts of the 1750s
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...
MS Office is what it is because it is shaped by the requirements and traditions of clerical work that go back hundreds of years.
Then how come all the talk about "retraining costs" from the M$ astroturfers whenever anybody suggests moving an office from M$ to an alternative? It's not true of course but they do so love to go on and on.
That is why it is so very, very hard for projects like OpenOffice.org to come up with anything truly innovative -
That is why it is so very, very hard for any software pack
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Student discounts for software aren't really the developing trend. The shift will be to supply school notebooks complete with all (operating system, applications, simulations and digital texts) the required software in order to prevent the inevitable high corporate profit school budget blow out and this includes the back end server environment.
Schools the get sucked into buying piece meal will quickly see the discounts evaporative in the next cycle, 6 months or one year down track and be paying thousands
Zero mention of OLPC (Score:1, Interesting)
The review doesn't mention OLPC once, and we're supposed to take it even remotely seriously? Why would that possibly happen if not for a requirement from Intel that the review not mention the OLPC.
That's like reviewing a portable music player and not comparing it against an iPod. Once a product has that kind of mindshare, it's just irresponsible not to compare.
(verification word: reinvent. yeah, that's about right)
Intel vs. OLPC (Score:5, Informative)
There's no official word on pricing yet, but no doubt the OLPC guys will try to rain on Intel's parade.
Huh?
Let's do a quick review.
0) OLPC starts working on a laptop. It has a non-Intel chip and is designed for ultra power efficiency.
1) Intel starts working on their own laptop. Intel's of course has an Intel CPU; and it is designed to run Windows.
2) Official Intel sales people start trying to sell the Classmate to countries that are considering the OLPC laptop. In at least one case, an Intel sales person went to a country that had already agreed to buy OLPC laptops, and said in effect "That thing won't even run Windows... you sure you really want it?" At the time, Intel was officially a member of OLPC. (Rogue sales people? Evil corporate double-dealing? You decide.)
Now, what's up with "no doubt the OLPC guys will try to rain on Intel's parade"? The OLPC guys are the overbearing bullies and Intel is the underdog here?
I'm sure there are markets for something like the Classmate PC. I don't think it's the best choice for places with no electric infrastructure. And it has a cooling fan, so I don't think it's the best choice for places that are really hot, humid, and/or dusty. And I'm sure it costs about twice as much as the OLPC, so I don't think it's the best choice for the truly poor markets. And it almost certainly is much harder to repair than the OLPC design.[1] Hmmm. Am I raining on Intel's parade?
All that said, the world is a large place full of lots of kids. No way can OLPC crank out enough computers to help everyone. If Intel can sell their computer into the more affluent areas, they can make money. If their sales people can leave the OLPC markets alone, maybe Intel and OLPC can just get along.
P.S. I suspect that neither OLPC nor Intel will have the last word on educational computers for the masses. I'm starting to think that the best design would be a simple tablet that actually does cost $100 or less, and probably runs an ARM chip or something for crazy long battery life.
steveha
[1] From the photos, it's a pretty conventional clamshell, which means lots of connections running through the hinge so the motherboard can be in the base and the display in the lid; the OLPC design has motherboard and display in the lid, so that all that needs to run through the hinge is basically a USB cable. Teen-aged kids, armed with simple screwdrivers, can take apart two broken OLPC laptops, swap parts, and produce a working OLPC laptop. I really doubt this will be possible with the Classmate.
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Not necessarily. Can be the opposite
Yeah, can be but IS NOT in this case. We are not talking in the abstract, we are talking about the OLPC XO, which is in fact designed to run without a fan, and does in fact have a sealed case (even a sealed keyboard). When you fold down the antenna ears, you seal all the exposed ports. Check it.
OLPC wanted super long battery life, and the low-power CPU
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0) OLPC starts working on a laptop. It has a non-Intel chip and is designed for ultra power efficiency.
1) Intel starts working on their own laptop. Intel's of course has an Intel CPU; and it is designed to run Windows.
What's annoying is your timeline (and the fact you counted from zero). You have no idea when Intel began working on the classmate or if the idea was already in the works. Yes, they were part of OLPC- but if they had already invested serious money into their own program, can you blame them for backing out?
They are a business, and the only reason their practice can be seen as wrong is because OLPCs were supposed to save the poor...
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You have no idea when Intel began working on the classmate or if the idea was already in the works.
Actually, I do, because I have been reading the news coverage. I challenge you to present even one link to even one news story that shows the Classmate even being discussed before the OLPC project came along.
There are so many links I could give you... here's one. Be sure to read page 5.
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article4472654.ece [timesonline.co.uk]
From page 5:
When will people learn? (Score:5, Insightful)
From the article:
That's quite the prediction there, predicting what OS is going to be in predominant use when today's 7-year-olds enter the knowledge workforce in 15+ years. And even if the author turns out to be correct, and Windows is still in predominant use beyond 2020, it's highly doubtful that whatever version is in use then is going to come close to resembling Windows XP.
Really, at the age group these systems are targeted towards, the operating system shouldn't matter. The ideal of these systems isn't to teach operating system usage, but to use interactive applications for sharing information and teaching non-computer skills. You could do that with OS/2, and it's not going to impair anyone's ability to learn how to use an OS in the future. Heck, I started back at that age on a Commodore PET, and it certainly hasn't affected my ability to use a modern day OS.
Yaz.
Re:When will people learn? (Score:4, Informative)
By 2020, the current Windows UI will be 25 years old. And one of the big complaints you tend to get from people who have moved directly from the Win 9X line to XP or Vista is that many of the default views (particularly the Control Panel's default view) has changed so drastically that it's difficult to figure out where to configure specific settings.
So again, this is a completely useless reason for using Windows on systems designed for kids. I doubt the Windows UI is going to last 25 years without change -- and if it does, Microsoft will by then be so unimportant in the computing world that nobody is going to be using their OS anyhow.
Yaz.
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I don't know, Vista resembles win 95. The user differences are really not that different.
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I don't know, Vista resembles win 95. The user differences are really not that different.
You're right, at the heart, they're really not all that different. Would you say that Gnome or KDE is more or less different from Vista than Win 95 is different from Vista? With the tendency of all of the user interfaces to copy from one another, I think KDE and Gnome are probably closer to Vista than 95 was.
Personally, I'd say that since most of the current user interfaces use the same basic window, icon, mouse/touchscreen/touchpad, pointer and keyboard paradigm, they'd leave any current student in about t
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From the article:
Heck, I started back at that age on a Commodore PET, and it certainly hasn't affected my ability to use a modern day OS.
Yaz.
Actually, starting on a PET probably helped you learn other things. For the same reason, starting with linux is a good idea.
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True, but then again I had the aptitude for the skill. Not every child will, and I don't think it's advantageous to make every little kid into a computer scientist.
The PET had the added advantage in that it was much more limited as to what you could do with it, and you had to learn how to interact with the system at a relatively low level if you were to do something as simple as lo
Not bad at all (Score:2)
Looks decent and maybe useful for more than kids. Now - why to think kids are stupid or something. I'm not talking about XP, I can see it running in such machine. Of course Linux gives much more with much less money but a computer is just a computer? My kids have used (my) computers since they were three, never broke anything, boys built their own at age of 8, have no problems whatever OS they have to use, even the one who doesn't care about computers but cars (you know how many separate computers can be in
Keyboard layouts (Score:1)
And why have three keys on the right side of P and two keys on the right side of L and have the enter be the wrong shape.
To be fair, I also hate the HP laptop layout I'm using at the moment where home, pgup, pgdn and end are on the right side of bs, enter and right