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Cherrypal Launches World's First $99 Laptop

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Re: Cherrypal Launches World's First $99 Laptop

#11

Post by ghshephard »

jasonlbaptiste wrote: post #7

Enough with the toy computers. This race to the bottom is sickening. I understand the third world could benefit from this. I ask though why do they have to get crap? They don't need as much as us, I understand that. Why can't we work on giving them good hardware? We can bail out banks and try to cure aids. I think were more than capable of a better solution and making the economics work.

You do realize, of course, that just 20 years ago, this computer would have been considered "Outrageously over-powered, no individual could conceivably need so much performance/memory"

I sometimes wonder why it is that, as individuals, we look at the systems that were shockingly powerful and capable, and now consider them to be "crap."

Re: Cherrypal Launches World's First $99 Laptop

#12

Post by wgj »

misuba wrote: post #6
ThinkWriteMute wrote: post #3

I'm sorry but at 400Mhz/256MB I can't possibly use that as a computer. Firefox would barely load 3 tabs.

Do most people need 3 tabs?

Concurrent nav is a big feature for power users, but for the rest of the world, probably not.

Edit: I'm surprised that this is such an unpopular point of view.

Re: Cherrypal Launches World's First $99 Laptop

#16

Post by tjr »

ghshephard wrote: post #11
jasonlbaptiste wrote: post #7

Enough with the toy computers. This race to the bottom is sickening. I understand the third world could benefit from this. I ask though why do they have to get crap? They don't need as much as us, I understand that. Why can't we work on giving them good hardware? We can bail out banks and try to cure aids. I think were more than capable of a better solution and making the economics work.

You do realize, of course, that just 20 years ago, this computer would have been considered "Outrageously over-powered, no individual could conceivably need so much performance/memory" I sometimes wonder why it is that, as individuals, we look at the systems that were shockingly powerful and capable, and now consider them to be "crap."

These machines are considered "crap" in comparison to current machines and what software is currently expected to run on machines. I reckon it'd be pretty awesome as an OS/2 Warp machine.

Re: Cherrypal Launches World's First $99 Laptop

#17

Post by Retric »

ghshephard wrote: post #11
jasonlbaptiste wrote: post #7

Enough with the toy computers. This race to the bottom is sickening. I understand the third world could benefit from this. I ask though why do they have to get crap? They don't need as much as us, I understand that. Why can't we work on giving them good hardware? We can bail out banks and try to cure aids. I think were more than capable of a better solution and making the economics work.

You do realize, of course, that just 20 years ago, this computer would have been considered "Outrageously over-powered, no individual could conceivably need so much performance/memory" I sometimes wonder why it is that, as individuals, we look at the systems that were shockingly powerful and capable, and now consider them to be "crap."

One of the more amusing things to do with mondern computer system is to find the most recent year when they would be the most powerful computer on the planet. My guess is a 400MHz modern CPU would place this around 1985 if you include the graphics system etc.

Re: Cherrypal Launches World's First $99 Laptop

#19

Post by jasonlbaptiste »

ghshephard wrote: post #11
jasonlbaptiste wrote: post #7

Enough with the toy computers. This race to the bottom is sickening. I understand the third world could benefit from this. I ask though why do they have to get crap? They don't need as much as us, I understand that. Why can't we work on giving them good hardware? We can bail out banks and try to cure aids. I think were more than capable of a better solution and making the economics work.

You do realize, of course, that just 20 years ago, this computer would have been considered "Outrageously over-powered, no individual could conceivably need so much performance/memory" I sometimes wonder why it is that, as individuals, we look at the systems that were shockingly powerful and capable, and now consider them to be "crap."

We're not approaching the year 1990. We should be moving things forward and not making them acceptable because they would have been insanely powerful 20 years ago. Software has evolved a ton. Sure playing Sega genesis games on my phone would be something unbelievable, but stopping there would be selling ourselves short, hence we have games with 3d graphics. Compromising and racing towards the bottom is just a coward's game.

Re: Cherrypal Launches World's First $99 Laptop

#20

Post by anigbrowl »

jasonlbaptiste wrote: post #7

Enough with the toy computers. This race to the bottom is sickening. I understand the third world could benefit from this. I ask though why do they have to get crap? They don't need as much as us, I understand that. Why can't we work on giving them good hardware? We can bail out banks and try to cure aids. I think were more than capable of a better solution and making the economics work.

OK, their next cheapest thing is called the 'Bing' (LOL trademark infringement...), costs $389, and runs an atom with 1GHz and a ~10" screen.

Is this closer to what you think is a good base spec? I presume the point you're trying to make is that a computer aimed at the developing world should be x86 compatible so that users will have a realistic choice of software an budding engineers and programmers will have access to a platform that will give them transferable skills rather than a possible technological dead end (don't know what's in this $99 device, perhaps an ARM?).

So if we take $100 as a desirable price target that manufacturers could hope to break even on, and assume some aid for development help and technological fairy dust to help us along, what would be your 'sensible minimum' spec?

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