Rural laptop to cost $187, with Linux

With all the attention going to the OLPC project (One Laptop Per Child), it is not surprising that the attempts of others to provide low cost laptops has gone relatively unnoticed.

The Menglan Group, a Chinese company, is planning to sell a laptop for around 1,500 yuan starting in May. This works out to around $187 USD. The machine is called the Longmeng, or Dragon Dream.

It weighs about 500 grams, or 1.1 pounds, and uses a Godson II central processing unit developed by the Institute of Computing Technology, Zhang Fuxin, an engineer at the Chinese institute, said in a telephone interview.

“We aren’t looking to compete with the mainstream PC brands such as Lenovo and Apple as we are in a different class altogether,” Zhang said. The laptop uses Linux software and does not support Microsoft’s Windows program, he said.

The laptop, which measures 17 centimeters - or 6.7 inches - by 14 centimeters, will have capacity equivalent to a Pentium III desktop PC and can play DVDs, Zhang said. The computer will not use processors such as those made by Intel or Advanced Micro Devices, Zhang said.

Source: International Herald Tribune

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