Re: [school-discuss] Ways to put Linux PCs in villages w/o electricity

["Vedran Vucic" <vedran.vucic@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hello,

One of good examples of designing  hardware for similar purposes is done by Genesi
http://www.genesi-usa.com and their board EFIKA
http://www.efika.de/index_en.html

It is based on powerpc platform and of course, it runs GNU/Linux. 
Its power consumptions 20W only and it si suitable to be used as thin
client, access point for VoIP, Internet, repository of learning
materials, gateway, router etc.

However, there ar epossibility to be used as a cluster, stand alone computer, thin client  etc.

Best wishes,


vedran

On 7/20/07, Michael Shigorin <mike@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Wed, Jul 11, 2007 at 08:53:04AM -0400, Daniel Howard wrote:
> >I'd rather consider used notebooks in Pentium/PII range.
> >These draw less energy, weigh less and seem to cost at least
> >comparably to what you cite as station+monitor price.
> Wouldn't the notebook only use less electricity if you
> disconnected the hard drive, cd rom drive, and fan?

I've meant "as a thin client", when one can safely turn off
those.

> The thin clients (and video card approach) have no moving
> parts.  And they certainly don't weigh less than the thin
> clients we deployed in the pilot at APS, those HPs were less
> than 3 lbs.  Plus, when the keyboard dies (more likely in dusty
> environment?) you have to replace the whole thing.

Yep, there are shortcomings in any of the variants.  The most
popular one of branded thin clients are high cost/performance
ratio with me. :) (so far I've only seen one HP TC class that
was sponsored)

--
---- WBR, Michael Shigorin <mike@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  ------ Linux.Kiev http://www.linux.kiev.ua/