> Exactly. It's the village PC for most of the world
> where indoor plumbing
> is a luxury. An x86 version of the
> http://www.simputer.org/simputer/
> that uses a TV for display.
>
> -Bari
>
Forgive me for starting to drift offtopic.
I'm not sure I understand. The villages lacking indoor
plumbing are not the customer base that I think are
being targeted for broadband+PIC. I believe the target
base are the 50Million or so Indians who are in the
lower middle class. They have a monthly disposable
income of around USD$10 so they could pay off the cost
of a PIC over a year or two. These are people who are
teachers, farmers, artisans, barbers, sundry shop
owners ( and if I might say so, are a lovely people
whom I'd someday like to help by delivering a cheaper
free and open sourced based Linux solution to their
computing needs ). They already have indoor plumbing,
thank you very much. They typically want to use a PIC
to get things like current commodity grain prices, the
price of gas, exchange email and photos of their
family with their relatives in the city, figure out if
their politicians are doing right by them, and get
educational content for their children. I think
1024x768 is fine for them. Once their kids become
hackers, I'm sure they'll find a way to get better
displays. :-)
>From what I understand of the PIC, the output is VGA
only. The broadband provider bundles in a 15" CRT from
LG-India bringing the price up to USD$250 or so.
Also, from what I've read, the simputer is more like a
enhanced-PDA, ie: handheld device, rather than like a
computer. From their FAQ;
# Q: Is the Simputer like a PC?
A: No. The Simputer is *NOT* a personal computer. It
could however be a pocket computer.
# Q: Is the Simputer like a Palm?
A: Again no! The Simputer is much more powerful than a
Palm. For example, in terms of screen size (320x240),
memory capabilities (32MB RAM) and the OS (GNU/Linux).
Ramesh
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