[gentoo-user] {OT} laptops for a developing country (Vanuatu)

[gentoo-user] {OT} laptops for a developing country (Vanuatu)

[Grant]

My wife and I recently visited Vanuatu (island of Santo) and fell in
love with it.  We got to know some locals pretty well and everybody is
pining for laptops.  Internet service is becoming widely available due
to Digicel and TVL cell phone signals but I didn't meet anyone with a
real smartphone.  I promised to return with laptops and I'd like to
make good on that.  Which ultra low-cost but functional laptops or
netbooks would you choose for this?  I'm looking into OLPC but I'm not
sure how that works.

- Grant

Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} laptops for a developing country (Vanuatu)

[Nilesh Govindrajan]

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On Saturday 27 April 2013 06:33:24 AM IST, Grant wrote:
> My wife and I recently visited Vanuatu (island of Santo) and fell in
> love with it.  We got to know some locals pretty well and everybody is
> pining for laptops.  Internet service is becoming widely available due
> to Digicel and TVL cell phone signals but I didn't meet anyone with a
> real smartphone.  I promised to return with laptops and I'd like to
> make good on that.  Which ultra low-cost but functional laptops or
> netbooks would you choose for this?  I'm looking into OLPC but I'm not
> sure how that works.
>
> - Grant
>

I heard Chromebooks are cheap, but I don't know what's their exact cost 
/ feasibility / etc.


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Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} laptops for a developing country (Vanuatu)

[Grant]

>> My wife and I recently visited Vanuatu (island of Santo) and fell in
>> love with it.  We got to know some locals pretty well and everybody is
>> pining for laptops.  Internet service is becoming widely available due
>> to Digicel and TVL cell phone signals but I didn't meet anyone with a
>> real smartphone.  I promised to return with laptops and I'd like to
>> make good on that.  Which ultra low-cost but functional laptops or
>> netbooks would you choose for this?  I'm looking into OLPC but I'm not
>> sure how that works.
>>
>> - Grant
>>
>
> I heard Chromebooks are cheap, but I don't know what's their exact cost /
> feasibility / etc.

I think the problem there is a Chromebook needs to be online in order
to do much of anything, and the connection needs to be fast in order
to make them very functional.  Plus most people are paying by the MB
in Vanuatu and a Chromebook must use a fair amount of data even on a
fast connection.

- Grant

Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} laptops for a developing country (Vanuatu)

[Nilesh Govindrajan]

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On Saturday 27 April 2013 07:06:41 AM IST, Grant wrote:
>>> My wife and I recently visited Vanuatu (island of Santo) and fell in
>>> love with it.  We got to know some locals pretty well and everybody is
>>> pining for laptops.  Internet service is becoming widely available due
>>> to Digicel and TVL cell phone signals but I didn't meet anyone with a
>>> real smartphone.  I promised to return with laptops and I'd like to
>>> make good on that.  Which ultra low-cost but functional laptops or
>>> netbooks would you choose for this?  I'm looking into OLPC but I'm not
>>> sure how that works.
>>>
>>> - Grant
>>>
>>
>> I heard Chromebooks are cheap, but I don't know what's their exact cost /
>> feasibility / etc.
>
> I think the problem there is a Chromebook needs to be online in order
> to do much of anything, and the connection needs to be fast in order
> to make them very functional.  Plus most people are paying by the MB
> in Vanuatu and a Chromebook must use a fair amount of data even on a
> fast connection.
>
> - Grant
>

Well, any Chromebook can run a normal Linux distro. The chromebook team 
has put up a chroot helper on their github.


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Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} laptops for a developing country (Vanuatu)

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 12:05:06 +0530, Nilesh Govindrajan wrote:

> > I think the problem there is a Chromebook needs to be online in order
> > to do much of anything, and the connection needs to be fast in order
> > to make them very functional.  Plus most people are paying by the MB
> > in Vanuatu and a Chromebook must use a fair amount of data even on a
> > fast connection.

> Well, any Chromebook can run a normal Linux distro. The chromebook team 
> has put up a chroot helper on their github.

But they are designed to be used with cloud services, and as such have
very little storage.

Have you considered the used market, especially companies replacing
hardware at regular intervals. You may even get them fro free as a
charitable donation, giving the company a tax write-off.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

COBOL: Completely Obsolete Business Oriented Language

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Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} laptops for a developing country (Vanuatu)

[Pandu Poluan]

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On Apr 27, 2013 4:02 PM, "Neil Bothwick" <neil@digimed.co.uk> wrote:
>
> On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 12:05:06 +0530, Nilesh Govindrajan wrote:
>
> > > I think the problem there is a Chromebook needs to be online in order
> > > to do much of anything, and the connection needs to be fast in order
> > > to make them very functional.  Plus most people are paying by the MB
> > > in Vanuatu and a Chromebook must use a fair amount of data even on a
> > > fast connection.
>
> > Well, any Chromebook can run a normal Linux distro. The chromebook team
> > has put up a chroot helper on their github.
>
> But they are designed to be used with cloud services, and as such have
> very little storage.
>
> Have you considered the used market, especially companies replacing
> hardware at regular intervals. You may even get them fro free as a
> charitable donation, giving the company a tax write-off.
>

This.

Remember that 1- or 2-year old laptops are mighty powerful enough for
nearly everything, except hi-def gaming.

OTOH, sometimes business laptops sacrifice battery life for processing
power. You will want to select the less power-hungry ones.

Rgds,
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Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} laptops for a developing country (Vanuatu)

[Alan McKinnon]

On 27/04/2013 03:36, Grant wrote:
>>> My wife and I recently visited Vanuatu (island of Santo) and fell in
>>> love with it.  We got to know some locals pretty well and everybody is
>>> pining for laptops.  Internet service is becoming widely available due
>>> to Digicel and TVL cell phone signals but I didn't meet anyone with a
>>> real smartphone.  I promised to return with laptops and I'd like to
>>> make good on that.  Which ultra low-cost but functional laptops or
>>> netbooks would you choose for this?  I'm looking into OLPC but I'm not
>>> sure how that works.
>>>
>>> - Grant
>>>
>>
>> I heard Chromebooks are cheap, but I don't know what's their exact cost /
>> feasibility / etc.
> 
> I think the problem there is a Chromebook needs to be online in order
> to do much of anything, and the connection needs to be fast in order
> to make them very functional.  Plus most people are paying by the MB
> in Vanuatu and a Chromebook must use a fair amount of data even on a
> fast connection.

I agree - tablets (and everything else in that category that superceded
netbooks in developing countries) are a) expensive b) somewhat fragile
and c) need to be online to do much of anything. They tend to use the OS
app-store for updates which is much harder than a distro repo to
replicate out on a tropical isle.

And I think there's your opening: netbooks.

They are cheap and once you get past that they are much slower than what
you are used to, they do work very well. And they work offline too. With
one more advantage from your point of view: Windows runs very suckily
one them, but a decent Linux runs rather unsuckily :-)

*Someone* has all those netbooks that Westeners ditched in favour of
iCraps, I recommend you look into who is now selling them 2nd hand.




-- 
Alan McKinnon
alan.mckinnon@gmail.com

Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} laptops for a developing country (Vanuatu)

[Grant]

>> > I think the problem there is a Chromebook needs to be online in order
>> > to do much of anything, and the connection needs to be fast in order
>> > to make them very functional.  Plus most people are paying by the MB
>> > in Vanuatu and a Chromebook must use a fair amount of data even on a
>> > fast connection.
>
>> Well, any Chromebook can run a normal Linux distro. The chromebook team
>> has put up a chroot helper on their github.
>
> But they are designed to be used with cloud services, and as such have
> very little storage.
>
> Have you considered the used market, especially companies replacing
> hardware at regular intervals. You may even get them fro free as a
> charitable donation, giving the company a tax write-off.

Is this something to find through eBay?

- Grant

Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} laptops for a developing country (Vanuatu)

[Grant]

>>>> My wife and I recently visited Vanuatu (island of Santo) and fell in
>>>> love with it.  We got to know some locals pretty well and everybody is
>>>> pining for laptops.  Internet service is becoming widely available due
>>>> to Digicel and TVL cell phone signals but I didn't meet anyone with a
>>>> real smartphone.  I promised to return with laptops and I'd like to
>>>> make good on that.  Which ultra low-cost but functional laptops or
>>>> netbooks would you choose for this?  I'm looking into OLPC but I'm not
>>>> sure how that works.
>>>>
>>>> - Grant
[snip]
> And I think there's your opening: netbooks.
>
> They are cheap and once you get past that they are much slower than what
> you are used to, they do work very well. And they work offline too. With
> one more advantage from your point of view: Windows runs very suckily
> one them, but a decent Linux runs rather unsuckily :-)

This brings up another important question: Windows or Linux.  These
folks have ultra-basic computer skills if that.  They won't be able to
hit the forums when something goes wrong.  I've only ever really used
Gentoo so I'm not sure how easy Ubuntu or whatever is but I'm leaning
toward Windows for this.  It's a much more "universal language" in the
computer world so the chances of them finding help for a problem are
much higher.  Plus they can install Windows programs that way.  Of
course Windows comes with its own set of problems but I think those
might be preferable in this case.  If I can get systems with some kind
of a restore partition, they could follow a pretty simple procedure to
restore the OS back to factory when it gets too far out.  In fact the
owner of the place where I was staying brought me his Toshiba laptop
while I was there and (typically) the thing was riddled with viruses
and had become unusable.  Luckily there was a restore partition and it
was too easy to snap it back to factory.  He then promptly checked his
email for the first time in however long and opened a message from his
daughter in Australia which contained a photo of his granddaughter.
It was the first time he had ever seen her.  He bought the kava every
night after that.

> *Someone* has all those netbooks that Westeners ditched in favour of
> iCraps, I recommend you look into who is now selling them 2nd hand.

I should look to eBay, right?

- Grant

Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} laptops for a developing country (Vanuatu)

[Alan McKinnon]

On 27/04/2013 20:45, Grant wrote:
>> *Someone* has all those netbooks that Westeners ditched in favour of
>> > iCraps, I recommend you look into who is now selling them 2nd hand.
> I should look to eBay, right?




I reckon that's a good start.

There are other companies around that sell refurbed machines, check
those out too. I have no idea how to find such companies in your part of
the world, so you are probably gonna need some uber-google-fu to find them.

And as almost, do your homework and due diligence.

-- 
Alan McKinnon
alan.mckinnon@gmail.com

Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} laptops for a developing country (Vanuatu)

[Grant]

>>> *Someone* has all those netbooks that Westeners ditched in favour of
>>> > iCraps, I recommend you look into who is now selling them 2nd hand.
>> I should look to eBay, right?
>
> I reckon that's a good start.
>
> There are other companies around that sell refurbed machines, check
> those out too. I have no idea how to find such companies in your part of
> the world, so you are probably gonna need some uber-google-fu to find them.
>
> And as almost, do your homework and due diligence.

How about Android netbooks or tablets?  Here are a well-reviewed
Android 4.0 netbook and 4.1 tablet for about $80 each brand new:

Kocaso NB726A netbook:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1M80H31141
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Kocaso-NB726A-Black-7-1-2Ghz-Google-Android-4-0-Netbook-Notebook-Laptop-/300826243684

Avatar Sirius S701-R2A-1 tablet:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834686007

- Grant

Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} laptops for a developing country (Vanuatu)

[Mick]

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On Saturday 27 Apr 2013 22:09:38 Grant wrote:
> >>> *Someone* has all those netbooks that Westeners ditched in favour of
> >>> 
> >>> > iCraps, I recommend you look into who is now selling them 2nd hand.
> >> 
> >> I should look to eBay, right?
> > 
> > I reckon that's a good start.
> > 
> > There are other companies around that sell refurbed machines, check
> > those out too. I have no idea how to find such companies in your part of
> > the world, so you are probably gonna need some uber-google-fu to find
> > them.
> > 
> > And as almost, do your homework and due diligence.
> 
> How about Android netbooks or tablets?  Here are a well-reviewed
> Android 4.0 netbook and 4.1 tablet for about $80 each brand new:
> 
> Kocaso NB726A netbook:
> 
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1M80H31141
> http://www.ebay.com/itm/Kocaso-NB726A-Black-7-1-2Ghz-Google-Android-4-0-Net
> book-Notebook-Laptop-/300826243684
> 
> Avatar Sirius S701-R2A-1 tablet:
> 
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834686007
> 
> - Grant

What-ever you source for them, can I please ask you to think seriously about 
avoiding installing any MSWindows OS?  The amount of botnets out there that 
hit my webservers is only getting worse and any IPs that I've scanned to 
investigate who the attackers are, I see them running MSWindows.  :-(
-- 
Regards,
Mick

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Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} laptops for a developing country (Vanuatu)

[Grant]

> What-ever you source for them, can I please ask you to think seriously about
> avoiding installing any MSWindows OS?  The amount of botnets out there that
> hit my webservers is only getting worse and any IPs that I've scanned to
> investigate who the attackers are, I see them running MSWindows.  :-(

Android seems like the perfect solution.  Easy to use, ubiquitous,
secure, and free.

- Grant