hi Andrew,
Looks like a very interesting idea.
I wonder how good most web pages look on a 7 inch screen, 800 pixels sounds good for such a wee beastie.

As a paid up mac-fan-boy I think you have to take total cost of ownership into account.
My main machine at home is nearly at the end of its life born in 2000 it has never needed me to pay anyone to get it fixed, still runs the usual popular apps flash fireworks only slows me down if I have a ton of applications open. Sitting beside this old box is an even older one now running as a web server, that old machine (G3 350mhz!) cost me a lot when i bought it, but it has paid its way and then some.

Putting the mac aside, i would love to see these wee laptops in school, but wonder how many LAs would be happy with a linux machine on their network. In Glasgow wee can only use manages service pcs on the network.

For once John I’m not really taking a pop at Apple or MS PCs – as you know I love them both

TCO is a big issue. I’d love to know if anyone has done some research into this for school computers. We do expect things to last a long time in many classrooms! I’d also love to see how robust these things are. All reports seem to say the build quality is ok though. As far as the screen goes, 800 px isn’t too shabby – a 7″ screen is quite a friendly size for browsing and office stuff, but I’d probably want something bigger for any art or development. It has a VGA port though, so you’re not really limited here.

The big question as you rightly point out is how many LAs would be willing to put a linux machine on their networks – hopefully time will tell!

Hi Andrew
I got a look at one of these at SLF in September. It felt pretty robust and was very straightforward to use. With the Open Office suite (which I run from a stick anyway) it can tackle office-like tasks quite easily. The most striking thing about it is its portability – when I worked for a college where students were given laptops for paperless classes there were many complaints about the weight and bulk of the machines they were lugging around. This little machine is small, light and has a pretty good battery life. It will make the idea of anytime anywhere access much more affordable and easy. As for networks not liking linux – shouldn’t the dog wag the tail? In short – I want one. Actually I want lots of them!

Andrew – Thanks for pointing this out. Looks great. We’ve been looking for something like this to sell onto pupils.

Richard – since my first ever laptop (which weighed about 4kg), weight and portability have been very important issues for me. I agree with you about networks – hopefully the price will finally tip things here.

Don – Ideal timing for Christmas too? I’d love to see any school or local authority take this one by the horns – on a 3 year refresh cycle, all a school would have to find is £56 per pupil. I don’t know the numbers, but between existing technology budgets and the huge savings in reprographics, it seems to be that this could be attainable?

I have played with this device both at the SLF and at the HHL conference. It very responsive and boots up very quickly but it does feel very cheaply made. I am not sure how long it would last in the classroom environment.
Have a look at jkkmobile for this and this
The photocopying is my particular hobby horse. The cost of this is where the resources of education actually goes.

Apparently RM have been selling laptops on to parents with with some scheme in England as far as I can make out a monthly type payment thing. Does Don know anything about this or anyone else? I’d love to take this on and I’m going to have a chat to RM about it. It would really push out glow properly

I asked about this and have an answer apparently its mostly at council level they are aiming to do this with RM selling to parents but they are going to investigate and find out if individual schools could also do this.

Ian – it doesn’t surprise me that it feels less robust than other machines – it is half the cost after all. Shows you how much the OS slows things down when booting up – I have another machine with a Flash drive, and it is still slow in comparison to the EeePC, despite having on paper a much higher spec.

Andrea – thanks for finding this out. If anyone does pick this up, can they be sure to broadcast it? I’d love to hear if this works out for schools.

Further to this laptop pricing. Having spoken to RM the apporx costs to parents to lease is £6 a month over 36 months approx £9 a month over 24. Obviously there would need to be lots of work done as to how this would work. There is also the issue over whether LAs would want this to happen. I will let you know where I get to with this over next few weeks

this laptop is far better than what i am using right now