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I must admit that I haven’t focussed on writing about the access devices; they are a natural corollary to any broadband access initiative. Let’s face it. A mobile screen is useless (most of the times) because a cramped interface cannot replicate the full blown access device.
It’s heartening to note that a cheap access device has been “manufactured”; it runs Ubuntu. However, as noted by many others, a different distro would have sufficed (top of the mind recall is Antix or Arch Linux). Yet, with modest specifications, as below, it’s really worth it.
- 700MHz ARM11
- 128MB of SDRAM
- OpenGL ES 2.0
- 1080p30 H.264 high-profile decode
- Composite and HDMI video output
- USB 2.0
- SD/MMC/SDIO memory card slot
- General-purpose I/O
A cheap monitor and a keyboard is available off the shelf in most of the places. The final cost may not be much, even for a developing country like India.
This may be way better than having a dummy terminal and distributed computing through Broadband.
Interestingly, Apple is rumored to shift it’s line to ARM processors.
Related articles
- $25 ARM Powered Desktop presented by Raspberry Pi Foundation (armdevices.net)
- Next Post (dinmerican.wordpress.com)
- Bridging the Digital Divide Takes More than Just Access (blogs.sitepoint.com)
- This computer (yes, computer!) costs $25 (venturebeat.com)
- UK game dev creates $25 Linux computer for education (slashgear.com)
- Raspberry Pi: A $25 Bare-Bones PC That Fits On Your Keychain (crunchgear.com)
- Game developer David Braben creates a USB stick PC for $25 (geek.com)
- Digital Divide / California : public investment to increase digital literacy (skillsinfo.wordpress.com)
- Bringing Broadband to Rural America (thinkup.waldenu.edu)
- National Broadband Map Shows Digital Divide (tech.slashdot.org)
