---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 26 Aug 2001 01:11:10 -0700
From: Day Brown <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: LifeRaft <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: LifeRaft <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [SurvPC] Donated Retrofit
Ben A L Jemmett wrote:
>
> A P133 with 16Mb of RAM will run Linux, but it could do with a bit more RAM
> (the same goes for the machine running Windows 98). I doubt you'd get a modern
> Linux distro functioning on that spec, though -- the modern GUIs (KDE and
> GNOME) require a lot more grunt to get decent performance, which is why my
> Linux box (a P133 with 40Mb of RAM) runs an old Slackware distro with a bare-bones
>window manager.
I've seen a lotta 486's with 'socket 4' which will
take 586 class chips upto 133. I've seen 133's for
sale at 15-20$.
Some of the 486's also have both 30 and 72 pin DRAM,
and that too is pretty cheap, 4$/meg, 10$/8 meg. I ran
Linux Mandrake on a 686 amd 166 with 32meg that did
pretty well, no more than a coupla seconds from closing
one post in email to opening the next. About as fast as
Arachne does it with a 486 DX4-100.
With regard to Arachne, I like it, but it crashes or will
not display half the webpages any more. Then too, when a
donated computer gets into the hands of NGO staff, it'll
be Netscape that some of them will be familiar with. Most
wouldnt know Arachne from a phobia.
But if the platform hasta be shipped with anything less
than Ben suggests, then Arachne is the only solution.
In many remote areas, logon time will be priced by the
minute, and the fact that Arachne logs on faster will
be important. In those areas, they wont be surfing the
web anyway, but they will want email, and Arachne is
setup very well to do email offline, and then upload on
the next logon, saving them a lotta money.
There has been a lotta high tech media hype about the
'internet appliance', and the donated computers are one
more example of a critical app in field service offices
of NGOs. The 486's are also important cause they run on
less power. I've adapted laptop power supplies to run
486 desktops with LCD screens on 28 watts that can be
had from the Land Rover battery. That lets field staff
do email, and still have enough juice to start the truck.
When you consider that 4-5 billion people live in areas
where money and electric power are in short supply, you
can see where an 'internet appliance' that would just do
the email for them would be a significant market.
That is the market I thought Netscape might wanna look at.
If staff shows up in the boondocks with dos/arachne, then
the guy who runs the corner store gets to see how it will
do his books, and Arachne will get the business.
However, the hardware keeps evolving, and getting cheaper
and even more efficient with power. Right now, I have a
500 mhz slot 1 with 4meg AGP, CD-ROM, 1.44, and two IDEs,
a 200 megger with dos, and a 4.3 gig with Corel/Debian/-
WordPerfect/PhotoPaint, Sound blaster, trakball, kybd and
modem... all running on less than 50 watts while I write.
A developing world business or NGO could do just fine with
this in trying to manage a website, do the books, business
correspondance, design and print flyers and memos, and of
course, do email. And not havta spend another 500$ on the
backup power system of 350watt windoz hog.
In most of the world, even when you are on the grid, you
find the grid goes down and is very dirty power when it is
up. As the power of the desktop goes up, the cost of the
battery backup and surge suppression does to, and when you
get past 100 watts, it goes up fast. Furthermore, you
dont havta get far outta the capital city to be off grid,
and that's where billions of people (and customers) live.
And since the market for 1000$, or even 700$, platforms is
now saturated, I'd think it was time for Netscape, Arachne,
and the hardware design people to take a look at what can
be done that those billions could afford to buy.
Looking at what is next to me right now, from the top down:
ATX case & power supply- 30$
CD-ROM 30$
1.44 floppy 10$
ATX slot 1 mthbd 30$
AGP 4 meg video card 20$
Sound blaster 10$
56k isa modem 40$
4.3 gig IDE 35$
500 mhz cpu 35$
mouse & kybd 15$
total 255$
Standard VGA can be had for 50$
not so standard 9" LCD can be had for 200,
or 13" LCD for 400$
which are important if you are off grid; the
LCD can run on 8 to 12 watts. regular SVGA
runs more like 85 to 120 watt.
Dont wanna forget the UPS. If you keep the
power load low, so is the price. I've seen a
150 watter at 30$, but a 300 watter is 60$,
and a 500 watt UPS is 120$. You'd think there'd
be a break as the power goes up, but I aint seen it.
and the above only getcha 8-20 minutes. If you run
a store, and the grid goes down, and you wanna keep
the cash register POS software working, the batteries
to keep a full blown windoz system operating will cost
more than you can afford.
And, oh yeah, I dont find it all in one place,
so the shipping prolly runs another 30$.
But some well capitalized outfit who can get
stuff wholesale and ship in quantity could also
get a decent return on investment.
It dont matter to me, but if Netscape or whoever, can
figure out how to offer the needed functionality on
20 watts, they'll have a billion customers.
