 This is Part 2 of my mini-blog series Third World Pc's. In Part 1 I talked a little bit about the recent mass market release of both the Asus Eee Pc and the One Laptop Per Child organization's the XO-1. And before I continue on with that I thought I would look and see are these the only computers in the works for developing third world countries out there that having an impact?
What I found right away was an organization called Geekcorp's. Last year they worked on a project computer called the Desert PC. Now while this is not a laptop like the previous two machines they are non-the-less having quite an impact on a town called Bourem Inaly in Mali. If you click on the Google Map link for the village you will see that it is located literally in the middle of no-where in Africa. The Desert PC is a sealed, fanless system based on VIA Technologies’ Mini-ITX form factor. It has a heatpipe for passive cooling, a solid state disk to eliminate moving parts, and a Linux distribution, Kunnafonix, customized by IESC Geekcorps to minimize the number of disk writes. While regular computers consume approximately 300 watts, the Desert PC (including the screen) normally consumes only 35 watts or less of power, with a peak value of 60 watts. I.e., it uses less power than a 60-watt light bulb. Low power consumption makes it suitable for low energy sources like solar panels; IESC Geekcorps reengineered existing solar panels while on site in Bourem Inaly to increase their efficiency by 20-30%. (The Desert PC Spec Sheet PDF) Via (Geekcorp's page) While the cost of the Desert PC can be $300 more than an equivalent regular computer, its total cost of ownership is lower, because it consumes much less electricity and requires fewer solar panels, both significant costs in Mali. After IESC Geekcorps developed the Desert PC, the team developed a new low-cost model using Internet service from Regional Broadband Global Area Network (RBGAN) small satellite systems. They disabled graphics and installed loband to reduce bandwidth consumption by 5-20%, reducing the cost of RBGAN service (which is billed per kilobyte) by 80-95%. The Desert PC system and loband RBGAN Internet connection brought tangible results to the isolated community of Bourem Inaly: - The staff of Radio Beeray has access to quality information via the Internet, and as a result, the entire community gets better information from the community radio.
- The increased efficiency of the solar power system resulted in more electricity, which increased radio transmission and lighting usage by two to four hours per day.
- Because the staff no longer has to travel to cyber cafés to send email, etc., Radio Beeray was able to reduce monthly operating costs by nearly US$100. With these savings the station could afford to hire a new staff member.
- Radio Beeray is able to afford independent maintenance of the system.
Based on the Desert PC’s success throughout the pilot, it was proposed for future rural area Internet access, including all remote Africare sites, and to sites in Niger. (Partial Excerpt from Geekcorp's description of the fantastic project) Though this computer as you see cost's a lot more than the two previously blogged laptops and is by no means commercialized. I say it is having a more profound effect on the people of environment that the mass marketed ones. Labels: Editorial | 
Dell matches the economy class XO and Asus Eee laptops by permanently chopping its $700 Vostro 1000 to $399. It's got superior specs to both: 15.4-inch screen, 1.7 GHz dual-core Athlon64 X2, 1GB RAM, 256MB integrated ATI gfx card, 8x DVD burner and 802.11g Wi-Fi card, running XP Home. The super-cheap laptop market's getting nicely competitive. [
Even though I use 