Some say the Classmate PC is Intel’s answer to (or competition with) the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) effort. Intel is hawking the lilliputian laptop in “emerging markets” like Nigeria, India, and Mexico as a solution for worldwide education of primary and secondary students. It’s to be officially released and shipped en masse to schools in Africa and South and Central America by the end of June. Recently my children and I borrowed a Classmate PC loaded with a custom version of Mandriva Linux. Most of us had fun.

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