Development Systems

An application developer can do most of their work on any system, especially if they are using the OLPC Python Environment. However it is a good idea to do your testing on a system that is similar to the OLPC, i.e. low memory, battery powered, portable.

The pepperpad 3 software was recently ported to the BTest-1 hardware. If the Sugar software ran on the pepperpad, then regular people could help test new versions. It does look like it is as close to the Btest-1 as any product on the market. All it is missing is the touchpad, but it has a touch screen.

Some possibilities are:

• A number of HP iPAQ's run Linux; it is an ARM based PDA, along with the:
• Sharp Zaurus is a PDA running Linux. Several model look like mini laptops.
• PepperPad is a Linux-based tablet device. The 3rd model in the range has adopted the AMD GEODE CPU however that is less relevant for Python applications.
• A German company sells the Flepo Mini PC1 which runs exactly the same CPU as the OLPC.
• NTAVO Thin Client terminals run Linux. The PuppyLinux folks have ported their low memory system to it.
• Ndiyo Nivo is a "ultra-thin-client hardware" - not a laptop, but another idea on cost reduction (maybe a "thin" OLPC along such lines could of interest in future iterations?)