Forget the One Laptop Per Child project hyperbole, there seems to be another contender emerging which is deserving of the title 'cheapest Linux laptop on the planet' despite having very little in the way of publicity when compared to the OLPC machine. The Linux lappy in question is the Elonex One, a device which Elonex is saying it will provide one unit free of charge to underprivileged kids for every hundred commercial systems it sells. Now that might not sound overly generous, but the argument would seem to be that when you consider it is selling at under $200 (or £99 here in the UK) that sufficient volume will be shifted in order for that buy hundred get one free deal to make a difference.
Of course, I tend to veer towards the argument that if they are that cheap to produce (and one has to assume that Elonex some margin on each unit sold) that the company could just bite the bullet and donate a decent number of laptops no matter what the commercial sales volume turns out to be.
Still, that gripe apart, working in conjunction with the National Laptop Initiative here in the UK the plan is that every child in the UK should have access to a laptop. Here's hoping that particular dream is realised, and perhaps more deservingly realised in less financially privileged nations as well.
As for the Elonex One itself, it comes with a 300MHz LNX Code 8 Mobile processor, and a Debian-based distribution. Add to that 128MB RAM, 1GB Flash and a detachable screen and there is no denying that you get a lot of Linux laptop for not very much money at all.
