Post Correction:
Pepper Computer will be demoing the Pepper 3.1 software on the OLPC, not a new Operating System as I write below. Apologies for the error and please see comments for full details.The Original Post:
How many operating systems do you think geeks can cram onto the Children's Machine XO? There is already the impressive Sugar user interface. And if Microsoft has its way Windows XP on the OLPC. But what about the Pepper Pad OS?
Which hardware is hotter?
The Pepper Pad is a hardware & Linux-based operating system combination designed to rapidly create low-maintenance, simple to use consumer devices for the Web and digital media. And while it is interesting, as an ultra mobile personal computer (UMPC), it has strong competition in the newest smart phones and PDA's. Or the One Laptop Per Child computer.
So it's interesting to note that Steve Paine is reporting that Pepper Computer may be trying to expand from its hardware niche to the clock-stopping hot OLPC technology.
Well here's some very interesting news direct from Pepper Computer who have just let me know that they have been working with the OLPC hardware and will be demonstrating the Pepper software running on an OLPC at CES next week.If you can make it to the 2007 Computer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, you might want to upgrade your experience to the real deal. OLPC will showcase actual OLPC XO-1's at another CES demo on January 8 at the Bellagio Hotel.
Wayan,
I'd like to make a few corrections in your story.
(1) The name of our company is "Pepper Computer", not "Pepper Pad."
(2) We'll be demoing the Pepper 3.1 software running on the OLPC XO laptop, NOT a Pepper operating system running on it. Pepper 3.1 is an application framework, user experience and suite of Web-connected applications. When it runs on the OLPC laptop, the laptop is still running the OLPC version of Fedora Core 6. It's similar to Opera running on the laptop. In fact, Pepper 3.1 also runs on Windows (it's free to download from www.pepper.com).
(3) Pepper also distributes a version of Pepper 3.1 with an integrated Fedora Core-based distro that we call Pepper Linux. We'll be demoing Pepper Linux at CES running on an number of other AMD Geode-based devices at CES, including Hanbit Electronic's Pepper Pad 3 device.
(4) Why are we working on this? We're exploring whether the Pepper software might have something to contribute to the OLPC project. We've been working on developing software for very low-end devices for a few years and we have some experience that we think might be valuable. Even more importantly, as Steve Paine mentioned in his article, we originally started Pepper Computer to enable computing devices for kids. Due to commercial pressures, we've not been able to focus on kids, but we're huge fans of the OLPC mission and we'd like to do whatever we can to bring computing and communication to kids around the world. After all, that's what OLPC is all about, it's not about us geeks.
Len Kawell
CEO, Pepper Computer, Inc.
Len,
Thanks for the update - I'll adjust the post accordingly.
wayan, thanks for the quick update! :) Also, keep an eye on Carrypad.com for the Pepper 3.1 on OLPC video he'll be posting later this evening or tomorrow morning.
Sean Sosik-Hamor
Übergeek, Pepper Computer, Inc.
And now we have the oft promised video of Pepper 3.1 software running on the OLPC version of Fedora Core 6: http://www.carrypad.com/journal/2007/01/pepper-software-on-olpc-videoof-video.html
Sorry but thats gotta be the worst video demo I've seen.
Some boot up text, a Pepper logo, some movie trailers and the obligatory YouTube-on-browser.
Not even worth showing except we see the green machine doing...something.
I liked the video. It shows that pepper will be a nice application to run on the OLPC and an option many geeks will want to have. It's ability to play video streams and PDF files will give it great appeal to those who want to use OLPC as a low cost laptop to read ebooks and not carry around the bigger laptop hogs we are currently carrying.
I wish the Pepper folks all the success in the world and would like to thank them for making it available to the Xo laptop. I hope that they will have it work with mesh networking as that will make it a good alternative program for some uses in third world countries. Without mesh, it's still valuable, but with mesh it could provide some really good ebook teaching options. Imagine having a PDF ebook library o some school servers and the pepper enabled mesh running to allow viewing and reading of these. It would be a great option.