Comments on: Dell's Latitude 2100 brings Netbooks to schools

Aiming to bring small, low-cost laptops to schools, Dell has just announced the Latitude 2100, a Netbook specifically targeted to educational markets.

[MaLvaDo39]

what can this low powered device actually do?
garbage in, garbage out?

[jacksoncapper]

Browse the web, and power Microsoft Office. The two things a student needs to get some work done. It's great!

[MaLvaDo39]

Jackoncapper, so all they can write a reports and do a spreadsheet?
What an utter lack of vision.

What about acting as their favorite character in a book and filming/editing their favorite scene or monologue?
or
How about taking and editing photos into a slide show that shows off their science project?
or
Recording voice and uploading (Podcasting) a fake radio show in their favorite class.

What a huge opportunity missed because of a cheap junk that can't power much anything past office work and webpages.

[Seaspray0]

This "low powered device" exceeds the specifications of most computers built 5 years ago. You must have been using an abbacus back then, because the rest of the world had no problems doing everything they needed.

[abundantsnotbob]

The intel atom processors are more powerful then my laptop.

[Police_States_of_America]

should be enough to take notes and use calculator, no? probably not much power for anything else when running an antivirus program, maybe i'm wrong. i hope windows is going to continue to support XP for a few more years with security updates... hate to see a bunch of cute mspaint pictures fall victim to a worm.

[jacksoncapper]

Call me crazy but I find anti-this and anti-that software cause more problems then they are worth. Don't open dodgy things, and you are generally fine.

[whiplash55]

Dell gets it right with their netbooks, decent sized keyboards are one of the few features that differentiate the netbooks and Dell and HP have the best I've seen.

[ikramerica--2008]

But does it run "Lemonade Stand"?

[Seaspray0]

A regular hammer will drive in nails just as good as a $500 one. But you would probably ask if the regular hammer can bend wire.

[pithenumber]

@seaspray
lemonade stand is one of those "funducational" flash games I think
@ikramerica
it has Windows, Windows has flash, it runs flash games

[3rdalbum]

Firstly, it bears much more resemblance to the ORIGINAL netbook - the XO; than it does to the Classmate.

Secondly, why would a touch-screen "tax the Atom processor"? Touchscreens have been around since before processors hit the 500MHz mark. I also thought that touchscreens used their own hardware rather than piggybacking the CPU's power.

Thirdly, why run Windows XP rather than the XO's operating system? The XO system has a number of features designed to enhance application security, prevent misuse of the laptops, roll out software to a large range of machines, share an internet connection over ad-hoc networking, and "killswitch" any machines that are stolen and don't report to the base station on schedule.

[monkeyfun14]

Because XP systems will run Office and other programs schools use.

And many schools already have killswitch programs like this in place.

[grgnv]

As to the second point... Touch screen PC's have been around since the 1980s (HP had one just before the Mac release in 1983)...
See http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/abouthp/histnfacts/museum/personalsystems/0031/index.html

Unfortunately, as a coworker at the time said, "HP couldn't market the best technology on the planet if they had it. If they had to market Sushi, they would advertise it as cold dead fish."

[polis12]

I just like "The Hudsucker Proxy" throwback quote in the title of this article. Well done Dan.

[Firehazel]

too bad it's only available to education markets... i like the looks of this one.