[LinuxBIOS] Possibility to get a OLPC developer's board [Reply-to: debian-custom-list]

[Knut Yrvin]

First of all I'm sorry to cross-post this request. But I need urgent
reply to know if somebody wants to team up in a project making Debian
ready for the One Laptop per Child hardware. If there is somebody
interested applying for OLPC developer board to make things work,
please reply to [e-mail].

My project proposal:

After a tip from Walter Bender at MIT, I was subscribing to the
devel-boards list for the One Laptop per Child project. Walter is
president, software and content, of the One Laptop per Child
foundation.

My subscription was forwarded to the list moderator for approval. Then
i got a nice e-mail from Jim Gettys.  He wrote that if my interest in
the list is to get a developer's board, then please follow the
following instructions (look at the bootom):

http://wiki.laptop.org/index.php/Developers_Program

This will result in a developer's board if the request is at all
reasonable, and you will be added to the mailing list (which is meant
to be low volume announcements for people with boards).

I wrote some suggestions for a plan to get the OLPC-machine up running
April 5th 2006:

http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/2006/04/msg00016.html

So people, I could apply for boards to realize this plan. (The plan is
not at all finale, but a suggestion):

1. To make the Debian installer work with OLPC-machines
2. To make bare bone Debian run with network connectivety in a mesh 
   network (IPv6)
3. Make the power management work
4. To make X and a window manager with simplified debloated desktop

But with no developers interested doing the development, I see no
reason for applying for boards. So it depends on what the Debian Edu
and Debian contributers are interested in.

It's a considerable job tailoring the different subsystem in Debian to 
OLPC hardware. The installer has to be tailored, the network mesh net 
support has to work, simplified debloated desktop has to be configured, 
and the power management has to work.

We have done interesting things with Custom Debian Distributions and 
Debian Installer in the Skolelinux / Debian Edu environment before. It 
seems to me that more people have joined the Skolelinux / Debian Edu 
project. I believe the One Laptop per Child is important for Debian, 
and we should do this development.

- What do you think about this suggestions?

- Who are interested to develop tailored Debian Edu for
  OLPC-machines?

Regards

Knut Yrvin
Project manager Skolelinux Norway