Intel announced a project a while back that would put it in direct competition with the OLPC foundation and its cheap laptop. Now it seems that Brazil has took an offer of testing and evaluating 7-800 Classmate PCs, which will cost about $400. A Classmate PC comes with a 7″ display, weighs 1.3kg (2.9 lbs.), comes flash storage instead of an hdd and a wireless network support. It seems that these PCs will be equipped with a Linux operating system, instead of Windows, as the Brazilian government believes that Windows will be too expensive. Brazil will evaluate these side by side with OLPC’s laptop and a third laptop from an Indian company. One strong argument for picking Intel will be that Intel has strong partners in Brazil that will be able to handle the manufacturing locally.
