Philip Hui, with parts that go into the Chinese-made Linux ``Municator'' .

Bangalore: Finally, the world might have found a viable, commercial alternative to the `Wintel' personal computer, that is based on the near-monopolistic Microsoft `Windows' software and the Intel processor. A small Chinese player based in Macau - Yellow Sheep River (YSR) - has created a PC, tiny in size but packing enough computational punch to please most lay users.

It's called the `Municator,' and is based on a 64-bit processor, `Godson,' designed and manufactured in China, that is slow as current Intel-Pentiums go - but has the advantage of consuming very little power. The machine, which is the size of a thin paper-backed novel, weighs just 650 gm and it runs a version of the Open Source software, Linux, called Thinix 3.0 that YSR (www.yellowsheepriver.org) has created.

The normal `Office' applications are provided by another home-grown product `RedOffice for Linux.' A 40-giga byte hard drive, a 256 MB memory, a DVD drive, WiFi connectivity and video outputs that can be sent to any television set, make the `Municator' a cost-effective computer that saves on the cost of a monitor. It sells in China, with a full set of localised Chinese language features for 1,200 RMB - the equivalent of $ 150 or Rs 7,000.

The machine created a minor sensation a few weeks ago when its makers unveiled it in Hannover, Germany at CeBit, the world's largest IT mela.

Last week, it was shown at the Global Knowledge Project's (GKP) International Forum in Colombo, by Philip Hui, Founder-President of the Hong Kong-based Living Knowledge Communities, a technology self help group that has been evangelising viable alternatives to proprietary U.S.-based PC architectures which fuel 90 per cent of all computing platforms worldwide.

The slogan touted by YSR - "Say no to Wintel!" - has been taken up these last few days by dozens of Web-based technology resources and blogs, who see in this development the first indication of an alternative PC platform.

Indian manufacturers have, by and large, been content to license Wintel hardware and software and derive profits from the wafer-thin margins that are left. Intel has recently encouraged the development of a ruggedised rural PC that uses alternative power sources like batteries, but for obvious reasons it still remains a Wintel machine, though there is no reason why users can't port Linux on it.

The CSIR-sponsored `Mobilus' PC — a desktop-laptop hybrid, running a Linux flavour but using an imported chip — was unveiled with a lot of hype eight months ago, but the machine is yet to make its appearance on retail shelves.

The U.N.-sponsored World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis last year, saw the Media Lab of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, unveil a prototype $ 100 Linux laptop and an initiative called `One Computer Per Child'. However, many possible users and manufacturers were put off by the `small print' in the announcement - that such a price was based on orders in multiples of a million.

The Indian hardware industry has generally maintained that a PC below Rs. 10,000 cannot be made - or key features would have to be compromised.

Maybe the Chinese example of a machine that is already made - and selling - will spur fresh efforts here to create a truly affordable Bharathi PC for the rest of us.

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