Endless Mobile, Inc. develops the Linux-based operating system Endless OS and reference platform hardware for it. The company was founded in 2011 and is based in San Francisco, California with an additional office in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Video Endless Computer
History
Endless was founded in May 2012 in San Francisco, California by Matthew Dalio and Marcelo Sampaio. In the first three years, the company focused on designing through field research in Rocinha, the largest favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and also in Guatemala.
In April 2015, the company was launched for the general public through a campaign on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter. It raised $176,538 with 1,041 backers in less than 30 days.
On November 2015, Endless started to sell computers at Claro stores in Guatemala. Before that, the product was being sold in own Kiosks. January 2016 marked the launch of Endless Mini, a white spherical PC the size of a grapefruit, costing $79 and $99.
Maps Endless Computer
Product
Hardware
According to the specifications found in their store there will be several models based either on an Intel Celeron N2807 processors (Mission and Endless) or on a quad-core AMLogic S805 Cortex A5 ARM processor (Mission Mini and Endless Mini).
Software
Endless OS is a Debian based Linux derivate. It is built on top of the Linux kernel and other open source technologies (Chromium, GNOME, GRUB, GTK, PulseAudio, Rufus, Systemd, XOrg, Yelp, and many more). Unlike most Linux distributions, it uses a read-only root filesystem managed by OSTree and Flatpak for application delivery and update. The user interface is based on a highly modified GNOME desktop environment. Endless Computers publish their FOSS components and forks on GitHub. They claim that they submit all their patches upstream.
The first public release was Endless OS 2.1.0 in July, 2014. Mid of December, 2017 Endless OS 3.3.6 was released. Last version of Endless OS is 3.4.0, which was released on 15 May 2018.
Reception
Endless Mini was awarded CES Editors' Choice at CES 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada, according to Reviewed.com.
Endless Mini was selected by TechSpot as one of the best devices showcased at the 2016 Mobile World Congress.
Advantage and disadvantages
PCWorld said that the Endless Computer can be useful for areas with limited internet access since it comes preinstalled with a lot of useful software and content, but for users who have easy access to the internet, there are alternatives that are significantly more powerful or significantly cheaper.
References
General
- PC World: "The Endless Mini $79 desktop PC stores as much of the Internet as it can". PCWorld. 2016-01-05. Retrieved 2016-05-19.
- PC World: "The Endless Mini $79 PC: A desktop for the masses". PCWorld. 2016-01-05. Retrieved 2016-05-19.
- TechCrunch: "Endless Has Built A $79 PC For The Offline World". TechCrunch. 2016-01-09. Retrieved 2016-05-19.
- Washington Post: McFarland, Matt. "Meet the start-up that's betting on plain old PCs making a comeback". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2016-05-19.
- CBS: "Endless Unveils The Endless mini To Bring The Next Five Billion People Into The Information Age". CBS. Archived from the original on 2016-02-25. Retrieved 2017-10-12.
- Wired: "Endless, il pc per chi non ha Internet - Wired". Wired.it. 2016-02-23. Retrieved 2016-05-19.
- CNN: Shadbolt, Peter (2016-03-07). "How the desktop computer will rise again - CNN.com". Edition.cnn.com. Retrieved 2016-05-19.
- CNN International: "A desktop computer for the developing world - CNN Video". Edition.cnn.com. Retrieved 2016-05-19.
- CNN Expansion: Chávez, Gabriela. "Endless quiere convertirse en la "Apple del pueblo"". Cnnexpansion.com. Retrieved 2016-05-19.
- BBC: "Budget PC targets developing world with own OS". BBC News. 2015-04-16. Retrieved 2016-05-19.
- Huff Post: "5 Times Technology Made The World A Better Place". Huffingtonpost.com. 2015-06-05. Retrieved 2016-05-19.
Source of article : Wikipedia
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