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from the of-course-it-is-impossible-to-get-online-using-a-desktop dept.
US Laptop Shortage Could Derail Remote Learning:
As students and teachers prepare for a return to in-person learning for at least some of the time this fall, many of the nation's schools are facing shortages and delays for laptops and tablets needed for online learning, an Associated Press investigation revealed.
Lenovo, HP and Dell, the nation's largest computer companies, have informed school districts that they are short nearly five million laptops.
[...] Last month, at the request of President Donald Trump, the U.S. Department of Commerce imposed sanctions on 11 Chinese companies, including Lenovo, AP reported. School administrators have asked the Trump administration to devise a solution because remote learning without laptops is impossible.
Lenovo has informed school districts of the supply chain delays and the trade controls set by the Commerce Department, which would cause another slowdown. Lenovo declined to respond to an inquiry from AP.
Have any Soylentils run into this?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 30 2020, @03:16PM
Our school district was already providing Chromebooks for each high school student for the last four years. You could get the same hardware on Amazon for about $150. With COVID-19 the school district is trying to provide them for all students of all ages, because not all families have computers for remote learning. Or the families do have computers for remote learning, but fewer computers than children in the household. But the school district couldn't get a sudden order for 3,000 Chromebooks filled when a significant fraction of the schools in the country are placing similar orders at the same time.
Desktops are fine, but I'm not aware of bulk desktop options that would provide a keyboard, mouse, and monitor with the desktop for $150 or so. Maybe you could manage with Raspberry Pi 4s and very cheap monitors. The computing experience wouldn't be that pleasant, but Chrome on a lower power Celeron with 2GB of RAM doesn't exactly fly.