Red Hat has announced a new Linux client designed specifically for use on Intel’s Classmate, Affordable, Community and Low Cost PC lines.

The company hopes its Global Desktop product will help spread Linux usage to new markets, and is initially intended for cost conscious local government and small to medium business (SMB) customers in emerging economies.

But Red Hat vice president of enterprise Linux platform business, Scott H. Crenshaw, says it may also become available in the US and Europe at a later date.

“There is an extraordinary level of demand for this in Europe and the US, but we want to roll this out one step at a time and make it initially successful where it is most needed,” he said.

Global Desktop will be refreshed every two years and has been stripped down from over 1500 applications in the standard Red Hat enterprise desktop Linux product, to 700, essentially by getting rid of developer tools and compilers in order to boost performance on lower hardware requirements.

The product will be sold only through white box vendors building specific Intel based devices for their local markets, who will also provide first line support; secondary support provided by Intel and Red Hat. Manufacturer OS pricing will be announced in June, with system costs set by the hardware vendor.

“The people we are targeting with this do not need quite the same level of support we provide for enterprise customers,” commented Jonathan Blandford, Red Hat desktop development team leader.

The Red Hat summit also see AMD preview the fruits of its one laptop per child (OLPC) initiative, a low cost, hardened laptop computer with integrated mesh wireless transmitter and video camera running on unspecified Red Hat open source software.

“We are not at the $100 laptop stage yet, but we are getting close, with battery life about ten hours. The screen is better than anything you will see on a $3,000 notebook, even in bright sunlight, and the device has the lowest carbon footprint in the industry,” said Henri Richard, AMD executive vice president and chief sales and marketing officer.