500,000 Classmates for Portugal

Amid rumours of a 'third-generation' Classmate PC, Intel has announced that it's to supply half a million of its second-generation (9in. screen) netbooks to the Portuguese government for use in elementary schools.

There are few details on the upcoming third-generation Classmate, although a new look-and-feel is promised, according to a PC World report. It's pretty certain to be Atom-powered, and may well offer the Sugar interface, first seen on the rival OLPC XO. Sugar development is now under the auspices of SugarLabs, following a split from OLPC in May this year.