A Classmate E12 netbook comes in the Rookie Kit.
It does not have an operating system pre-installed.
They are cheaper without an OS license or the labor to install an OS.
Rookie teams have a choice of two images to choose from:
- One FRC E12 Classmate image is just to set the machine up as a robot Driver Station and NOT with an FRC development environment (LabVIEW, Wind River, NetBeans).
- The other alternative FRC E12 Classmate image will setup the machine as BOTH a robot Driver Station and with all three development environments.
The installations are not however complete, because FRC software updates occurred AFTER the images had to be created. There may be future updates that will also need to be applied, so keep an eye out all season for updates like the
patch for LabVIEW users that has already been released.
After the image is installed, you must also download and install the individual updates listed on the FIRST site linked earlier.
Veteran teams are provided different, older Classmate version images as a means of updating their older machines to this year's development and Driver Station baseline. They have the choice to forgo using the image, since they've already previously installed an operating system. They can instead follow the procedures for installing the necessary FRC software on a non-Classmate machine.
The image installation is faster though.