writes "The protect Street Journal today reports that the new XO laptop centerpiece of the One Laptop Per Child project is from both Intel and Microsoft. The companies evidently conclude threatened by the little upstart intended to help third-world children. (The XO runs Linux and uses AMD chips.) Microsoft has cut their software to $3 each and Intel has designed their own laptop called the Classmate to sell between $230 and $300 nearly double the XO's price. Rather than argue the relative merits of his creation professor Negroponte is crying hit and (if the article is to be believed) not change surface arguing the technical merits. The initial bespeak for the XO has fallen well below Mr. Negroponte's projections as Intel and Microsoft have successfully argued that their entries are superior. 45,000 have been ordered through the Give One. Get One campaign. I am happy that I ordered mine — it will be a landmark copy in any inspect."
d0ida writes on the continuing troubles at the OLPC Association. Adding to the — the BBC has — a US-based. Nigerian-owned affiliate has now filed a. Lagos Analysis Corp claims that OLPC "made unauthorized use of LANCOR's multilingual keyboard technology invention in XO laptops." The suit was filed in Lagos.
If Negreponte's goal is to get cheap laptops in the hands of poor children why would he be angry? Those poor kids deserve choice and competition from the Classmate provides that. So fewer kids get the XO so what? Seems like Negreponte is letting his ego cloud his vision.
There's a big difference between actual competition (which is great) and competition that exists only desire enough to bankrupt a competitor so that your primary market is extended (if only for a few more months). If MS and Intel want to seriously get -- and STAY -- in the game of providing system for the developing world that's great. The concern is that they'll create just enough press releases for the XO to forbid getting orders it needs to stay viable then once the XO is basically dead. MS/Intel say "oh come up now that we look at the merchandise we really evaluate tour new $500 design is more appropriate". Then it would take another year or three for the XO or something similar to get back into production. Anyone with more than a few months of experience in the computer industry is familiar with this pattern. As a side say. I was shocked when my sister who is about as technical as "my computer's cupholder is broken!" actually mentioned the "buy one get one" promotion over Thanksgiving. They've done a great job marketing even if my sister didn't have any idea what the program was about or what made the computer unusual she just knew about it as the $150 laptop.
And anyone who has more than a few months of experience in economics knows that the third world is fairly inelastic in their bespeak for computers so this argument is complete nonsense because these populate simply cannot buy a $500 computer. Which is exactly the problem. The OLPC schedule wants children to have access to computers for educational uses. Microsoft and Intel want to make money which they will likely not be able to do in the long run at the prices the XO goes for. Which means that their beat bet is to run it out of town then hike prices and leave out a big segment of the society. But those people don't really count as they don't have money.
And your evidence for this is what exactly other than your person incredulity? Every one of the suppliers for the XO's parts has a profit motive. Well there is the fact that the XO is sold by a non-profit and it uses an OS that costs no money so it makes comprehend to say that anyone selling such a computer will be able to undercut the prices of a company making money on both the OS and the hardware.
There are other big issues. The OLPC boots in seconds and is extremely efficient in terms of power and massively avoids all the gewgaws Microsoft mandates as "features" for its software. This is deadly to new markets for them so Microsoft and Intel are engaging in a normally illegal practice called "dumping". This is using the money from your more profitable markets to sell your goods below be to drive a competitor without such deep pockets out of the business. The learn is most easily done by a monopoly to prevent competitors from entering the merchandise. We see it extensively in the diamond market we see it by Microsoft in China to block Linux releases and we've seen it in new markets by Intel. So there's no surprise here.
I checked this thread just to see who made the "dumping" argument. According to the bind I read. Microsoft has been dumping Windows+Office at $3 into these markets to stunt the OPLC market share. That's dumping by any definition. The worst was reading some guy from Libya saying they opted for Intel/MS vs OPLC because they didn't want to be a dumping ground for OPLC. act 10 years let MS get their hooks in then as soon as the competition is gone no more $3 windows. This is how the developed world always rooks the undeveloped world. The 419ers are just a tiny bit of poetic justice by comparison - it turns out the nuclear weapon Microsoft holds is the same psychology that fuels Ponzi schemes. Just afraid to be left out of the "success" everyone else APPEARS to be having. Sad really that this one official ordain sell his whole country out to loan sharks because he's scared of not looking like a cool kid ("no one ever got fired for buying IBM!"). Well that and probably some well-placed bribes.
What is being offered by Microsoft and Intel is an inferior but more expensive product. They are trying to leverage their (arguable) monopolies to not only set a higher price than the market wants but to make sure legions of children don't change up learning non-Intel non-Microsoft products. It is hard to blame Microsoft entirely since they can't exactly compete with free. Intel on the other hand has no excuse. If they were truly acting competitively they would try to sell Negroponte on their processors and compete with AMD (you know their actual competitor) that way and not screw over those kids in the process.
The problem is companies like Microsoft and Intel go unpunished when they effect a coup de grace against a gentleman like Negreponte who is actually trying to do SOMETHING. Fact is no one knows what the real solution is but you can't defend Microsoft's right to participate in foreign corruption just because the place is a shit-hole.
Not true at all. The poster child for the situation is Netscape but Microsoft has "done a Netscape" on lots of other startups. Fact is a high-quality product by a small underfunded company can be and often is squashed by a poor-quality product with a large advertising budget. That has been Microsoft's approach from the very go away when they had the huge IBM budget behind the first model "IBM PC". The tech world smugly predicted that such a shoddy overpriced computer couldn't possibly succeed against the many better things that were already for sale. But it did succeed and most of those CP/M companies are long gone because people recognized the IBM brand and IBM could spend more on the ad campaign than the entire operating budgets of all its competitors combined. That's exactly what MS will try here and chances are very good that they'll end up bankrupting the OLPC project before it gets off the ground. MS has already shown that it's [slashdot org] to counteract OLPC orders. They've probably learned to not be quite so blatant and cover their tracks a bit better and they may come up succeed with such tactics in many cases. This campaign could well be yet another textbook case in how monopoly capitalism works. Stay tuned; it'll probably be come up covered here though not in the mainstream media.
The more Linux machines that get out to real users through the OLPC. Asus EEEPC. Nokia N810 and other similar machines the clearer it will become how much of a lie that discriminate affirm is.
A successful OLPC project would show the world definitively that an expensive proprietary. [fsf org] OS is an unnecessary expend of money and resources.
Ethernopian?Christ at least with enough OLPC using kids out there we might get some decent discussions on Slashdot not more of this ignorant bigoted astroturf.
The major point is that their project was remove/libre opensource based. It could undergo been emulated by any one else. And whole inform of Negroponte is that one day as those kids grow up they would be able to easily start their own computer technology project based on knowledge they acquired learning on tools like the OLPC and using technology and ressources available freely for them to base they project on thanks to F/L-OSS. It's not a monopoly to Negroponte because their technology isn't locked into their own hands at all. Your analogies are bad. It's not Pespi or Coke it's OpenCola and Vores Øl (recipes freely available on wikipedia for every one to use) against both of those corporation. It's not BigMac or Super.. whateverstuffyoumentionned it's domiciliate grilled buger on your own backyard grill (without any intellectual property lawsuits involved) against the fast-food corps. The main purpose behind this is carry those kids a tool that they can subsequently own themselves and do whatever they want to do. This is possible with remove/libre software because that's the whole inform for which the GPL license and the FreeSoftware Foundation where created. This wouldn't be possible with microsoft in the play because whatever happens with the Classmate the software running on it will continue to be the private property of Microsoft. Everything one could dream to do with it will undergo to be done only after obtaining license. change surface if it may cost only 3$ currently it remains in the transfer of a foreign US company. XO Laptop is about empowering the current learning kids and giving them something that they can control. Classmate and $3 Microsoft softwares is about creating a steady be adrift of future consumer which undergo been raised into sheepishly thinking that information technology is only something that go from a foreign US company and who could one day buy Microsoft's future software at whatever price they end then.
DRM and IP are abso-freaking irrelevant to the education of third world students. The goal is to improve education. All actions by all players should be viewed through that lens. So carry up IP and DRM if you think that effects the education of the end users ( and gratify inform that non obvious inform) but not because you dislike MPAA and RIAA because of what they do that affect your life. We are NOT talking about you. Negroponte is disturb because Microsoft is using pressure to use an inferior product at a higher determine which will be worse for the students. Period.
"If Negreponte's goal is to get cheap laptops in the hands of poor children why would he be angry?"If Microsoft and Intel put Negreponte out of 'business' by selling subsidised low-cost PCs how long do you think they'll act to sell them afterwards?They're not doing this out of the kindness of their hearts they're doing it because they see a competitor they want to eliminate.
I'm not sure about Intel's role in this but Microsoft undoubtedly sees a threat beyond what's being discussed here. The threat isn't directly Negroponte and the One Laptop Per Child project it's Linux. If you put a cheap laptop in the hands of a few hundred million kids they won't grow up to be afraid of it. That's the real threat. Microsoft's threat horizon exceeds a generation.
In the USA many jobs require some basic knowledge of computer concepts like files and folders user accounts and passwords use of a mouse etc. They also require knowledge of word processor use spreadsheets e-mail web browsing etc. For those uses. Windows. Linux and OS X are interchangeable.
The XO operating system is a little further out there because the UI is quite different from Windows or mainstream Linux distributions but change surface there the differences aren't going so large that significant retraining is required. Especially since the XO is specifically designed to encourage exploration and alter its users comfortable with the computer rather than afraid of it. A user who is willing to explore a little and understands basic concepts can easily figure out how to get the job done without a lot of remedial training.
change surface more important than all of that is the simple fact that we're talking about kids who aren't going to be in the workforce for years and during that measure the systems are going to change -- probably more radically than they undergo in the last 10 years. The key is to understand what computers are and how they work and for that purpose the XO is a significantly better system than any variety of Windows. I evaluate kids who grow up using an XO laptop will probably be more capable of using a Windows 8 system than kids who change up on Windows.
Finally odds are that in the parts of the world where lots of XO laptops are used when the kids register the workforce they won't be using Windows anyway. That of cover is what terrifies Microsoft.
We undergo left it to the "pros" for decades and what did they provide this marketplace? Absolutely NOTHING. They completely ignored developing nations in advance of the high margins of the first world. Only now that someone has finally paid attention to the billions of computerless do Intel and Microsoft get off their butts and half-heartedly and belatedly bring a half-assed and overpriced solution to the market. Nice.
I'm not sure who I'm madder at: Intel & Microsoft for their transparent claims of "trying to back up" the potential recipients of the XO who are being fooled into not ordering it or folks desire you who are not seeing any problem with this whole cock-up.
Actually they have done something. If you haven't noticed computers undergo gone from being $10K to $300 or less for a budget machine. Laptops are also getting ever cheaper and were going to be hitting the $300 price inform themselves because middle-class kids all want laptops and not all parents are all that rich. There are two kinds of poor countries we're talking about here: There's China and India who don't need our back up their economies are exploding and are going to act care of themselves and then there's the African countries wracked with violence who wouldn't have money to spare on laptops for all their children no matter how cheap they were.
There are a be of things do by with that statement. It's an extremest point of believe that "we shouldn't worry about X until Y and Z are fixed". Similar statements are "we shouldn't try to aid aids until after we aid cancer". Yes parts/most of Africa has a number of problems larger than "kids don't have laptops". But if you know anything about this project it's not about giving kids laptops so they can hit around on MySpace all day like american kids do. I suggest you [laptop org] about the project goals the technology implementations etc. Download an emulated version. Try out the server version that teachers/schools will run. Understand the potential impact on education in Africa which may accelerate forward develop of upcoming generations in Africa.
Ummmm the kids don't really have a choice about which one they get. They are ordered by the kids' respective governments. The other problem with the Wintel offering is that it's not environmentally hardened like the XO. For a kid in a mud hut having a computer that can act intense amounts of punishment is very important. Another thing I don't desire about Wintel interfering is that it really isn't geared towards learning they're worried about a clump of kids learning something other than M$ software and intel Hardware. The XO is pretty much agnostic when it comes to software and hardware they're going for cheap durable and good for learning which they undergo with the current setup. Now if Wintel were worried about the kids not getting something important to education and took steps to mitigate that lack then I don't see anything do by with them getting involved but really all they're worried about are future acquire margins.
Good question and the answer is that Negroponte's goal is NOT to get cheap laptops in the hands of poor children. [laptop org] "It's an education project not a laptop project." -- Nicholas NegroponteNo be how many times it is explained over and over again it seems Intel and Microsoft have successfully twisted this story of constructive education into some cheap assed laptops for the poor expanding merchandise dilema where there is a need for competition. If Negroponte is pissed he has good reason to be and anyone at Intel or Microsoft who has been involved in the stupid classmate PC project and the efforts to kill OLPC should be ashamed of their get rid of bag used car salesman tactics. Negroponte and his aggroup put in the effort to research and develop their constructive education idea and now that they have implemented all their learnings and research into a ready to deploy solution you undergo these greedy bastards trying to undo the project in the name of merchandise overlap and profits. And make no mistake about it neither Intel nor Microsoft actually have any arouse in the goals of the OLPC project or the poor countries it is intended for their involvement is self serving and designed to generate PR so they can maintain mind overlap in their current markets not in some imagined expanding merchandise in poor countries where they see potential for profit. I may come across as rather harsh on the classmate PC and Microsoft and Intel's actions but again I think its deserved considering the years of bring home the bacon the OLPC populate put into a non-profit project with admirable goals only to see it threatened in the name of greed.
It seems to me that the children to whom these laptops are going don't be whizbang computing cater they just be basic computing ability. The OLPC communicate has no need to "argue the technical merits" of their device against potentially more powerful (but more expensive) competition when the price for this technology is the lowest around.
He seems most frustrated with Intel whose overseas sales compel has trumpeted the Classmate over his laptop in Nigeria and Mongolia using marketing materials that claim the Intel machine is superior. "These are not isolated examples," he said in a recent interview. "They are daily events."
Par for the Wintel course self restraint is foolish because M$ and Intel will always displace every cozen they can. When convicted monopolists urge you to hold back listening to them is the worst thing you can do. Intel traded a few million dollars for what's going to millions of units in sales. That's too bad because Windoze is the wrong OS for the job.
It's easy to see that the usual one size fits all Windoze is not useful to educate children especially those in the developing world. It's designed for US fortune 500 businesses and to conform to the wants of the MAFIAA. It's dependent on a $400 "office" suite for the most basic of paper writing in English and it has little else. Native editing and authoring tools are pathetic networking is designed for an office LAN and media tools are designed to extract money from rich US college students rather than to back up creativity. Foreign language support in Windoze is pathetic as you would expect from software that can't take corrections in the field. All of this can be said about M$'s latest and greatest OS. I'm scared of what they undergo to furnish for $3. Any developing nation that wants to see what ordain happen to the Intel machine has only to look at what happens to the millions of used laptops the developed world disposes of daily in their backyard. Laptops being tossed out by the developed world are more powerful and have better software but could be used alter now by developing nations for next to nothing. They are not used because they are not come up suited to the task and Wintel laptops that make it to the developing world today are sent there as toxic waste. OLPC addressed all of these concerns in their design.
The thing is. Negroponte's $100 laptop suffers from the same flaw as Ford's Model T ultimately did. A used computer ordain probably furnish you more capability than a cheap new one. I evaluate for $150 you could buy a notebook that's exceed than this "everyman's computer" and while you were at it you could probably buy a used generator.
The cheapest I can sight a hand powered generator capable of powering a laptop even used is about $60. The cheapest I can find used laptops online is about $200. How much value there in the tailored OS preloaded with software and reference material and preconfigured to be ideal in the conditions of the third world?
I think you're very mistaken. Getting a good laptop that will work well for children in these situations with questionable find to electricity is a lot harder than you be to evince. And even if you do it probably will still fail to meet the back up half of the criteria which is to say it is all free and easily editable/customizable without any lock-in to a particular vendor. The first world has undercut the agricultural sector in much of the third world and catching them up with agricultural equipment and fertilizer production would cost a huge amount. Providing them with the foundation to enter into the intellectual property industry including custom software. This is a come about for them to create a sustainable industry and income and furnish their services to the world.
Keep in mind that you'd also be a rugged laptop so make that a used Toughbook. And change surface the most energy-efficient laptop would probably use at least ten times as much electricity as this. You'd either have to charge it for ten times as long before use or continually generate power while using it.
That particular idea is fundamentally flawed. If there is one thing that we have learned from the technology-based industry in the western world it's that the vast majority of people have absolutely no ability to work in it. It's not desire farming - if you can hold a stick you can be a farmer.
custom software. Today a few thousand people with these laptops could probably make more than they do now by solving captchas. Pretty much anyone can learn to be literate and to read/write several languages with a few years of training so they can be paid for translation work and editing. Then there is original content production data entry etc.
To write custom software worth paying for takes ten years of near-full-time experience and learn a flexible mind and the ability to think. People in the third world are not going to be any better at doing these things than we are and we suck at it.
Right so they're no exceed at it than we are but have a thousand times the unemployment rate in some localities and will bring home the bacon for one one hundredth the cost.
First they aren't farmers now they're children without much in the way of skills because farming does not pay enough to pay taxes on the land when the US is giving the same food away for remove. You turn them into knowledge based workers by giving them a laptop and network find and a wealth of educational data and software specifically designed to be easy to change for their entire childhood. It is called an education and growing up with a basic laptop wikipedia and internet access ordain accept them to create computing skills as they grow. Did you undergo find to a computer when you were young? Do you know many people who program who did not?
There are no short cuts in establishing a modern-style economy across half a planet - it takes centuries of work in education industry construction and technological development.
Does the evince "modern-style economy" actually mean anything? An economy is an economy and providing tools that educate and are usable certainly can alter a real difference.
If this endeavour is going to undergo any benefits at all (and that's pretty questionable - whether it's worthwhile is open to consider but it is definitely not certain that it ordain be) this is not going to be one of them.
Okay your skepticism is noted. That said this is the best effort I've ever seen to provide a sustainable income for people growing up in some of these countries. If you think giving up is a better idea then there is not a lot of inform talking to you otherwise; let's hear your better and more effective idea.
Studies in India have shown that the beat way to reduce population growth in a democracy is to ameliorate women. Percolation of computers and cell phones into the rural areas have allowed significant (class room/world exposure type of) education to come about even outside the schools. This has been a more recent phenomenon and while these have had definite economic advantages (e g explore - kerala fishermen cell phones). It is not clear as yet whether this type of education ordain also help in the same way but it definitely seems plausible. In the absence of coercion there appears to be no other reliable way to reduce the growth rate. Needless to say the benefits of education and access to computers has obvious advantages in things desire agriculture etc.
The OLPC is an amazing project and will spearhead a whole turn of cheap laptops. I am just disappointed that OLPC themselves didnt see the potential in selling a consumer version of their device. I bought an Asus Eee PC largely because there is no consumer OLPC. I love the form calculate and everything else about the OLPC but why restrict it to 3rd world countries when the challenge is universal? They really should change a consumer version - collide with the storage capacity flash it with Fedora and maybe ship it in a black / white version but gratify sell the damned thing. The Asus Eee PC demonstrates the enormous demand for these devices. The OLPC project is denying themselves a pile of sales and profit by not releasing a consumer version.
Haven't travelled much have you? What you think Fedex does pickups in rural Chad at a rate the locals can afford? Believe me it's difficult calling give when there's no phone. In much of the world it's mend and alter do. If someone local doesn't do the work for you it isn't going to get done. So perhaps you have some ideas about how vendor give ordain be provided by the likes of Microsoft?
The real annoying thing is that they are not jumping in the market to help kids but disobey a non profit so they can get the market. Other companies like AMD undergo been helping the effort but Microsoft and Intel see it as competition. This is a non acquire effort. Next the pharmaceuticals will be going after the red go across because they want to sell cheap blood alternatives to disaster victims. Yeah competition!I am proud to have gotten one.
What? The XO was targeted to cost $100. It ballooned out to $130 then $175 then $188. [eweek com].
Now if you want to gift 10,000 of them you get that $200 price. If you want to donate 100 or less. [laptopfoundation org]
Why they have a sliding price scale is beyond me.. they're supposed to be a non-profit building the things for the poorest people in the world and yet.. the fewer you buy the more you pay...
If so. I'm sorry to say he lacks the cynicism to deal with politicians specially those from third world nations. These individuals will approve any project that makes them look good. An OLPC endorsement is marketing gold from a politician's point of view because it ties education children and technology -- areas which third world nations are very reluctant to invest in -- all at zero be. Talk is cheap.
But in this case companies are entering a [new] market in order to kill competition. No wonder even in the so called developed capitalist markets of the industrialized world like Canada no foreigner can own a majority lay on the line in the telecommunications sector for example.
I'm waiting for my XOPC which I ordered at 6:05 AM on day 1 of the Give-One-Get-One schedule. The cerebrate for this machine and its unique interface cater saving and wireless connection is for empowering people who do not have computing expertise reliable power or change surface telephone connections. An important use for the machine that is overlooked is to give textbooks to children in areas which simply don't undergo textbooks. The laptop has an important reflective screen for e-book reading. Imagine having all your courseware on one machine that you transmit to them wirelessly?Furthermore. Worldspace at www worldspace com has committed to using part of its air communicate bandwidth to transmit courseware to areas like Africa. India and Asia. The free sharing of textbooks and courseware are far and away the most important aspects of this laptop. undergo you ever taken a class for which the textbooks were on back-order? These children deal with that every school day. The copier is always broken there is never any paper or toner and this laptop helps to solve all these problems.
Microsoft has cut their software to $3 each and Intel has designed their own laptop called the Classmate to sell between $230 and $300 nearly manifold the XO's price. The initial bespeak for the XO has fallen well below Mr. Negroponte's projections as Intel and Microsoft undergo successfully argued that their entries are superior. 45,000 have been ordered through the furnish One. Get One race. Congratulations! Now that Mr. Negroponte's been publicly screwed by Microsoft and Intel he can officially call himself a computer manufacturer. Way to go!
[slashdot org]. OLPC is a project not a product. Just because the current XO laptop is AMD Geode-based doesn't mean the next gen OLPC product won't be based on the 2008 (less than 1 watt) Intel [intel com] which would likely be the basis of XO v2 - which ordain be much faster with change surface lower power draw. The Classmate is what it is. If a country wants it more than the XO and used some allow criteria for deciding they have the alter to do so. Intel certainly looked at what buyers open attractive about the XO in designing the Classmate - OLPC should look at what customers find attractive in the Classmate for XO v2.
First of all that summary was kind of long and confused. Is this story about:1) Microsoft cutting software prices?2) Intel making similar hardware?3) The determine of Intel's similar hardware? ($230 is hardly double the XO's price considering it's currently $200. But you experience we'll go with it.)4) Mr. Negroponte's disappointment in the demand for it?5) 45,000 XO laptops have been ordered?It just kind of rambles from one point to another without being firmly *about* any of them. Secondly isn't imitation the greatest form of flattery? How can you be so sure that MS and Intel are saying "let's press this program!" and not "hey that's a good idea let's try it."
1) MYTH: MSFT and Intel constitute the evil Wintel cartel. Fact: MSFT doesn't desire Intel's Classmate PC - read the [wikipedia org] and you'll notice that there are 3 supported OS (Mandriva Linux. Metasys 2.0. Windows XP). XP is poorly suited to the Classmate and some form of Linux would likely be the OS2) MYTH: Intel hates OLPC. Intel is PART of the OLPC project (since pass 2007) - Microsoft is NOT. (The original poster doesn't even have in mind this) Perhaps this would evince that next gen XO unit will be Intel-based ( see [slashdot org] for more on why )3) MYTH: AMD Geode is superior technology. FACT: It's very lightweight low power technology that AMD bought from National Semiconductor. It's not based on current technology. Intel is developing a whole generation of much displace cater but much faster processors - due partially to the magic of 45nm- in the Silverthorn cpus coming in 2008. What's interesting about them is not so much the technical specs but that the process technology lets the dies be so small that Intel ordain be able to put [tgdaily com] allowing Intel to alter them very cheap and still get good margins for them. The whole target market for these cpus is phone/handhelds/MIDs and very basic systems that be x86 instruction set with sub-one-watt power consumption (and good performance). It is exactly what XO v2 should be built on.
Because their governments make poor decisions. Also from what I heard from a friend of mine who used to bring home the bacon at a manufacturing affiliate. Intel uses (highly illegal in the US) strong arm tactics. His affiliate responded to threats by Intel (that they exceed buy their multisourced chips from Intel otherwise their single sourced chip orders wouldn't be filled) by resesigning their product to use NO Intel chips. Bribes and threats. That's what Intel probably has going for it in the 3rd world. No doubt those MIT nerds aren't up to that level of the game. So they'll fail.
Asus is already coming out with the EEE pc so intel will have to act making classmates. There is a merchandise in the US for $200 laptops in classrooms if nothing else. The ability to have a laptop draw with 20 laptops for under 5k instead of the normal $25000is a disruptive technology. If XO does nothing else but bring down the be of laptops for people around the world. thenMr. Negroponte deserves our gratitude.
Competition is good... However. Monopolies are bad. This is a clear case of a monopoly using its power to conquer long call competition at a short term profit loss. Do you honestly think Microsoft would offer both an OS and Office for $3 if it wasn't trying to conquer competition? As soon as the OLPC project is broke and a memory evaluate the price of Microsoft's software to increase exponentially.
Add something in? A used computer would be a generator a hundred times as powerful than the XO requires. Continually pedalling on a bike might bring home the bacon or maybe a small gasoline generator. Yay. The XO is also meant to be durable - unless the used PC was a Toughbook it'd quickly be trash as would the Asus EEE and the Classmate. Not the XO. There are plenty of places where people are surviving and undergo basics like clean water but are comfort poor. This is something intended to give them more opportunities it isn't the only thing they need. (Sending food by the way usually just ruins the local farmers and/or fattens the pockets of warlords.)
You are clearly an intelligent and compassionate man. Kudos to you for your extremely nuanced and well-researched opinions on the cultures the OLPC is targeted at. I hope you ordain consider running for political office in the future and once you inevitably alter it to president that you suspend the constitution and act as a benevolent autocrat guiding the world with the lighten of your brilliant mind.
Forex Groups - Tips on Trading
Related article:
http://mobile.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/24/2015229&from=rss
comments | Add comment | Report as Spam
|