Starter Laptops
The $100 laptop is an important idea with the potential to (slightly) level the global technology literacy playing field.The program has a great deal of supporters, but the Wintel alliance is not among them. Perhaps that is due to the fact that the machine uses an AMD processor, LINUX applications and Google email (Gmail).
When are Intel and Microsoft going to learn to shed their proprietary approach to the world and realize that starter laptops lead to demand for more feature-rich machines?
posted by SeatCover @ 6:55 PM
1 Comments:
I don't know about Intel, but Microsoft is very eager to get Windows on these OLPC notebooks. In fact, according to a VNU report today, it's already happening: "We put in an SD slot in the machine just for Bill [Gates]," OLPC head Nicholas Negroponte told VNU. "We didn't need it but the OLPC machines are at Microsoft right now, getting Windows put on them." (Link)
I think the shift in strategy makes a lot of sense: Microsoft is footing the bill for all these OLPC copies of Windows, so the only reason the OLPC project would spurn Gates & Co. is because they adamantly refuse to acknowledge the benefits commercial, for-profit software, as if that's going to somehow "tarnish" the sterling ideals behind the OLPC mission. But with the sole exception of Linux, every other aspect of the OLPC project is either donated or provided at massive discounts by commercial, for-profit vendors (like AMD, which is certainly no more or less proprietary as Microsoft and Intel). Why was Microsoft the red-headed stepchild who, up until recently, wasn't allowed to participate?
Thankfully, the OLPC project finally saw the value of Windows in these devices: Children in developing nations will get first-hand experience using the OS that controls 97 percent market share. They will also have the option of choosing Linux, too.
And considering the experience these kids hope to gain to achieve the jobs of the future, which OS do you think they'll choose?
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