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MIT Unveils Prototype for $100 Linux Laptop

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the somone-thought-of-the-children dept.

Examancer2 writes "MIT is showing off a prototype of a $100 laptop. It uses a 500MHz AMD processor, stores everything on flash memory, and runs Linux. The AC adapter acts as the carrying strap, and there is a hand crank so if you can't find a source of electricity you can charge it kinetically. The prototype laptop is also much more flexible and durable than your average notebook. In addition the unit has a screen that has a special daylight-friendly black & white mode that makes a great ebook." From the article: "Nicholas Negroponte, the co-founder of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, detailed specifications for a $100 windup-powered laptop targeted at children in developing nations. Negroponte, who laid out his original proposal at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January, said MIT and his nonprofit group, called One Laptop Per Child, is in discussions with five countries--Brazil, China, Thailand, Egypt and South Africa--to distribute up to 15 million test systems to children." More coverage of this story available from ITWorld, InformationWeek, BBC, ZDNet, and the Associated Press.

35 of 668 comments (clear)

  1. Extremely cool, but... by nokilli · · Score: 4, Interesting

    My first concern is that once given away, a very poor family might look towards selling the laptop on the black market for food, clothing, etc. How much expense would be added if biometrics were incorporated into the design so that once a laptop is "mated" to a child, only that child can operate it, thus rendering its worth on the black market so much less?

    So you end up manufacturing fewer laptops, but maybe that means more of them end up being used as intended?

    (and the hand crank is too cool to leave to the kiddies. I am forced to wonder whether so many of us would still be strangers to the ladies if required to produce our own power. Two hours coding, three hours debugging, and four hours pedaling the stationary bicycle that powers our boxes to allow for the coding and debugging would reduce global warming, save on healthcare costs AND yield superior breeding material, all at the same time!)
    --
    You didn't know.

    1. Re:Extremely cool, but... by Luke+Psywalker · · Score: 4, Funny

      Extremely cool, but is it really wise to encourage young people to hand crank their lap-top.

    2. Re:Extremely cool, but... by mdwh2 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      My first concern is that once given away, a very poor family might look towards selling the laptop on the black market for food, clothing, etc. How much expense would be added if biometrics were incorporated into the design so that once a laptop is "mated" to a child, only that child can operate it, thus rendering its worth on the black market so much less?

      If a family is so poor that they can't even afford food or clothing, shouldn't we be spending money to provide them with this, rather than spending money on biometrics to prevent them from acquiring these basic needs?

      If everyone sells off these laptops in order to buy food, the conclusion to draw is that they need food more than they need laptops.

      As for the hand crank, I wouldn't mind on of those for my phone...

    3. Re:Extremely cool, but... by ThosLives · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Why not figure out how to make $100 water purifiers or A/C units that run of wind or solar? Or things that help make land arable?

      The reason that "disadvantaged children" are "disadvantaged" is not because they don't have computers, but because it's hard to get food, hard to get clean water (for drinking and for cleaning - a huge factor for being healthy is hygeine), and hard to be protected from the environment.

      Computers are great, but they aren't very useful for growing food or anything. You need different technologies for that, and different skill sets that aren't "intellectual".

      Until I see how something like this can actually reduce the cost of living for these folks, I don't see that it's worth putting my support behind. I'm also not sure it's the best use of resources to help educational efforts either, but that's about the only area in which I'm not quite sure of the cost/benefit analysis. After all, the costly part of textbooks and the like isn't the printing, but paying for the content, so unless there are lots of "free" e-textbooks out there, this won't save much in that front. There's also the hidden aspect of supporting technology out there.

      --
      "There are a dozen opinions on a matter until you know the truth. Then there is only one." - CS Lewis (paraprhase)
    4. Re:Extremely cool, but... by nokilli · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Though I do suspect that if you need food that badly, then hanging onto a laptop in the face of starvation isn't the best demonstration of priority management.

      I guess it's a question of whether they would really starve, or whether the sale simply achieves convenience for the parents at the expense of a brighter future for the kid.

      Moreover, my compassion for my fellow human beings extends across all dimensions, not just space. Carving out a chance for a really poor kid to grow up to become successful could mean feeding so many more people for that $100 twenty years from now than feeding a single family today.

      We can't just be feeding people so they go on to reproduce and we end up with more hungry people. At some point you have to look at how to break the cycle.

    5. Re:Extremely cool, but... by LWATCDR · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Well yes if they are starving and do not need clean water then they should get that first. However there is a large amount of poor people that do have food, water, and cloths but no real chance to get out of poverty.
      Frankly a cheap, rugged, Linux notebook is something I would love to have for myself. Add a USB port so I can install wifi or Ethernet and I would pay $200 for it today. It could be the ideal kitchen computer.
      You comment on computers are great for many things but not for growing food or anything. Well it is true that you can not plow a field with one you can.
      1. Learn about new ways to plant and compost.
      2. Get weather reports.
      3. Get commodity prices.
      Once someone has enough food the next step is to get enough money so that you can have health care, cloths, books, and maybe send some of your children to get more than a basic education. Computers can help make the jump from alive but poor to having a future.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    6. Re:Extremely cool, but... by thc69 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Human bodies don't burn fossil fuels, and don't release carbon that was stored before humans existed. We burn sustainable plant/animal food, releasing carbon that was still in circulation.

      Therefore, human power could reduce global warming. On the scale of powering laptops, however, it could not be effective; and on a scale sufficiently large to be effective, it would be intolerable. I'm getting tired and hungry just thinking about it. Somebody get me a can of soda, some Tostitos, and a bed, stat!

      --
      Procrastination -- because good things come to those who wait.
    7. Re:Extremely cool, but... by 10Ghz · · Score: 3, Insightful
      The reason that "disadvantaged children" are "disadvantaged" is not because they don't have computers, but because it's hard to get food, hard to get clean water (for drinking and for cleaning - a huge factor for being healthy is hygeine), and hard to be protected from the environment.


      I call bullshit. Take Finland for example (the place where I happen to live in). the climate is not exactly the nicest in the world. Without adequate protection, the environment will kill you pretty quickly (you would survive in the summer, but in winter....). Yet we were able to build a prosperous and wealthy nation. What exactly is preventing the people in Africa (for example) of doing the same? Climate is harsh in both places (our climate is cold, theirs is hot). Yes, it's hard to get food in Africa, but Finland isn't really the breadbasket of the world either. Africa DOES have humungous amount of natural resources, something Finland lacks.

      I seriously see nothing that prevents Africa and other poor places from improving their situation. Well, constant civil-wars, corrupt leaders and the like withstanding. But those are IMO their problem, and not ours.
      --
      Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.
    8. Re:Extremely cool, but... by Kunta+Kinte · · Score: 4, Informative
      Why not figure out how to make $100 water purifiers or A/C units that run of wind or solar? Or things that help make land arable?

      Has it occurred to you that a significant amount of the third world has clean water and doesn't need A/C units?!

      Not everyone who is poor lives like a child off a Sally Struthers commericial.

      It's funny that the suggesting cheap educational computers be scrapped for A/C Units was modded insightful. Remarkable!

      I grew up in a "third world" country very close to the equator. Even the very poor in the country had clean drinking water by way of public "water stands" and had shoes by way of very cheap mass produced shoes from China. Very, very few people gave a damn about A/C. We've lived in this climate for thousands of years, people simply build houses and dress to suit the climate.

      --
      Based on upvotes, Ageism is the only "-ism" Slashdotters care about and think isn't SJW
    9. Re:Extremely cool, but... by killtherat · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If a family is so poor that they can't even afford food or clothing, shouldn't we be spending money to provide them with this, rather than spending money on biometrics to prevent them from acquiring these basic needs?

      There are different levels of poverty. At the very lowest levels there are the people that can't even get food. Obviously this type of program isn't targeted for them, that what UN food aid, and unicef are for.
      But if you go to some '2nd world' countries (Brazil comes to mind), it's very common to see TV antennas sticking out of wood shacks. At this level people have enough money to survive, but not move themselves up in society. So if you are born poor, you stay poor. And you end up with a country with no middle class, and 95% of the country being owned by 5% of the population.
      A low cost way to access the internet would do wonders for educating the populace. This could be a real catalyst for social change in those sorts of countries.

    10. Re:Extremely cool, but... by xappax · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's easy to shift the blame entirely on to poor Africans themselves, and to a certain extent, I agree that they are not totally without responsibility in the effort to make their own societies more livable.

      However, looking at the historical treatment of the African continent, it seems that perhaps the folks there are entitled to some help. I mean, we're talking about an entire continent, filled with mostly technologically unadvanced, tribal societies, that was chopped up into arbitrary territories and colonized by European nations. Now, I know that every society has been subjugated at some point in the past, and probably done their share of subjugating as well, and it's a slipery slope, blah, blah, but the scale of that subjugation is rivaled in recent history only by the near total destruction of the native in north and south america, and you can see how the victims of that colonization turned out - dead.

      Heap on top of that the not-so-trivial slave trade, in which American and European traders deliberately turned African societies against each other in order to capture the most slaves...I don't think you have to be a bleeding heart to see that a society subjected to this sort of treatment might not be so healthy afterwards.

      So, if you agree that Africa has seriously gotten the shaft in the past, which seems pretty unarguable, it's hard to justify expecting them to just fix everything themselves. It's like breaking your dog's legs and then refusing to feed him until he runs as fast as the other dogs. Good luck.

    11. Re:Extremely cool, but... by figa · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'm doing my part, so I think I've earned the right to spout. I donate more than a couple craptops worth of cash to Heifer each year. I like Heifer's approach, which emphasizes agricultural sustainability.

      I'm not the only one that thinks laptops are a poor way to address poverty. In 2000, Bill Gates put a damper on the Digital Divide conference in Seattle with a similar message. When, as the article states, 80% of the world's population lives on less than a dollar a day, desiging them a $100 laptop is frivolous. If someone gave me a laptop worth three months of my salary, I'd put it on eBay in an instant and buy something I really needed.

      Look at it this way. With $20, you could give a family a flock of chicks that could lay hundreds of eggs a year, providing them with additional protein and a source of trade income. For another $30, you can get two packs of Micropur tablets, which will treat 30 liters of water each. The tablets last for 3 years, so they can be saved for when it isn't possible to boil water. Another $30 could go to seed, rice, or lentils to give the family a little reserve. Then, spend the final $20 on whatever texts the kids need for their elementary school. $100 goes a lot farther when you're not spending it on computers.

      The technological community has come up with much more creative ways to address poverty. I liked the clay pot refridgeration system for storing food that was mentioned on /. a while back. I read in Spectrum about a guy wiring villages in South America with solar-powered LED lighting so families wouldn't have to use kerosene lamps. The lamps are dangerous, the fuel is expensive, and the smoke causes searious health problems. I'd like to see more attention given to people with geniunely helpful ideas and less to Negroponte's schemes.

    12. Re:Extremely cool, but... by BeanThere · · Score: 3, Interesting

      My point is that Africa CAN get better. But they are doing their best to stay poor. Of course they do not choose to stay poor, but they just make bad decision after bad decision. And they pour their resources at completely wrong places (instead of figuring out ways to feed and educate their people, they are busy figuring out ways to kill their own people or invade neighbourghing countries).

      Is that why the current average GDP growth for the entire Southern African region (12 countries) (including Zimbabwe and in spite of the latter's -4.5% decline) is 4.5% and growing? With some countries, like Mozambique, experiencing nearly 10% GDP growth sustained for several years already? (And this in spite of unfair trade rules and subsidies.)

      A bit more reading up on current events, a bit less sensationalist shock-value television and uninformed slashdot rants repeating the tired old cliches, and you might actually keep up with the facts: These days, countries like Zimbabwe are the exception, not the rule. The majority of African countries are experiencing economic growth, many in excess of the growth rates found in Europe and the US.

  2. They want to buy them for students in MA by tgd · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Well, by "they" I mean our presidential candidate... wait, I mean governor... aparently wants to buy them for all the students in MA schools.

    Of course, he's really just campaigning right now, not really trying to do anything in MA so it'll never happen, but they did mention it on the news this morning.

  3. More info, bad news for geeks. by TripMaster+Monkey · · Score: 4, Informative

    More information on the $100 laptop can be found here.

    A bit of bad news from this page:
    Please note: these laptops are not in production. They are not--and will not--be available for purchase by individuals.
    --
    ____

    ~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey

    1. Re:More info, bad news for geeks. by SimilarityEngine · · Score: 3, Informative

      The linked article also states:

      While the initial goal of the project is to work with governments, Negroponte said MIT is considering licensing the design or giving it to a third-party company to build commercial versions of the PC. "Those might be available for $200, and $20 or $30 will come back to us to make the kids' laptops. We're still working on that," he said.

      So a little optimism isn't entirely unjustified :-)

      --
      Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
  4. Features! by GenKreton · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They are really pursuing a great cause but I would like to see some of these features, like the hand crank and black and white screen mode, in other laptops as well. Not paying out of your ass for higher levels of durability would be cool too...

  5. Not for sale here by XoXus · · Score: 3, Informative

    Of course, as other articles in different papers have said, you won't be able to walk down to your local computer chain and buy one of these. They're strictly for developing countries.

  6. It looks like MIT is the one to do it... by sznupi · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ...in contrast to many others.

    I wonder what exactly are the processors inside...the big question is whether those are Geode (x86) or Alchemy...I wonder if choosing NON-x86 architecture would be a good way to prevent gray-market a bit and convincing parts manufacturers to supply them considerably cheaper (since the laptops wouldn't be a competition for their primary wintel market). And since it's Linux it's not a big deal when it comes to architecture...

    128MB of RAM? probably similarly low...HOVEWER there's one very important difference to our typical laptops/desktops - swap is to be avoided at all costs (flash based - limited number of read/writes and...slow). Personally, I would modify the kernel/desktop enviroment (or something) that it will not allow launching of new apps when physical memory limit is closing in (eventually - allow, but display something like "to assure longevity of your laptop, please close applications you're not using)

    Also, worth noting IMHO will be software choice once it's announced - simply because those software titles will become one of most widely used IN THE WORLD, no only when cosidering Linux desktop.
    What are your guesses? ;)
    Since I think this laptop will be a bit RAM limited, I think they'll choose something light as possible, but easy to use also...XFce perhaps? Epiphany/Kazehakase? Opera? (I wouldn't be surprised if Opera agreed to port their browser...it's free anyway, and they would get HUGE usage boost; of course there's the question what licensing principles this project has...)? Abiword? (KOffice would be nice also...but KDE wouldn't :/ )

    BTW...too bad probably it won't be available for me probably :/ I'm too rich apparently :|

    --
    One that hath name thou can not otter
  7. but I would pay more helping the development proc by rednuhter · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Although I can understand them not wanting to market this to average consumers, why not offer it to geeks for a higher price ?
    I for one would happily pay more than $100 for a $100 laptop just for the geek factor.
    Not to mention the free qa service they would get !?

    --
    ERR 411[Max number of witty sigs reached]
  8. $100 useable laptop available now by Lumpy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The problem is that you can not use the latest/greatest software on it. I have deployed several toshiba P-II 350 laptops with only 64 meg of ram and the hard drive replaced with a CF card in a drive adapter. linux with xfce and smaller tightly written apps on it work absolutely great. I built several of these over a year ago for poor kids with fatal diseases. put a few games on there, a nice wordprocessor (ABIword kicks everything butt) web browser,gaim and a nice small email client. it all fit on a 512 meg CF card very easily. the company gave away dial up accounts (preconfigured for the kids) at a local ISP for them so they could get online in a manner. they work great and fast.

    this is not hard to do, the hard part is manufacturing sometihng new to meet this price mark. and I would love to get my hands on a couple for evaluation.

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  9. Re:Better use for US$100 by eclectus · · Score: 3, Interesting

    what are you doing to help? The fine researchers here are coming up with a way to help with the education level of developing countries so they CAN feed themselves, and you are knocking them because they aren't solving all the problems RIGHT NOW? I ask again, what are you doing to feed the masses? It is very easy to critisize, much more difficult to come up with a solution, even a partial solution. I applaud MIT for their efforts, and I will step off the soapbox now.

    --
    This signature is a waste of 42 characters
  10. Get computers OUT of schools! by insignificant1 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    "The following year, Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney plans to start buying them for all 500,000 middle and high school pupils in the state."

    Can someone please tell these people that computers are, barring a massive paradigm shift in how they are used for education, merely 90% distraction from the real learning that must go on in schools at these ages? (That is, unless you want to make a society of mindless forum posters.)

  11. They should sell them to individuals. by elgee · · Score: 5, Interesting

    At $200-$300 or maybe more. If they only cost about $100, the $200 fee would help to subsidize giving them away to the poor.

  12. Gates foundation by lovebyte · · Score: 3, Funny

    Now let's wait for the Gates foundation to buy these linux laptops for 3rd world kids.

    --

    I'll do it for cheesy poofs.

  13. Re:Better use for US$100 by iapetus · · Score: 5, Funny

    Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Give a man a hand-cranked laptop, and your employer will outsource your work to him on the grounds that he'll work for fish, whereas you want tens of thousands of dollars per year.

    --
    ++ Say to Elrond "Hello.".
    Elrond says "No.". Elrond gives you some lunch.
  14. Worse use by Mr.+Underbridge · · Score: 4, Insightful
    One full stomach per child.

    Yeah, because that band-aid solution's been working incredibly, right? That's the first thing. Second thing is it's a lot easier to solve this problem since it requires a lot less infrastructure. Food is big and perishable. It's hard to get to the source. Most of it doesn't make it.

    And the third thing - what, the entire world has such tunnelvision that it can only work on one thing at a time? Should I be berating the crew fixing potholes outside my apartment because they're not solving world hunger?

    Charity is about applying the skills you have. I doubt the people involved know crap about solving world hunger.

    Also, that assumes that the entire third world is starving. It's not, mostly. Many need education more than anything. This helps solve that.

  15. Starve by Mark_MF-WN · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I somehow doubt that nations with serious starvation problems will be giving out many of these laptops -- especially to people who are starving. Programs like this are more oriented towards areas where food is already being taken care of (like China), but the local government wants to accomplish more than simply keeping people alive. Your point is well made, but there's probably no actual conflict here between food and technology.

  16. Cool concept by MacGod · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Very cool concept. I'd love to see some of this technology trickle down to the consumer level (hand crank, cheap ruggedized case etc). In fact, I'd love to see these available to the consumer at $200. For every unit you buy at $200, you are buying one for a developing country. It'd be like buying a cheap laptop and donating to charity all at once.

    My biggest concern with this, and all other laptops-for-schoolkids programs is that they actually do proper class programming with them (programming as in lecture design etc, not Objective-C/Java/etc). It's not simply enough to hand kids a laptopo and expect them to suddenly learn more. You have to shape the classes and the materials in such a way as to be well-suited to a classroom full on network-connected, laptop-toting schoolkids. This can be done, but it does take thought; hopefully the school boards engaging in such programs have done this planning.

    --
    "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one " -Albert Einstein
  17. Wind-up radios illustrate similar pattern. . . by Fantastic+Lad · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Freeplay, an innovative start-up piloted by a couple of hippies with a dream, decided that third world citizens ought to have access to radio communications technology. The idea was to create a wind-up radio for lands where battery and wall power were not feasible.

    The finished product rocked. I lived with a room mate who owned a couple of them, and they worked wonderfully. The weird thing, though, was the price-tag.

    In the third world, a wind-up radio cost about ten bucks. But here in the West, where money grows on trees and the streets are paved with gold, the average Yuppie had to shell out up to $200 for the gizmo.

    I don't know if I agree or disagree with this kind of marketing, but it'd be interesting to see how the story goes with MIT's do-hicky. Not that it'll probably make much difference; from their web-site; "these laptops are not in production. They are not--and will not--be available for purchase by individuals."

    For my part, I am partial to the HP Jornada 820 when it comes to small and ultra-portable computers. Word-processing with no moving parts other than the flip-screen and lap-top keyboard means an 8 hour battery life. --It runs on flash cards, and so long as all you want to do is write and store data, you can't do much better. (Forget gaming, though, but I couldn't care less about that.)

    I think there should be more devices like this generally available; they're just so useful. Dedicated word-processors with good key-boards and screens are hard to come by and too damned expensive for what you get generally. The Jornada is the exception, which is probably why the plug got pulled on it. --HP stopped making the Jornada 820 back in the late nineties; I got mine off Ebay for about $250, and I use it all the time. I wish it could run on wind-up power. I wonder if there's a charger out there which has a hand-crank. . .

    I think there's a subconscious conspiracy to make sure people don't have access to useful tools for writing and creating which don't come armed with severe operating limitations, (the standard lap-top with lame battery life), and a million and one mind-numbing distractions, (DVD players and game and music options. Bah. Writers write, they don't waste time messing around with toys.)


    -FL

  18. Why only children/schools? by AvitarX · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Why can't I buy one?

    I would pay plenty for a rugged Linux laptop with 500 MHz AMD in it. I say I cannot buy one because in an article I read they said it should be a stigma to use it as an adult. The Simputer people were the same way (I twice contacted their sales asking for info, it said on the sight it was as good for people in NY as India, no response). If these companies are making products that are a good value, but still prophitable lets defray the cost some. If it is truly durable I would pay $500 for it over a low end Dell/Gateway. Then they can donate 4 to a school and everyone wins (I would be far more likly to buy one sub $250 though).

    --
    Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
  19. Snake oil... by Alomex · · Score: 3, Insightful


    For a moment I thought "oh my god, the MIT Media lab for once actually did something useful", but then I read the article and realized that the computer exists only on paper. The article is just press-seeking vaporware release, all hype and little substance in true Media Lab style.

    MIT Media Lab motto: purveyors of snake oil since 1985.

  20. GREAT news for geeks! by btarval · · Score: 4, Insightful

    While it would be nice if it were available for general purchase, that's a bit irrelevant. This could FINALLY serve as a reference design for an Open Source laptop. MIT simply needs to make the schematics available, preferrably under the GPL, so that anyone can ship the design to an online shop and have it built.

    Granted, you couldn't do that for $100 - not at first. But what would happen is that businesses would sprout up selling this in volume. Which would bring down the cost for the average geek, as well as MIT. The spinoffs from this would mean that we could FINALLY get commodity parts for a laptop.

    Or, in short, MIT has the opportunity to do to the laptop what IBM did to the PC.

    I, for one, would be willing to help with whatever work is involved, if they GPL the schematics. I am sick and tired of dealing with the rediculous prices for proprietary laptops.

    Where do I sign up?

    --
    The best way to predict the future is to create it. - Peter Drucker.
  21. The tools are already there! by Brunellus · · Score: 3, Interesting
    1. Learn about new ways to plant and compost. 2. Get weather reports. 3. Get commodity prices.

    All three functions can be performed much better with cheaper, established technology.

    1. and 2. are most easily achieved by radio. Transistor radios are almost laughably cheap now, and it is possible to get shortwave sets to broadcast to very remote areas. Radio has two additional benefits: localization is very easy (simply ensure that the person speaking into the microphone speaks the language you want) and it does not require literacy. If your main priority is getting information out, then it is probably better to do it by speaking to the people who need it most in the language that they can understand (even if it's over the air). Handing them a notebook that they might not be able to use because they can't read the symbols on the screen is stupid.

    3. is already happening through the use of mobile phones. GSM phones are cheap to buy and cheap to use, even for those with very limited means. In third-world markets, it is possible to buy a few minutes or even seconds of mobile phone time.

    It's heretical to be anti-shiny on /. but we really have to think about how better to use the tools at hand, rather than trying to leapfrog from the Flintstones to the Jetstones with one laptop

  22. It's a beautiful thing... by ramblin+billy · · Score: 4, Insightful


    I'm a little surprised at the lack of imagination I'm seeing in this article's comments. Imagination is not something usually lacking at /. In reality I suggest that no one here, or anywhere else, can possibly anticipate the uses that children will find for these machines. Remember, Negroponte is not talking about a million laptops spread out across the world. He intends to produce 200 MILLION laptops - "One Laptop per Child." These will be capable of p2p mesh networks over wifi and internet connection sharing. They will be Open Source. EVERY kid will have one. The shit those kids are gonna do with these machines is going to change the nature of the world. Just a few thoughts...

    Personal interactions will flourish. Imagine that each person has a personal presence on the net in the form of a journal, blog, etc. Innermost thoughts, musings, ideas would be posted. Access may be restricted to groups of friends, open to all, available only in a reciprocal trade - who knows? Social interactions may form that are based on more formal public personae while the unspoken web content acts as an underlying frame. Like minds will find each other. Ideas will feed on ideas. It will be an exponential extension of today's net.

    Specialties would develop. Mod kits would certainly turn up. This kid might make movies, or songs, or create one page descriptive biographies of everyone he meets. That kid might develop applications, this one tweaks assembler, another is a com whiz, and that one over there...she's special, she can go ANYWHERE in cyberspace, and if it's on the net, she can find it. She's the one they ask when they REALLY need to know the truth. It could be that some strange stuff starts to happen. Stuff about how the world is perceived and how humans relate to it and each other. Stuff we can't imagine or maybe even understand. Really, really cool Stuff.

    We old folks can participate. Everyone seems to crave one of these laptops. What if they didn't sell even one outside their programs? What if to get one of these babies you had to earn it? You could help develop software. Write apps, ports, translate, tutor, teach, write textbooks, moderate groups, protect the children and their net. You could EARN the laptop. How cool would that be?

    Who will pay? There will be new markets, development deals, service contracts, infrastructure to build. The companies that want to play will be the ones who pay. Governments could link contracts with obligations. You want to build out our backbone? It must include wifi for the kidtops at your expense. You want to build some buildings? We need housing for a server farm here and some schools here, here, and here. You want the support contract for the government IT infrastructure. You also must support Kidnet. At least till the kids take over,which won't be long. Access? Well how much is access to a 10 million node kidtop beowolf cluster worth? Wanna trade?

    C'mon guys! This is the fucking DREAM! No more secrets. No more lies. No more disinformation and manipulation from 'those who would be kings'. Maybe even 200 million proud parents of the Earth's first planetary consciousness. Hey, who knows? Not us. We can't even BEGIN to imagine.

    billy - I for one will sit back and watch 'em go