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Intel, Microsoft Despised the XO Laptop
gregsim writes "The Wall Street Journal today reports that the new XO laptop, centerpiece of the One Laptop Per Child project, is stimulating an active response from both Intel and Microsoft. The companies evidently feel 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 defend the relative merits of his creation, professor Negroponte is crying foul and (if the article is to be believed) not even arguing the technical merits. The initial demand 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 model in any case."
The customers who bought a device got what they wanted. Those who didn't, didn't.
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you can only buy via PayPal???
no f'ing way i'll *ever* buy *anything* via PayPal!
does anyone have a better CC merchant route? please?!???
Don't mind the Europeans, they are just angry that they're not the ones holding the seed patents. The "US seeds are sterile and kill local species!" bit is exactly like the "if you do any OSS work, you have to give away everything you make" bit. It's all FUD through and through and you just have to look at who is behind it all.
Just "gittin-r-done," day after day.
There seems to be a lot of disagreement over which laptop is "better". Each model has their merrits, granted. OLPC is cheaper, MS/Intel magic is "windows" which is far more important when trying to integrate into the modern technical society.
Yes, there are mac/linux/unix/VAX/etc. machines out there that a OLPC student might be able to equate their experience with (in theory as OLPC is extremely point-click-go oriented by default). But that leaves them out of the ~90% of computers that run windows and puts them at a substantial disadvantage in that regards.
If you look at the computer from a non-techie world learning perspective, and assume you're not teaching these children for a career in technology but instead trying to use the laptop to facilitate basic education, the OLPC has the advantage for being outright cheaper.
Now...OLPC took how many years of preaching before the price creeped up by 100% and it finally launched? MS/Intel took what? 6 months? It seems to re-inforce the point that i've seen a long time in the coming - OLPC is a good idea poorly implemented. MS/Intel, I think, have done a better job in making an expensive laptop destined for those who will most benefit.
Would a starving ethernopian want a $200 laptop for free or $200 worth of durable farming goods (or whatever other example)? Would a lower-class poor child in a minor to moderately developed country (i.e. running water, electricity, basic telephone) benefit more from learning computer skills as basic food is available? If you really want to "help teh childrenz" how about offering what is most appropriate for someone's level of need.
You can get rich if you own a politician, but you have to be rich to buy one in the first place.