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."

Comments

Competition is good

[I'm Don Giovanni]

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.

Re:Competition is good

[macz]

Competition is good, but anti-competition is bad. Negroponte's argument is that the big boys are smothering XO in the crib with half-assed attempts at being cheap (but DRM and IP laden).

Re:Competition is good

[0123456]

"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 continue 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.

Re:Competition is good

[chuckymonkey]

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 take intense amounts of punishment is very important. Another thing I don't like about Wintel interfering is that it really isn't geared towards learning, they're worried about a bunch 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 have 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 wrong with them getting involved, but really all they're worried about are future profit margins.

Re:Competition is good

[kat_skan]

If Microsoft and Intel put Negreponte out of 'business' by selling subsidised low-cost PCs, how long do you think they'll continue to sell them afterwards?

Maybe a long time if Walmart decides that selling $200 laptops along side their $200 desktops sounds like a good idea. Granted that won't help children in developing nations much, but it'd sure do something interesting to the PC market.

Re:Competition is good

[ktappe]

he really ought to leave this stuff to the pros and let the market bring prices down.

We HAVE left it to the "pros" for decades and what did they provide this marketplace? Absolutely NOTHING. They completely ignored developing nations in favor 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 help", the potential recipients of the XO who are being fooled into not ordering it, or folks like you who are not seeing any problem with this whole cock-up.

Re:Competition is good

[NMerriam]

There's a big difference between actual competition (which is great) and competition that exists only long 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 produce just enough press releases for the XO to stop getting orders it needs to stay viable, then once the XO is basically dead, MS/Intel say "oh, well now that we look at the market, we really think 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 note, 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.

Re:Competition is good

[Anonymous Coward]

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 grow 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.

Re:Competition is good

[vtcodger]

***$3 for Windows? come on.***

I agree that's a bit more than Vista is really worth, but maybe they'll give up another 20-40% on volume orders.

Re:Competition is good

[Fourier404]

Actually, they have done something. If you haven't noticed, computers have 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 point 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 help, their economies are exploding and are going to take 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.

Re:Competition is good

[Bert64]

Depends who does the buying...
If the people buying these machines aren't spending their own money, and intel or microsoft offer them some money into their own back pocket in exchange for spending more of someone else's money, what do you think they'll do?

Re:Competition is good

[hhas]

Competition is great. Microsoft selling their products as $3 a pop isn't competition though, unless you think $3 is cost price or greater. That's a subsidised loss leader intended to undercut the competition and thereby put them out of business, a classic anti-competitive tactic. You're welcome to disagree, of course, but try fitting out a US-based organisation with $3 copies of MS software and see how long it takes the BSA to drop on them like a ton of bricks.

Re:Competition is good

[cyphercell]

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.

Re:Competition is good

[thrillseeker]

If it's more expensive and inferior then it'll be unsuccessful.

Only if the market is actually free (of biased legislation, etc.)

Re:Competition is good

[burnin1965]

If Negreponte's goal is to get cheap laptops in the hands of poor children, why would he be angry?

Good question, and the answer is that Negroponte's goal is NOT to get cheap laptops in the hands of poor children.

http://laptop.org/vision/index.shtml

          "It's an education project, not a laptop project."

        -- Nicholas Negroponte

No matter 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 market 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 scum bag used car salesman tactics.

Negroponte and his team 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 have these greedy bastards trying to destroy the project in the name of market share and profits. And make no mistake about it, neither Intel nor Microsoft actually have any interest 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 share in their current markets, not in some imagined expanding market 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 work the OLPC people put into a non-profit project with admirable goals only to see it threatened in the name of greed.

Re:Competition is good

[jc42]

What is being offered by Microsoft and Intel is an inferior, but more expensive product.

And your problem is? If it's more expensive and inferior then it'll be unsuccessful.

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 start, 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 willing to use bribery and back-room politics to derail OLPC orders. They've probably learned to not be quite so blatant, and cover their tracks a bit better, and they may well 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 well covered here, though not in the mainstream media.

Re:Competition is good

[cecil_turtle]

There are a number of things wrong with that statement. It's an extremest point of view that "we shouldn't worry about X until Y and Z are fixed". Similar statements are "we shouldn't try to cure aids until after we cure 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 bang around on MySpace all day like american kids do. I suggest you get educated 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 progress of upcoming generations in Africa.

Re:Competition is good

[Anonymous Coward]

no, for a kid in a mud hut, NOT LIVING IN A MUD HUT is very important. not computers.

Why? Mud huts are cheap to build, easy to maintain, and do an admirable job of keeping the wind and rain off you.

You are making the typical rich-white-kid mistake of looking at people in a developing country, picking out the aspect of their life that you would like the least, and assuming that that's their biggest problem. In reality, however, mud huts are irrelevant. They're low on prestige, but in a practical sense they're a pretty good form of housing in that environment. Whereas education is critical, and these computers address that problem directly.

Re:Competition is good

[Entropius]

I would include dishonest advertising as another factor making a market non-free.

Re:Competition is good

[QuietLagoon]

f it's more expensive and inferior then it'll be unsuccessful.

Then explain windows' success.

Re:Competition is good

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, thing is, in 3rd world developing countries, many children don't have this fancy thing called electricity, and what's worse, many people don't even know how to read. In Africa especially, the air is dry, which leads to small particles entering the laptop. The classmate PC isn't designed to be anything more than a cheap regular laptop, and most certainly isn't designed for these conditions.

By contrast, the XO laptop isn't dependent on a powergrid. The interface is developed so that you *don't have to know how to read* in order to use it (Administer it, yes, but not in order to use it. Windows falls flat here), and what's even better is that it's designed for rough usage. Not to mention that the XO laptop is designed to *be an education tool*, while the classmate PC just happens to be a Laptop with Windows thrown onto it.

So, the XO laptop is clearly technicly superior for the intended market. But, marketing and other stuff can still make it fail. I'm hoping it won't though.

Re:Competition is good

[ozmanjusri]

But that leaves them out of the ~90% of computers that run windows and puts them at a substantial disadvantage in that regards.

That's an important point, and it's why we're seeing so much effort from Microsoft.

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 disadvantage claim is.

A successful OLPC project would show the world definitively that an expensive, proprietary, antifeature-laden OS is an unnecessary waste of money and resources.

Would a starving ethernopian...

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.

Re:Competition is good

[Antique Geekmeister]

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 cost, to drive a competitor without such deep pockets out of the business.

The practice is most easily done by a monopoly to prevent competitors from entering the market. 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.

Re:Competition is good

[Bill, Shooter of Bul]

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 bring up IP and DRM, if you think that effects the education of the end users ( and please explain that non obvious point), but not because you hate MPAA and RIAA because of what they do that affect your life. We are NOT talking about you. Negroponte is upset because Microsoft is using pressure to use an inferior product at a higher price which will be worse for the students. Period.

Re:Competition is good

[gonebursar]

I wonder if part of the reason for the lower than expected demand was that they've not allowed international buyers, while the laptop has garnered international attention. The boss and I were going to put forward a proposal for the city we work for to buy ten or so through the give-one-get-one program, with the ten we got going to the library system. The donation thing makes the city look good, and the laptops themselves are perfect for library use: durable, nearly idiot-proof and cheap enough that it's not a major concern if someone breaks it or 'steals' it. Heck, in the latter case, we could remotely brick it to encourage its return.

And then we saw the "only for US and Canadian residents" notice and our hearts sunk.

Re:Competition is good

[MadAhab]

I checked this thread just to see who made the "dumping" argument.

According to the article 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. Wait 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 will 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.

Re:Competition is good

[AoT]

And anyone who has more than a few months of experience in economics knows that the third world is fairly inelastic in their demand for computers so this argument is complete nonsense because these people simply cannot buy a $500 computer.

Which is exactly the problem. The OLPC program 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 best 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.

Re:Competition is good

[AoT]

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 sense 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.

Technical merits?

[CRCulver]

It seems to me that the children to whom these laptops are going don't need whizbang computing power, they just need basic computing ability. The OLPC project 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.

Ah, the canonical monopoly response...

[FooAtWFU]

Ah, yes, the canonical monopoly tactic to competition coming along.

• sit there minding your own business making $$$$$
• competitor comes along with something
• monopoly makes its own stuff to CRUSH the competitor (optionally even suffering a short-term loss)
• things drift back to making $$$$$
• market failure!

Re:Ah, the canonical monopoly response...

[tftp]

1. OLPC makes a $100 notebook, offers for sale at cost.
2. Wintel makes a $50 notebook, offers for sale at great loss.
3. Customers leave OLPC and stampede to Wintel.
4. OLPC closes up the shop.
5. Wintel cancels the project. Customers stand there empty-handed.
6. Wintel wins - by doing nothing other than a few press-releases.

Competition is always welcomed, or so says everyone here

Do _you_ still say so, after this scenario?

Re:Ah, the canonical monopoly response...

[Antique Geekmeister]

Until 3 years later, when they need a new laptop for a new child or for a project or their old laptop needs upgrade or replacement. And until you need new software, which is locked to that proprietary OS and costs 5 times as much as it should.

Waste of time

[Anonymous Coward]

The third world needs a lot more than a cheap laptop. They have to figure out agriculture first!!!

Re:Waste of time

[okmijnuhb]

Who needs agriculture? They can just order food online after making some quick cash with some online scams.

Re:Waste of time

[Colin Smith]

They have to figure out agriculture first!!! They can't figure out agriculture till the USA and EU stop dumping their subsidised agricultural overproduction on their markets and open their own agricultural markets to competition.

Re:Waste of time

[Artemis3]

And make it illegal for USA and others to sell their patented transgenic sterile seeds that happens to kill local species...

Fighting a non profit

[coolate]

The real annoying thing is that they are not jumping in the market to help kids but undermine a non profit so they can get the market. Other companies like AMD have been helping the effort, but Microsoft and Intel see it as competition. This is a non profit effort. Next the pharmaceuticals will be going after the red cross because they want to sell cheap blood alternatives to disaster victims. Yeah competition! I am proud to have gotten one.

When they discover they're worth $200 on eBay

[Colin Smith]

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?from=R40&_trksid=m37&satitle=OLPC&category0=

You'll find the OLPC is basically just a financial subsidy to the poor in the developing world...

What's the average annual wage in Bangladesh?

Double the cost of the XO? Huh?

[SuperBanana]

Intel has designed their own laptop called the Classmate to sell between $230 and $300, nearly double the XO's price

What? The XO was targeted to cost $100. It ballooned out to $130, then $175, then $188, then $200.

Now, if you want to donate 10,000 of them, you get that $200 price. If you want to donate 100 or less, you pay $300 per laptop.

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...

Re:Negroponte's Dumb Idea

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF]

The thing is, Negroponte's $100 laptop suffers from the same flaw as Ford's Model T ultimately did. A used computer will probably give you more capability than a cheap new one. I think for $150, you could buy a notebook that's better than this "everyman's computer", and while you were at it, you could probably buy a used generator.

The cheapest I can find 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 access to electricity is a lot harder than you seem to imply. And even if you do, it probably will still fail to meet the second 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 chance for them to develop a sustainable industry and income and offer their services to the world.

Negroponte is surprised about the actual demand?

[Flavio]

If so, I'm sorry to say he lacks the cynicism to deal with politicians, specially those from third world nations. These individuals will endorse 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 cost.

Talk is cheap.

Re:That's great

[stretch0611]

Competition is good...

However, Monopolies are bad. This is a clear case of a monopoly using its power to stifle long term 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 stifle competition? As soon as the OLPC project is broke and a memory, expect the price of Microsoft's software to increase exponentially.

Re:Found the Problem

[tom's a-cold]

No real vendor support. Who is going to buy these things when they have to fix every single problem themselves?

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 support when there's no phone. In much of the world, it's mend and make 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 support will be provided by the likes of Microsoft?

the nature of the competitive threat

[Gary W. Longsine]

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.

Re:the nature of the competitive threat

[swillden]

in the USA many jobs require some basic knowledge of Windows and Office.

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 even there the differences aren't going so large that significant retraining is required. Especially since the XO is specifically designed to encourage exploration and make 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.

Even 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 time the systems are going to change -- probably more radically than they have 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 think kids who grow up using an XO laptop will probably be more capable of using a Windows 8 system than kids who grow up on Windows.

Finally, odds are that in the parts of the world where lots of XO laptops are used, when the kids enter the workforce they won't be using Windows anyway. That, of course, is what terrifies Microsoft.

Re:$230 not 'double' the price

[ravenlock]

Nope, $399 buys you one and another for a kid, $200 of it is tax-deductible.

Let me see who defends capitalism

[bogaboga]

It is in situations like these that capitalism disappoints me. Those who tout capitalism will say that "it's a free world"..."survival for the fittest" and so on.

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 stake in the telecommunications sector for example.

Why there is an OLPC

[kriston]

I'm waiting for my XOPC which I ordered at 6:05 AM on day 1 of the Give-One-Get-One program.

The reason for this machine and its unique interface, power saving, and wireless connection is for empowering people who do not have computing expertise, reliable power, or even telephone connections.

An important use for the machine that is overlooked is to provide textbooks to children in areas which simply don't have 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 satellite radio 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.

Have 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.

Re:3rd world needs to figure out birth control fir

[LooTze]

Studies in India have shown that the best way to reduce population growth in a democracy is to educate women. Percolation of computers and cell phones into the rural areas have allowed significant (class room/world exposure type of) education to happen even outside the schools. This has been a more recent phenomenon and while these have had definite economic advantages (e.g. google - kerala fishermen cell phones). It is not clear as yet whether this type of education will 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 like agriculture, etc.

Re:Negroponte's Dumb Idea

[Rob Simpson]

Keep in mind that you'd also want a rugged laptop, so make that a used Toughbook. And even 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.

Intel's Sucker Punch. Tech Merits are Obvious.

[Erris]

Behold "peace" with Intel and M$:

In May, Mr. Negroponte appeared on CBS's "60 Minutes" and blasted Intel, suggesting it was trying to drive his nonprofit out of business. ... Two months later, Intel announced it was joining One Laptop's board. The agreement included a "nondisparagement" clause, under which Intel and One Laptop promised not to criticize each other, according to Mr. Negroponte.

but

He seems most frustrated with Intel, whose overseas sales force 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 pull every trick 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 school children, especially those in the developing world. It's designed for US fortune 500 businesses and to satisfy the wants of the MAFIAA. It's dependent on a $400 "office" suite for the most basic of paper writing in English and it has little else. Native editing and authoring tools are pathetic, networking is designed for an office LAN and media tools are designed to extract money from rich US college students rather than to encourage creativity. Foreign language support in Windoze is pathetic, as you would expect from software that can't take corrections in the field. All of this can be said about M$'s latest and greatest OS. I'm scared of what they have to offer for $3. Any developing nation that wants to see what will 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 right now by developing nations for next to nothing. They are not used because they are not well 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.

Re:Negroponte's Dumb Idea

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF]

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 like farming - if you can hold a stick, you can be a farmer.

I said work in intellectual property including 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 practice, 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 better at it than we are, but have a thousand times the unemployment rate in some localities and will work for one one hundredth the cost.

You do not turn farmers into knowledge-based workers by giving them a laptop.

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 free. You turn them into knowledge based workers by giving them a laptop and network access and a wealth of educational data and software specifically designed to be easy to modify for their entire childhood. It is called an education, and growing up with a basic laptop, wikipedia, and internet access will allow them to develop computing skills as they grow. Did you have access 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 phrase "modern-style economy" actually mean anything? An economy is an economy and providing tools that educate and are usable, certainly can make a real difference.

If this endeavour is going to have any benefits at all (and that's pretty questionable - whether it's worthwhile is open to debate, but it is definitely not certain that it will 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 point talking to you, otherwise; let's hear your better and more effective idea.

Ok...

[Blakey Rat]

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 price of Intel's similar hardware? ($230 is hardly double the XO's price, considering it's currently $200. But, you know, 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 crush this program!" and not "hey, that's a good idea, let's try it."

Three Intel MYTHs Busted Here

[Glasswire]

1) MYTH: MSFT and Intel constitute the evil Wintel cartel. Fact: MSFT doesn't like Intel's Classmate PC - read the Wikipedia article on it 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 OS
2) MYTH: Intel hates OLPC. Intel is PART of the OLPC project (since summer 2007) - Microsoft is NOT. (The original poster doesn't even mention this) Perhaps this would imply that next gen XO unit will be Intel-based ( see this post 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 lower power, 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 will be able to put thousands of processors on a single wafer allowing Intel to make 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 need x86 instruction set with sub-one-watt power consumption (and good performance). It is exactly what XO v2 should be built on.

Not a Monopoly

[DrYak]

so the negroponte's camp had the "monopoly" (a oh, so loved word here) or the solo position in this project

The major point is that their project was free/libre opensource based. It could have been emulated by any one else. And whole point 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 home grilled buger on your own backyard grill (without any intellectual property lawsuits involved) against the fast-food corps.

The main purpose behind this is bring those kids a tool that they can subsequently own themselves and do whatever they want to do. This is possible with free/libre software, because that's the whole point 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 have to be done only after obtaining license. Even if it may cost only 3$ currently, it remains in the hand 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 stream of future consumer which have been raised into sheepishly thinking that information technology is only something that come from a foreign US company, and who could one day buy Microsoft's future software at whatever price they decide then.

It doesnt matter if XO is a big hit or not

[voss]

Asus is already coming out with the EEE pc, so intel will have to keep making classmates.

There is a market in the US for $200 laptops, in classrooms if nothing else.
The ability to have a laptop cart with 20 laptops for under 5k instead of the normal $25000
is a disruptive technology.

If XO does nothing else but bring down the cost of laptops for people around the world..then
Mr. Negroponte deserves our gratitude.