I'm brazilian. And I think that the idea is great.
First of all, the brazilian government is not giving anything to brazilian poor people. In fact, they ask to a University to make a prototype of a cheap computer (it's a kind of open hardware, or free hardware). Now, this hardware can be mounted by any company that is interested to. But the brazilian government will also help people to buy these computers, because it can be paid in 24x of Us$ 8,00 (8 dollars per month!).
I think anybody, who is interested, can pay Us$ 8,00 per month, since in Brazil.
Of course there is another problem: a lot of people that can buy this computer, do not have a telephone line. But this is also changing. Two years ago, to buy a telephone line you had to pay Us$ 1500,00 (sometimes more than these), and now is Us$ 25,00. The problem is that the telephone company can't install a lot of lines in a few time.
I don't think that the main dream of a person that don't have a car, or a washing machine is to have internet in home. But I really think that a lot of people that need to, will have conditions to access it.
And the choice of Linux is really amazing. There is a journalist in Brazil (Sandra Carvalho, of InfoExame Magazine) that have written that the choice is wrong, because Linux is difficult to learn... This makes no sense: a person that have never used a computer (and don't know Windows) will problably have the same difficulties to learn Windows than will have to learn Linux.
Because of that I think the idea is so great! In fact with that anybody in Brazil that wants to acces internet and learn Linux, now have a good chance to do that. Congratulations to Brazilian Government!
Probably the really poor people will not use it, but, with this project, a lot of people (poor, but not extremely poor) will have conditions to buy it. And this will make the proccess of popularization of internet and computer quickly!
And to people that think that the government have other priorities, why don't you help to do that? I think this kind of people don't do nothing to help and only like to talk bad things about others.
It's really a great idea.
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I'm brazilian. And I think that the idea is great. First of all, the brazilian government is not giving anything to brazilian poor people. In fact, they ask to a University to make a prototype of a cheap computer (it's a kind of open hardware, or free hardware). Now, this hardware can be mounted by any company that is interested to. But the brazilian government will also help people to buy these computers, because it can be paid in 24x of Us$ 8,00 (8 dollars per month!). I think anybody, who is interested, can pay Us$ 8,00 per month, since in Brazil. Of course there is another problem: a lot of people that can buy this computer, do not have a telephone line. But this is also changing. Two years ago, to buy a telephone line you had to pay Us$ 1500,00 (sometimes more than these), and now is Us$ 25,00. The problem is that the telephone company can't install a lot of lines in a few time. I don't think that the main dream of a person that don't have a car, or a washing machine is to have internet in home. But I really think that a lot of people that need to, will have conditions to access it. And the choice of Linux is really amazing. There is a journalist in Brazil (Sandra Carvalho, of InfoExame Magazine) that have written that the choice is wrong, because Linux is difficult to learn... This makes no sense: a person that have never used a computer (and don't know Windows) will problably have the same difficulties to learn Windows than will have to learn Linux. Because of that I think the idea is so great! In fact with that anybody in Brazil that wants to acces internet and learn Linux, now have a good chance to do that. Congratulations to Brazilian Government! Probably the really poor people will not use it, but, with this project, a lot of people (poor, but not extremely poor) will have conditions to buy it. And this will make the proccess of popularization of internet and computer quickly! And to people that think that the government have other priorities, why don't you help to do that? I think this kind of people don't do nothing to help and only like to talk bad things about others. It's really a great idea.