Negroponte Responds to $100 Laptop Criticisms 586
teefaf writes "Wired News is running an article on the most recent developments surrounding Nicholas Negroponte's (of MIT) $100 laptop project. The project aims to make 'cheap' computers available to children in developing countries. In the article, Negroponte responds to the inevitable criticism from Intel and Microsoft, "When you have both Intel and Microsoft on your case, you know you're doing something right", and elaborates on his vision for the future of the project, "He also said the display and other specifications could change as enhancements are made. In other words, he seemed to be saying to his critics: Don't get too hung up on how this thing operates now, 'The hundred-dollar laptop is an education project,' he said. 'It's not a laptop project.'". The article also states that the initial production cost of the laptops is expected to be $135; the $100 price-point probably won't be hit until 2008. It's possible that the cost could drop as low as $50 by 2010."
Some people will complain about anything (Score:5, Interesting)
They are making a laptop that will cost $100, and perhaps $50 by 2010. Who cares about the specs, it will not be a buisness machine.
Even if they stuffed a PII 400 mhz and had a 12" screen, it would be very usefull. People could write reports, surf the web, and compile programs. When I was in school, I compiled Java programs on a PII266 without any problems. Sure, I could not run a fancy IDE, but it was good enough to get the job done.
I think a $100 laptop is important. The poor get screwed, and go without. Many poor families will be able to afford a $100 laptop. Also, if I was a charity with $5000 to give away, I would much rather give away 50 basic laptops than 5 thousand dollar laptops.
100 dollar computers? (Score:5, Interesting)
http://www.worldcomputerexchange.org/offices/bost
There are plenty of takers for your old equipment. Why fill up a dump?
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BMO
Re:The critics ignore reality (Score:5, Interesting)
Not to be logically fallacious... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Loss of the crank is good (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Publicity (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:It's an Education Project (Score:4, Interesting)
Or, most likely, what if Apple refused to allow the device to be sold in the US? That would be an excellent way to raise money for the project, of course: sell the laptop for $250-$299 over here, and bang, every sale over here is one more laptop you can give to the poorer countries.
No, it's much better to deal with software that you control on a device such as this.
Re:The critics ignore reality (Score:4, Interesting)
That's what I'm always hearing about Gates' books. I assume the reason B.G. "wrote" books (I don't know the degree to which he actually wrote them) was not because he really wanted to, but because people were always saying to him "Bill, you're the richest man in the world, why aren't you writing a book to share your secrets?!?!"; at some point if you become famous enough, people expect you write a book...
B.G.'s response was probably "Er, ok, I guess (sigh)...." (starts looking up ghostwriters in his address list).
Re:The critics ignore reality (Score:3, Interesting)
Before making that judgment, take a look at the web site for the Bill Gates Foundation. It's impressive. Based on what I read, Bill was determined that his foundation was really going to make a difference, rather than just throwing money at problems so that everyone "feels good" (as so many foundations do, and never actually solve anything).
Say what you want about Bill (and his book wasn't that great), but you can't accuse him of lacking vision to doing world-changing things.
It's not just multi-billionairres who see problems (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:god (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Up from the cell phone, not down from the PC (Score:3, Interesting)
As someone who has owned a:
I can confidently say that a PDA simply does not work for the same things as a laptop.
The user interface is just SOOO much more efficient on a laptop. It's the compination of a bigger screen, a human-sized keyboard, and less comprimses to make it tiny. Let's put it this way, you can sit down in front of a laptop and do work for eight hours. You simply can't get close to the same amount of work done with something like a Treo, Zaurus, etc. It's not that you can't run the software, it's the amount of panning (constant), the awkward keyboard, the tiny touch-screen, the crappy or non-existent speakers, lack of interface for a printer.....
Put it this way, how many times would you have had to scroll down to get to this comment?
The tiny size of cellphones and PDAs does not come free.
Re:Why (Score:5, Interesting)
You had me, right up to there.
The only computer I've ever been near that "didn't require troubleshooting" was an Apple IIc. And even there I'm not sure that it's a true statement -- it's just that the troubleshooting was so simple, the group of 1st graders that I saw using it could do it themselves.
Put disk into drive. Turn on computer. Computer runs program. When done with program, turn computer off. Remove disk. Repeat.
Now that's the kind of computer they should be laboring to build. Maybe make it run on little optical cartridges or something instead of 5-1/4" floppies, but the same idea. Put the disk in, turn it on, it runs. Anything else is needlessly complex and will require support infrastructure.
Now maybe, like the old Apple II, you could have it do something special, an "advanced mode," if you will, when you turn it on without something in the drive. The old Apples booted to a text prompt where you could program in BASIC. Probably only 1 in 1,000 users will ever see it, and only 1 in 1,000 of them will ever bother to try to go further and figure out what it means and what they can do from there. But maybe you'll teach that 1 in 1,000,000 kid something, and he'll turn out to be the next Linux Torvalds. I can accept that.
However, if the machine is anything approaching the complexity of today's PCs, which most literate, educated people can hardly understand, much less troubleshoot and support, I think you're setting the whole thing up for failure. IMO, any device you're tossing out there like this ought to be like a Gameboy: just enough onboard, hardcoded intelligence to make the thing turn on and load code from external modules. That way no matter how bad you hose the software, you can't "break it." Plus it makes them a lot easier to share: one person can pull out the cartridge/disk for whatever they've been working on, and another person can plug theirs in and it's like they're on a different system.
Re:Gates not all bad (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Lack of knowledge here about 3rd world countrie (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:god (Score:3, Interesting)
He might care, but he doesn't care anywhere near what the amount of money would imply. Not to mention that 28b$ out of what he has still leaves him with more than any person could possibly spend outside of trying to recreate the pyramids of Egypt at 100x actual size using union labour.
Re:Loss of the crank is good (Score:2, Interesting)
Radio is the past, computers the future (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Lack of knowledge here about 3rd world countrie (Score:4, Interesting)
I also notice that you obviously do have access to a computer, and the time to post on Slashdot. What gives you the right of speaking on behalf of all of those that don't have that luxury about what their needs are?
And your idea about the US tax system is completely far out there. Most people in the US pay far more than 21% once you've added up federal income tax, state income taxes (for the states that have them), and local taxes (including property taxes etc.). For most working people in the US the total direct tax burden will add up to more like 25%-30% unless they're on extremely low salaries or live in extremely low tax areas.
'holy' Gates Foundation (Score:2, Interesting)
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/GlobalHealth/Pri_D
Re:Loss of the crank is good (Score:3, Interesting)