Linked by Eugenia Loli-Queru on Fri 27th Apr 2007 07:10 UTC
"The founder of the ambitious "$100 laptop" project, which plans to give inexpensive computers to schoolchildren in developing countries, revealed Thursday that the machine for now costs $175, and it will be able to run Windows in addition to its homegrown, open-source interface." More here.
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Member since:
2007-02-11
Is it just me, or is the price tag rising for some... reason I really can't see clearly.
I simply don't get the point of running Windows on a OLPC system. Microsoft is on the verge on retiring support for Windows XP, and, seeing OLPC's configuration, Windows Vista won't even consider it to be a computer.
And furthermore, if the project aims to integrate poorly developed countries into the IT world, what is the point of offering them a 175$ OLPC with Windows? Surely they're not expecting the IT infrastructure in those countries to be built upon Windows XP Starter Edition -- and just about any other Windows version I can think more costs more than the laptop itself.
If they really wanted to do the oh-lets-help-bthem-build-their-IT-world, they would concentrate on the Linux side of it, not because Linux is stable, secure or whatever else trolls would be fighting over, but simply because, unlike Windows, it's fscking free. I wonder what the Get The Facts campaign would state here -- sure, the total ownership costs would be higher (*cough*) but who gives a damn about that when the money required to purchase all the Windows licenses could be used to feed the whole country for two years.