$100 Laptop project draws Apple's interest
A novel plan to develop a $100 laptop computer for distribution to millions of schoolchildren in developing countries has caught the interest of governments and the attention of computer-industry heavyweights such as Apple, reports the Wall Street Journal.
The project, lead by Massachusetts Institute of Technology founding chairman Nicholas Negroponte, was pitched to at least two dozen countries and has received strong interest from both Brazil and Thailand, according to the report.
Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has also reportedly proposed spending $54 million to buy one of the laptops for every student in middle school and high school in his state.
"Although no contracts with governments have been signed, Negroponte says current plans call for producing five to ten million units beginning in late 2006 or early 2007, with tens of millions more a year later," the Journal is reporting.
Five companies -- including Google, Advanced Micro Devices, Red Hat, News Corp. and Brightstar Corp. -- have each donated $2 million to fund a nonprofit organization called One Laptop Per Child that was set up to oversee the project.
With Negroponte eager to place the laptop in the hands of 100 to 150 million students, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs reportedly offered to provide free copies of Mac OS X for each of the computers.
"We declined because it's not open source," said Dr. Papert, one of the initiative's founders. He noted that the designers want an operating system that can be tinkered with. Under present plans, the first production version of the laptop will be powered by an AMD microprocessor and use an open-source Linux-based operating system supplied by Red Hat.
Meanwhile, the project's designers say they are hoping to authorize a commercial version of the laptop "that would sell for around $200, with a share of the profits ideally used to subsidize the educational project."
Negroponte has been pitching the commercial version to "large, brand-name companies" and says it will be up to them to decide where and how to sell the laptop.
"I would not hold my breath for it to be in Best Buy," Negroponte said. He's scheduled to demonstrate a working prototype of the device on Wednesday at a U.N. technology conference in Tunisia.
The project, lead by Massachusetts Institute of Technology founding chairman Nicholas Negroponte, was pitched to at least two dozen countries and has received strong interest from both Brazil and Thailand, according to the report.
Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has also reportedly proposed spending $54 million to buy one of the laptops for every student in middle school and high school in his state.
"Although no contracts with governments have been signed, Negroponte says current plans call for producing five to ten million units beginning in late 2006 or early 2007, with tens of millions more a year later," the Journal is reporting.
Five companies -- including Google, Advanced Micro Devices, Red Hat, News Corp. and Brightstar Corp. -- have each donated $2 million to fund a nonprofit organization called One Laptop Per Child that was set up to oversee the project.
With Negroponte eager to place the laptop in the hands of 100 to 150 million students, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs reportedly offered to provide free copies of Mac OS X for each of the computers.
"We declined because it's not open source," said Dr. Papert, one of the initiative's founders. He noted that the designers want an operating system that can be tinkered with. Under present plans, the first production version of the laptop will be powered by an AMD microprocessor and use an open-source Linux-based operating system supplied by Red Hat.
Meanwhile, the project's designers say they are hoping to authorize a commercial version of the laptop "that would sell for around $200, with a share of the profits ideally used to subsidize the educational project."
Negroponte has been pitching the commercial version to "large, brand-name companies" and says it will be up to them to decide where and how to sell the laptop.
"I would not hold my breath for it to be in Best Buy," Negroponte said. He's scheduled to demonstrate a working prototype of the device on Wednesday at a U.N. technology conference in Tunisia.
Comments
If they successfully make this it'll be a huge step in making the lines that education and poverty draw in developing countries begin to dwindle. The OS X on it idea is a good one for Apple because they'd be praised the world over for helping.
I just don't get why they need a tweakable OS it'd make more sense to me to have a reliable one since millions of people that can't afford a laptop definetly can't afford servicing it and OS and errors and such.
Originally posted by melgross
It makes me think that if Apple was so eager to give their OS to these guys for a machine that would cost what this does, Apple could make a machine that costs far less than the iBook or Mini.
Maybe they offered knowing full-well that it is not really possible/practical (right now or for a very long time).
Originally posted by ecking
If they successfully make this it'll be a huge step in making the lines that education and poverty draw in developing countries begin to dwindle.
Do you really believe this?
Why is it that so many people believe that technology is somehow the cure for poor educational problems?
In the U.S. we have continued to pour more and more $$ into technological solutions in education, only to stagnate on actual educational progress.
Originally posted by Chris Cuilla
Maybe they offered knowing full-well that it is not really possible/practical (right now or for a very long time).
I don't know. They DO have an OS that will run on these things these days. If this happened before Apple's announced switch to x86, I wouldn't even thought about it.
Think about this, in keeping with all of the talk about desktop boxes, Apple being interested in possibly buying Scientific Atlanta, etc., that they might just have a somewhat stripped down version of the OS ready to go. One that won't require 1GB of RAM to work well, etc.
Also, think about how many hands (and minds) this offer being accepted would have put the OS into. 150 million, by their estimate. I think that Apple was very serious about their offer.
Originally posted by melgross
I don't know. They DO have an OS that will run on these things these days. If this happened before Apple's announced switch to x86, I wouldn't even thought about it.
Think about this, in keeping with all of the talk about desktop boxes, Apple being interested in possibly buying Scientific Atlanta, etc., that they might just have a somewhat stripped down version of the OS ready to go. One that won't require 1GB of RAM to work well, etc.
Also, think about how many hands (and minds) this offer being accepted would have put the OS into. 150 million, by their estimate. I think that Apple was very serious about their offer.
You are probably right. I was only about 1/2 joking. What is this about "Apple being interested in possibly buying Scientific Atlanta"? Where have you heard this?
Originally posted by Chris Cuilla
Do you really believe this?
Why is it that so many people believe that technology is somehow the cure for poor educational problems?
In the U.S. we have continued to pour more and more $$ into technological solutions in education, only to stagnate on actual educational progress.
We have a problem with political correctness in this country.
The responsibility for education belongs in the hands of the students, and their parents. No educational system can overcome the inertia of students entering school not caring about their education, or parents not willing to take the time and effort to make certain their kids understand its importance.
There are districts and individual schools in this country that have high rates of graduation and excellence, and there are those with just the opposite. If they studied the reasons why, they would find that the reason for that is in the home environment. That's where the problem has to be tackled.
It's been shown decades ago that the school has little influence over most students, that it's what happens at home that determined performance.
But that concept isn't popular.
Originally posted by melgross
We have a problem with political correctness in this country.
The responsibility for education belongs in the hands of the students, and their parents. No educational system can overcome the inertia of students entering school not caring about their education, or parents not willing to take the time and effort to make certain their kids understand its importance.
There are districts and individual schools in this country that have high rates of graduation and excellence, and there are those with just the opposite. If they studied the reasons why, they would find that the reason for that is in the home environment. That's where the problem has to be tackled.
It's been shown decades ago that the school has little influence over most students, that it's what happens at home that determined performance.
But that concept isn't popular.
Agreed. 100%. Now I better stay on topic before I get mod-slapped. This would be a good discussion for AO though.
Originally posted by Chris Cuilla
Do you really believe this?
Why is it that so many people believe that technology is somehow the cure for poor educational problems?
In the U.S. we have continued to pour more and more $$ into technological solutions in education, only to stagnate on actual educational progress.
Agreed. Show me an engineer who could teach physics, mathematics, etc., at the high school level and I guarantee you they don't want to earn an "educational" degree to satisfy their state need of extra education extortion that doesn't add to the quality of curriculum for those areas that are in dire straits.
How many education majors are even remotely at the same technical levels needed for such classes?
How about language majors?
Do high school get masters educators in history, political science, etc., to really educate our future generations?
Rarely. Both the wage and the ridiculous added "education credits" keep talent away.
Now the biggest barrier: discipline of students and the lack of being able to discipline students who disrespect and disrupt the learning environment.
Sorry but the only decently enjoyable place to teach such complex subjects is at the University level where you don't have to put up with b.s. from disruptive adults students.
Originally posted by Chris Cuilla
Now I better stay on topic before I get mod-slapped. This would be a good discussion for AO though.
My thoughts exactly
Originally posted by Chris Cuilla
You are probably right. I was only about 1/2 joking. What is this about "Apple being interested in possibly buying Scientific Atlanta"? Where have you heard this?
It was on one of the sites last week. Scientific Atlanta has put itself up for sale. Apple was one of the companies who was listed as being interested.
Originally posted by melgross
It was on one of the sites last week. Scientific Atlanta has put itself up for sale. Apple was one of the companies who was listed as being interested.
That is very interesting. Even if they were not to buy SA...it reveals something about their intentions.
Originally posted by Chris Cuilla
That is very interesting. Even if they were not to buy SA...it reveals something about their intentions.
Ok, I found it:
http://yahoo.reuters.com/financeQuot...9718611_newsml
1. cost
2. batterylife
3. will last through abuse
4. will not be obsolete in a year
other than that then... its great!
-tiger
Originally posted by MacCrazy
I don't think OS X is suitable. An open sourced solution allows the computers to be updated fro free for ever and not at the whims of a corporate company. It also means no organisation is gaining financially from the move. It would be a huge boost for Apple if it made the OS for these machines as it would attract more applications for it; but also provide free advertising. I feel a non-profit project should promote non-profit organisations. Additionally Linux is just as stable as OS X.
I call bull**** on this. RedHat was one of the early donors to the program and RedHat's OS is going to run on it. Updates will only be available as long as RedHat maintains them, and otherwise they'd have to move to another linux distro, which as anyone who's tried it knows is almost like moving to another OS. Most of the software would still run with a recompile, but that's also true of MacOS X.
The bottom line is that RedHat contributed, RedHat's going to gain financially, and Apple was just too late to the game to play this round of the corporate politics that's going into this.
And I don't know where the last line of your post came from, but it's an awfully broad overgeneralization.
The bottom line is that the students will get vastly less utility from a linux laptop than they would a MacOS X laptop, and the students are losing out because corporate politics is going to guarantee RedHat is the OS.
Originally posted by Booga
I call bull**** on this. RedHat was one of the early donors to the program and RedHat's OS is going to run on it. Updates will only be available as long as RedHat maintains them, and otherwise they'd have to move to another linux distro, which as anyone who's tried it knows is almost like moving to another OS. Most of the software would still run with a recompile, but that's also true of MacOS X.
The bottom line is that RedHat contributed, RedHat's going to gain financially, and Apple was just too late to the game to play this round of the corporate politics that's going into this.
And I don't know where the last line of your post came from, but it's an awfully broad overgeneralization.
The bottom line is that the students will get vastly less utility from a linux laptop than they would a MacOS X laptop, and the students are losing out because corporate politics is going to guarantee RedHat is the OS.
Is this just because we are biased towards the Mac platform? I agree OS X is better but I would not be happy with Windows on these machines - I really think Linux is a more suited OS. Obviously OS X would be better for peripherals etc. and Server stuff but for internet and word processing I think Linux will be fine. Maybe it is because RedHat asked first.
Originally posted by melgross
We have a problem with political correctness in this country.
The responsibility for education belongs in the hands of the students, and their parents. No educational system can overcome the inertia of students entering school not caring about their education, or parents not willing to take the time and effort to make certain their kids understand its importance.
There are districts and individual schools in this country that have high rates of graduation and excellence, and there are those with just the opposite. If they studied the reasons why, they would find that the reason for that is in the home environment. That's where the problem has to be tackled.
It's been shown decades ago that the school has little influence over most students, that it's what happens at home that determined performance.
But that concept isn't popular.
The truth is there is a problem, whether it is at home or at school. While I agree that parents have a responsibility towards their children, we can't expect that all families will do their children justice. One thing that I had when I was a school was "homework period", where 1 hour per day after school was committed to allow the students to do their homework in a supervised class. This may be a solution for situations where studying at home is not a practical solution.
The other issue is that we suffer from the issue where you get treated better for being the ace American football player, than being a good intellectually. We need the media to provide us with some serious scientific and "intellectual" role-models, which aren't being knocked off as the next nerd on the block.
Okay, now I am off topic. But going back on topic it is true that while the computer can help educate, it is not a substitute, in the same way a TV is not a suitable baby-sitter. What we need is to understand what value a computer can add to the education system, rather than treating it as a solution to all our ills.
As to the issue of rejecting MacOS X, I can understand where they are coming from. While I would love to see MacOS X on them, they are trying to make something truly cheap and open source is the only way. It also means they have almost complete say over the configuration of the OS and how the kernel is configured. Apple probably knew they would get turned down, but took advantage of the free publicity opportunity (this is speculation). Just think what people would be saying had Microsoft proposed MS-Windows for these things.
Originally posted by melgross
It makes me think that if Apple was so eager to give their OS to these guys for a machine that would cost what this does, Apple could make a machine that costs far less than the iBook or Mini.
Indeed they could. If Freeview boxes are £35 these days, then for £100 they could have a reasonable PowerPC system.
For your information said freeview box (my girlfriend's was a Sagem) includes a 255MHz integrated PowerPC processor. It isn't too hard to think in quantity about a MPC5200 running at 400MHz that'd outperform the AMD Geode processor (and ironically has a DDR memory interface on the processor, giving it more memory bandwidth than a G4 with it's SDR FSB) connected via PCI to a cheap I/O solution and graphics chip. Maybe Freescale or IBM sell an integrated PowerPC that includes graphics and audio as well, but an external solution could have the power to run the Mac OS X interface, thus making the slower processor less of an issue.
I reckon Apple could make a $299 laptop using the above kind of setup. Is it worth it? Not really.