Imagine if each poor kid in the developing world had access to computers. That’s what the OLPC project hopes to achieve. For those who have not heard about it, OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) is a project to manufacture cheap laptops to be used by poor children in developing countries. They’ve come up with a model called XO-1.
The idea was mooted in 2005 by Nicholas Negroponte of MIT Media Labs, and to date they have shipped out about 600,000 units, with more orders on the way. Each laptop costs about $150 although the price is planned to drop to the advertised $100 if there are more large scale orders.
The thing that surprises me is the overall usability. It’s durable, rugged, consumes very little energy, and if they made cheap laptops like that for adult users, I’d be tempted to try one out too. Although the specs are rather too small, (the Classmate from Intel has larger specs), it suits young kids, especially preschoolers.
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The Classmate is Intel’s answer to the OLPC, arguing that the limited specs of the OLPC make it redundant for long term use. They are right in many ways, but then again, the Classmate is more expensive, price-wise. The OLPC seems a lot higher in profile than the Classmate, and has been more successful in lobbying international attention.
For comparison:
Processor speed: XO = 500 MHz; Classmate = 900 MHz
Drive space memory: XO = 1 GHz flash memory; Classmate = 2 GHz flash memory
RAM: XO = 128 MHz; Classmate = 256 MHz
Price: XO = $150 (roughly); Classmate = $400
Although the motive of OLPC is noble, there are many conflicts of interests. Both Intel and Microsoft have been feeling left out by the project. It has even spurred Microsoft to look for ways to slim down their Windows XP to make it run on a small computer, like the OLPC. They aren’t too happy that the OLPC is using Linux and other open source programs.
Well, just imagine millions of users complaining to Microsoft all these years about the bugs in XP, and the bloatware; they couldn’t even get Microsoft to actually look at modifying Windows XP in such a significant manner. Another point is the fact many governments are quite hesitant to buy OLPC in bulk when it’s not using Windows XP.
A lean and mean Windows XP is what we adults have been looking for all this while! After a lot of talks, it seems Microsoft will test a slimmer Windows on the OLPC in January 2008. Will that lead to Windows XP on the XO further down (considering OLPC has said they will only use Linux)? We’ll see 🙂