Bluecigar

Nicholas Negroponte is doing a Good Thing. He is trying to make a really cheap laptop available to children in developing countries, so that they can get a better education. Negroponte’s project is called One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), and the XO laptop has some really cool, easy to use features. But now Intel has created their own version of the laptop called the Classmate, and is essentially competing with the XO. And that competition is causing problems for the OLPC program. Microsoft is in the mix too, offering Windows and Office for $3 to developing nations. My reaction after reading that article was, what a bunch of jerks. I’m sure that those companies have an obligation to their stockholders to pursue monopolies on their products, but it really sucks when a good product gets steamrolled by crappy products backed with an endless supply of cash. I feel sad when I imagine some kid whose never touched a computer in his life to try to work Windows, instead of an OS specifically built for teaching kids. Hell I feel sad when I have to use Windows.