Submitted by MIT has unveiled its $100 hand-cranked laptop computer to the United Nations technology summit in Tunisia and said that it hopes to make millions of the devices to give to the poorest people in the world. The lime-green machines, which are about the size of a text book, will offer wireless connectivity via a mesh network of their own creation allowing peer-to-peer communication and operate in areas without a reliable electricity supply.
I want one!
I would like to buy one too – the crank up idea is nice! I wonder what the software is like. I wonder if it will be able to run Windows 98 instead of (presumably) Linux?
I wouldn’t think so, as it would depend on the microprocessor (arm, mips, m68k, or x86) or chipset used. Though x86 chips can technically reach the low power requirements, the cost of them in mass production would be debatably more then an equivalent arm/mips/m68k chip. Especially if the processor and chipset are to be put on the same ic (a la PS2).
Even using an x86 chip windows 98 would have to support the bus and chipset used, which would either be custom or built from very cheap components, made in the last few years. Since windows 98 is EOL and they’ve already commited to linux, it would be in their best interest to not even consider whether it could run any windows os, and just get something the linux kernel has support for, or they could create support for.
And yet I believe the main researcher met with Bill Gates and announced the machines would be capable of running Windows…
I’m pretty confident Microsoft will regard this as any commercial area and apply strategic moves to gain influence over this project on their own. For instance they can pressure governments to install Windows after the purchase has been made. The least they will do is surely to build a custom made version of Windows that will run on this special piece of hardware. Of course Apple will try to offer their fruits as well.
Microsoft and Apple simply cannot defend the decision not to make this move. Why? Because they cannot afford risking that people will notice Linux’s growing market share, even if it is with the poorest children in the poorest countries.
They’ll probably just port Windows Mobile to it.
I have heard that that the machine with be running a 500 MHz AMD Geode, a embedded x86 processor.
“I wonder if it will be able to run Windows 98 instead of (presumably) Linux?”
Why would you want to downgrade?
Especially downgrade as far as that.
I wonder if it will be able to run Windows 98 instead of (presumably) Linux
I hope not !
Dood(ettes) unless you are a Linux developer coding software specifically optimized for this laptop, why do you want one?
Because you can get it cheap? Because it’s a cool toy?
Hit eBay if you want an older low power laptop, or shell out and buy a bells and whistles PDA.
This laptop is adressing a need in emerging nations, and every time it lands in the hands of one of us, it’s taking it out of the hands of a kid who whose life this could revolutionize.
The cheap cell phone and the proliferation of cell phone networks has changed (and saved) lives in the rural 3rd world.
This program will not only bring the information revolution to the 3rd world (and ultimately spur movements for more just and democratic governments) but it’s what’s going to kick the Linux/OSS movement into high-gear. Not only will the feedback garnered lead to improvements in Linux as a desktop OS, we’re planting the seeds of a new generation of coders.
Personally I can’t wait until this program gets off the ground so I can donate to it and hopefully change the lives of several children and their families.
This laptop is adressing a need in emerging nations, and every time it lands in the hands of one of us, it’s taking it out of the hands of a kid who whose life this could revolutionize.
Every one of these laptops purchased by us means profit for the company and drives manufacturing costs down meaning through massive volume that same $100 laptop could fastly become the $50 laptop for 3rd world kids.
The only problem i have with this guy is that it ignores the poor Kids in America, latin America and other western nations that could benifit from a cheap laptop.
In US and Europe the laptop will be sold for about $200.
The extra $100 will be used to subsidize another laptop for a child
In US and Europe the laptop will be sold for about $200.
The extra $100 will be used to subsidize another laptop for a child
That sucks i definitely won’t buy one then.
While 200$ can be expensive I could consider it. For 150$ I will find quite fair to give one third of the money to third world nations ( hey, it even sounds like a good slogan ).
But I consider that it can be an important tool for adults. They need to know the who much does the coffee cost in the London market. They need to send emails to Germany and Japan, this way they will benefict from globalization and be able to commit with UE and UUEE coroporations.
Remember the APPLE, Microsoft Lobby is STRONG here in America and surrounding areas! You would never get this into poor schools etc in America because those places are controled by Apple and MS.
And we claim to be “open” in America. Only open if big business can make big money.
Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has expressed interest in purchasing a laptop for every elementary school student in Massachusetts.
Granted, this is Massachusetts, the place whose IT department decided to try to move away from Microsoft…
The only problem i have with this guy is that it ignores the poor Kids in America, latin America and other western nations that could benifit from a cheap laptop.
Agreed. I’d like to see them or something very close to them (no need for a crank) offered to any US school district where 30% of the population meets the criteria for poverty level.
And yes, these little machines would do wonders in Latin, Central, and South America.
Every one of these laptops purchased by us means profit for the company and drives manufacturing costs down meaning through massive volume that same $100 laptop could fastly become the $50 laptop for 3rd world kids.
The only problem i have with this guy is that it ignores the poor Kids in America, latin America and other western nations that could benifit from a cheap laptop.
Well, first of all, I don’t think they are trying to do it for profit and, I imagine that, at $100, there’s not much profit to be had anyway. You also have to worry about suppliers being able to get them the parts they need. If they start selling them casually, they could create a shortage for kids who could really benefit from it.
Also, these are being purchased for children via charitable donation or by their governments. If America wanted to buy laptops for its children, it would. Of course, someone would, no doubt, label this welfare and open another can of worms.
Well, first of all, I don’t think they are trying to do it for profit and, I imagine that, at $100, there’s not much profit to be had anyway. You also have to worry about suppliers being able to get them the parts they need. If they start selling them casually, they could create a shortage for kids who could really benefit from it.
You totally missed my point. I am not talking about profit i am talking about bringing the manufacturing costs down by selling it in volume. Once that happens they may be able to sell the same laptop for $50 instead of $100. $50 is a huge price difference in alot of countries and would ultimatly put a laptop in more peoples hands at that price.
I believe the people in the project were considering, at least at one point, selling differently-colored models (so as to clearly distinguish them from the childrens’ models) of the computer for $300 to interested consumers. The consumer would get a computer, and know that they’d paid for two more machines to be delivered to children.
That is the reply I was going to make. Thanks for putting it so well. If it costs $100 to make, sell me one for $250, give another to someone who really needs it, and invest the other $50 in making the next version even better.
I prefer selling it at the same $100 to everyone to bring the voulme sales up and costs to make them down. I would sooner buy 2 for $200 then one for $250 since i can get a used laptop with about the same specs or better for $250. Most people are motivated by bang for the buck and not some idea that they are helping out their fellow man.
this may sound cruel but we need to stop saving lives. I noticed that if there is to many fish in a fish tank most of them die! The same applies to us, if more people continue on overpopulation will end up causing horrible wars that will end up kill many. So putting one of those in my hands will possible help more people than it is hurting.
“this may sound cruel but we need to stop saving lives.”
Funny how easy that is to say when you and your loved ones arent the ones doing the dying…
Holy crap, these people aren’t fish or cattle! How about bring down their war-mongering dictators down? Hmm, no, then the US/Canadian mining companies would go down the drain.
I don’t think anyone would suggest that geeks should have access to them at the expense of the target users. But I do think that the device, or something similar, would definitely have appeal to a wider audience as well. I bet university students would snatch them up, as would writers/journalists – I know several print journalists with those little Dana palmOS devices.
WTF are they a gross green colour?
Colour aside, it has the potential to put Linux onto the desktop of every third world child so yeah its cool – I’ll bet this will be keeping Gates awake at night and cause Ballmer to throw a few more chair tantrums.
They also wanted to make it stand out that this is a student laptop. They are hoping the stigma created by creatign an easily reconizable laptop for schools will cut down on people stealing them.
Also the small 1gb storage limits it to some learning/communicating usage like e-mail, web and ebooks and some educational software. Many end-users will still want the full monty with a big HD to store movies, mp3s or whatever.
Now, having teached to a class full os students who have a laptop in front of them, I can tell you not being able to silently run Doom3 is a plus for learning 🙂
steve jobs offerd free os x for these devices…
as for the colors, well it stands out like a kids toy should do
maybe they will make one in a more neutral color that can be sold in richer areas of the world?
oh wait, the page says it will not be for sale, bummer…
Edited 2005-11-17 21:49
steve jobs offerd free os x for these devices…
Which was very generous of him (and Apple) but OS X is a pretty resourse intensive OS and though I’ve run it on a G3 350 with acceptable performance, I also had a good amount of ram.
and i guess that is one of the reasons it was turned down.
It’s not easy being green …
that is unless your a ninja turtle
that is unless your a ninja turtle
Didn’t Seymour Papert have something to do with turtles
The webcast states they will allow companies to sell them for a profit to the general population; however, let will be providing for school kids and teachers lower prices
interesting as the mit page on it:
http://laptop.media.mit.edu/
clearly states that they will not be for sale…
but i guess they are refering to the ones given away to school children, and that they cant be sold of as second hand items…
btw, i see people are commenting those arms. clearly they are the arms of a adult person. therefor the keyboard will be compareable to a laptop keyboard.
only that the touchpad have been increased in size so that it can be used as a handwriting pad…
Edited 2005-11-18 00:11
“steve jobs offerd free os x for these devices…“
all parts offered at under market prices were rejected as that distorts the real price of the machine. $100 is about the real market cost of the machine.
No knocked-down price screws, plastics, or flash memories were used at all. Everything is common market price and thus one company offering a knocked-down part cannot hold the venture to ransom later.
Steve jobs can give away his own laptops at $100 if he so chooses no matter how much they cost to make.
I like that Green colour! Funky!
I read somewhere that the color was supposed to be a combination of a lime green and a yellow hue reminiscent of No. 2 pencils because it gives a message of playfullness…
Edited 2005-11-17 20:58
Here is the link to there WebCast its a 100K Real stream.
http://laptop.media.mit.edu/news.html
Tom
I don’t know about the crank. If you;ve ever used a crank based flashlight you know they have a tendency to break too easily. They need something better like magnet induction, but that might interfere with a harddrive (is there a harddrive?).
Anyway, good work in the right direction at the very least.
There is no hard drive. The system uses a 1 gigabyte flash memory chip (for durability. This is supposed to be used by small children)
“There is no hard drive. The system uses a 1 gigabyte flash memory chip (for durability. This is supposed to be used by small children)”
Heh. Apparently somebody has no idea just how clumsy adults can be! I break things all the time *grumble*
Why would you want to run Win 98 on that? It’s too old and by itself it’s useless.
Oh i dont know this win98 computer runs just fine,
and there are alot of win98 machines in this part of
the world still, and i have xp machines as well, but
98 is still quite useful, and runs very fast.
winxp can run fast too, but needs more horsepower.
Wow.. that kb is tiny. http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/newsimage.php?newsId=1972&image=4 Those look like little infant hands in front of it, and they dwarf the keyboard. Do you type with a pencil tip?
Reminds me of the Simpsons episode where Homer got fat and tried dialing a phone but pressed multiple keys at once: “The fingers you have used to dial are too fat. To obtain a special dialing wand, please mash the keypad with the palm of your hand.. now.”
tunisia is not the appropriate location to host a conference on the internet, an open means of communicating freely and a catalyst for liberal democracy.
as an example …
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4429610.stm
they are 500MHz AMD x86 processors. 1 gig of flash memory(no harddrive) running a modified Redhat Linux. 128 MB of ram. Wi-fi builtin.
I want one because they are rugged, adaptable, cheap, and innovative. Hand crank, pen input, wireless, rotatable scren and a power cord that doubles as a shoulder strap..
I hope they find a way to sell these to the masses and not just third world school organizations in bulk
Do you have some confirmed source that it will be x86 AMD cpu? (because AMD has in the ~500MHz “system on a chip” range BOTH x86 and MIPS parts…and using MIPS could make some sense: “OK, we’ll sell you component for this laptop 0,1$ above costs if you’ll assure us it won’t undermine our main profit source – Windows PCs”. Also, source for 128MB of ram would be very helpfull to me (I have enough of people who claims that I’m wrong and the laptop will have 1GB of RAM…)
PS. I want one…because it’ll be the only laptop I coild afford in predictable time. Also, finally, there’s a chance for cheap laptop that allows looong work on battery.
> I wonder if it will be able to run Windows 98 instead of (presumably) Linux?
Other than curiosity, why would you want that? An old favourite app?
dôLôb
neat little gadgets. However, I do not see how having computers will make kids learn any better.
Jim
” However, I do not see how having computers will make kids learn any better.”
aside from the fact that they will learn to use a comuter which in itself is a valuable/necessary skill in most developed nations.
every computer represents a text book that can be updated for cheap, its a calculator to help do math with big numbers. it allow acces to the internet and constantly updating teaching aids.
“I do not see how having computers will make kids learn any better.”
Yeah…they should get rid of those pesky books too!
Its easily worth $300 to me. I don’t think it would be unfair to offer them to kids and teachers in the US for $150. If they really succeed in managing to get these into the hands of school children everywhere they will have created an incredibly large market. On par with microsoft (on the desktop) and nintendo (in the portable market). I could easily see schools everywhere adopting this for all their computing needs simply because its inexpensive, and it allows them to standardize. Not to mention that I also expect this to have a lifespan in the same model of at least five years. More like a console than a regular computer.
From a businesss perspective imagine overnight kids in countries all over the world having their own linux computer. Am I the only one who sees what that will do to the computer gaming industry?
It is not a bad thing to get more people aware of LINUX.
Far better, though, would be to get them using OS X. By spurning Job’s offer– no doubt out some kind of quaint ideological “purity” (or perhaps because of a financila motive)–Negroponte has substantially diminished the utility of the laptops and the probability of the project achieving world class results
> Negroponte has substantially diminished the utility of the laptops
Or maybe he has substantially increased the utility of the laptops. The governments will have the possibility to adopt the programs to their own needs and the children will be able to play with the code as well.
Actually, it was rejected because it doesn’t fit what the developers need. The developers need a system that can run fast on a 500 MHz AMD Geode processor with 128 MB of RAM and very little 3D graphics capability, and that doesn’t take up much room on the flash drive. Mac OS X, as a complete operating system designed for much more powerful machines, will not be blazing fast on such a machine.
Either way, to achieve a consistent and speedy computer system on those specs requires a lot of tweaking, localization, and careful selection of programs. I doubt Apple would allow the developers to fiddle with Mac OS X internals that much, and I doubt the developers would like waiting for Apple to make such modifications for them.
The hunger & thirst gap needs filling before the digital divide. Need to tackle literacy before computers are even close to relevant for a enormous number of the worlds populaiton. $100 laptop? How about a $0.001 per litre of non-toxic water?
The hunger gap cannot be filled. Should you send clothing for example, most of it will end up on the gray market and in the process will destroy anyone trying to make the product locally. This is better. Gapping the digital divide with boost economies and in the process solve manifold issues.
As to these laptops being mis-allocated, if you watch the web cast they have a very lengthy discussion on how this will be combated.
How do you grow food if you don’t have the skills, equipment or means? How do you make fresh water if you don’t know how to make proper wells.
First you need to get countries like the US out of these areas digging for oil and messing up the water! Then you give them something like this laptop and show them how to go on the internet and look up how to make good wells and grow better food. Shoot if a person can look up how to make a bomb I am sure a person can look up how to dig a better well, how to make cleaner water etc!
And that is the key! Knowlege!
The other thing I love about this is that if you were to give them say MAC os, the best you can do is learn to make applications for the Mac and Apple will always control the platform. Don’t do what apple likes and they pull the platform from under you. With Linux not only can people learn to make Linux applications but they can make their own platforms that no company like Apple can come along and pull from under you. That is true freedom!
The device will be used as a learning tool.. not a as computing tool. You might use your computer only as a toy, but for many people it’s not one.
Outside all the now essential tools like a web-browser and an e-mail client, just by using electronic books you can have:
– up to date books
– instant efficient search
– real time information
– easy, clean, readable, searchable, backupable, shareable annotations
Up to date books seem important to me. The history book we had in school in Switzerland in 1980-1990 did have some evident flaws (eg. plain complacent lies about WW2). Changing it required moving (political) mountains and also a lot of print-industry work. If books were structured like wikipedia and could get updated easily with time I think they would be updated more often and small (as well as big) errors would be fixed ASAP. This would be beneficial not only for third world countries.
When used correctly and with the right software I am pretty certain a computer can be more efficient than 20 kg of plain old books.
As for “the hunger gap” I don’t see the relation. Should US and European kids stop learning how to read because others are actually being used as soldiers in other countries? What’s the relation really? I am pretty sure we’d have slave robots before children stop being exploited. And well, that might solve the problem in the end.
You are right!
And as the saying goes: Give a man a fish he will eat for a day, teach him how to fish and he will always have food.
All we do is send money and food to places like different countries in Africa, Latin America etc, yet we don’t teach anything to anyone! And then we get mad when warlords (Thet we helped arm) take the food and steal the money!
It makes no sence to me! That is why I think this laptop plan (If managed right) can be a BIG boon to poor people!
I don’t think they’re planning on selling these laptops to children in dirt-poor countries where people can’t get food or water and the laptop would more than likely be stolen by maurading warlords or sold by desperate parents within a month.
We’re talking about giving an educational leg up in places like Taiwan and India, Germany, and the United States, where there’s already a high level of technical sophistication and somewhat better and more secure conditions.
Most of those countries have really nice, sunny weather. The kids should be out playing and having fun. They should send those laptops to poor kids here in Ireland where it’s miserable, damp and cold weather all year round.
No one seems to be asking where the money for this project is going to come from. I suspect the answer is that it will come from the West in the form of grants to developing nations who do not have the money to buy these laptops.
What this means is that these laptops will then become political toys and part of the foreign aid bandwagon, excuses for harangues by tyrants and tasty black market items. To many in the developing world, the value of each laptop represents food, medicine, livestock, seeds or whatever and they will quickly convert that value by selling the kit.
It sounds a good idea but it’s really Utopianism. More helpful would be ensuring that every village in the developing world had a full-up PC and eventually internet access (in fact, this is an official UN goal). Or double that by saying every village and every school. But every kid? Walk before you can run.
The rich countries of the world could easily afford projects to equip their own children with laptops costing two or three times the $100 dollars mentioned. There is an odd logic at work here. Folks seem to think it’s fine to send this stuff to the developing world, where a lot of it is sure to be monetized and siphoned off to Swiss bank accounts owned by dictators, but become strangely tight-fisted when it’s suggested that they do the same through their taxes for children in their own country.
…but become strangely tight-fisted when it’s suggested that they do the same through their taxes for children in their own country.
This somewhat reminds me of “To Kill a Mockingbird”… When they are talking about the Mrunas, but not seeing that Black people is suffering right here in Alabama…
(from http://laptop.media.mit.edu/faq.html )
…
Its founding members are AMD, Brightstar, Google, News Corporation, and Red Hat, all of whom have funded both OLPC and the MIT Media Lab.
As soon as Haiku turn usable, it will be a very good option. A new system, easy to use, high performance with low resource. BeOS runs very good with 64mb of ram, and Haiku also will!
As soon as Gnome turn usable, it will be a very good option. A new system, easy to use, high performance with low resource. Linux runs very good with 64mb of ram, and Gnome also will!
that thing beg for haiku. I’m sure MIT could help finish haiku R1 within 5 month very easily.
Aside from Brazil which is already a democracy, others countries like Egypt are other otential users of those laptops. Now imagine every kid in egypt being able to read news on the internet from the age of 7 on… It is not so common now.
Maybe they’ll go visit some unofficial information sources and wonder why they have no free elections long before they can actually “vote”. If from the childhood they are faced with the fact that this is not the norm then they might be much more active as adults.
Of course they’ll also be able to visit radical religious websites but in the end, access to free, uncensored information will be beneficial for the country itself.
I love the fact that the laptop software is open source. I wonder how much of the hardware is open source. Is Linux the future of the third world?
At 200 a lappy I imagine the possibility of running my own beowulf out of these while helping finance the project for…
The kids, think about the KIDS!!!
hell, some kids in the USA still don’t have PCs
“hell, some kids in the USA still don’t have PCs”
Again, these are being purchased via charitable donation or their governments. If we, as a country, decide that we want to provide computers to poor children, we do it. I don’t see why some people have such a problem with making technology available to other parts of the world, especially when it’s not costing the complaining party a dime.
Edited 2005-11-18 16:20
I believe this thing is very close to the Dynabook vision, as described by Alan Kay in his mid 1970 publication Personal Dynamic Media. Very nice.
However even though a simple machine it already feels a bit overengineered – although very little information is available. First of all, I think the OS should be custom made for this thing – something very adapted to the machine, flexible and transparent – a linux is probably OK, but I was thinking something even more simple, home computer level, like something AmigaOS/BeOS/QNX-like or even better, something completely new – there is no need to be compatible with any OS here, so they could have afforded to be radical, just like Alan Kay was.
Plus, why bother with emulating the PC keyboard with all the F keys and the rest on such a small keyboard? Just give it a couple of special shift keys a be done with it.
many of these children are living in poverty..they won’t have food or medicine but they will have shiny green laptops.
Refer to yet another third world targeted AMD based PC i.e. AMD PIC (Personal Internet Communicator).
Also, laptop’s green color seems to be matching AMD’s green corporate color. PIC’s case is also coloured green.
is still in the wrong place… some seriously talented people designed this marvel, yet they were somehow allowed to place the Fn key where it will conflict with the Ctrl key, a mistake still made by way too many laptop manufacturers…
i can not count the number of times i’ve tried to copy and paste on other peoples’ laptops only to find i’m presseing Fn instead of Ctrl. highly annoying…
other than that, an awesome piece of kit. i’d happily pay a premium to get myself one. PDA be damned!
That is because you got _used_ to having the ctrl-key in a certain place. Do you remember it used to be below the “Tab” key, where the “Caps Lock” is now mostly? And some people would argue _that_ was the correct place for the Ctrl key.
This will be the first computer for most of the users. They won’t have any pre-learned motorics about key placement. Hence, the position of the “Ctrl” key does not matter at all.
Odd that this idea should come from the United States rather than say China.
The Kids in the west can just carry on using Supercomputers two hours a week to learn ‘Word’, ‘Excel’, ‘Outlook’ and ‘IM’.
Meanwhile in the third world Children will learn Maths, English, Physics, and how to write efficient software in assembly language on their constrained computers.
As long as tax money from hardworking people isn’t spent on this project.
Cannot see what the heck UN has to dp with this… it would probably ruin the project.
I like the idea with a cheap PC, but keep UN out. They can’t put a stick in a dogs*** without ruining both.
And I am prepared to pay $150 so that I sponsor 1/2 the cost for a child.
Children all over the world will finally be able to get decent porno without the stigma of lifting a dirty magazine from a store, or from the dirty old man who hangs out near the school. It’s about time.