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68 Comments
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Why the fsck is microsoft involved in this discussion/decision?
- nnonix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Damn most of you are ***** idiots that didn't even read the article!
"Microsoft had encouraged Negroponte to consider using the Windows CE version of its software, and !!!!!! Microsoft had been prepared to make an open-source version of the program available !!!!!! " - natorator, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3This article is by the perennially clueless John Markoff.
There is no "wrestling" going on. OLPC's Nicholas Negroponte wanted a Free Software OS for the OLPC. Apple and Microsoft decided to get some free PR by offering OLPC free beer. Since this didn't fit the criteria, the decision to go GNU was pretty easy and straightforward. It doesn't sound like as difficult a decision
More bias analysis on this article is here:
http://n8o.r30.net/doku.php/blog:capitalistsattackolpc - tomkelleher, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3This could be a great opertunity to put Linux on a more mainstream platform. . .
- bossm4n, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Another sensationalized, poorly titled article. I'm so sick of hearing about this $100 laptop anyway. When Negropante plans to distribute these to inner city and needy folks here in the US, I'll give a *****.
- Xophmeister, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Umm... Wasn't this always supposed to ship with Linux and OpenOffice.org, anyway? Have I missed something here? I'm no fan of Microsoft, but it seems like this (not that I've RTFA) is just pandering to the mob!
- CalJones, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Capitalism is not evil. It is how people put bread on the table. It is totalitarian humanism that is evil -- neogroponte's doing a very sly thing here -- he knows dang well that the people in third world countries wouldn't know what the heck to do with these machines -- if someone offered me a hundred dollar lappie with a crank -- don't you think I'd buy it in a second? Look at all those people crushing each other to death to get four year old Apple iBooks at Henrico Virginia for fifty bucks last year! This Negrponte guy is not only trying to kill M.Soft, he's gunning for Apple too, and he wants to be at the crest of the wave. Note that the chinese seem to be all for it, too, I presume so they can put a permanent back door on the cheap machines for government spying? But frankly, those things ARE cute and CHEAP, if they could ever get made.
- pfunked, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3How is this causing delays for OLPC? Looks like it's just competitive (parallel?) philanthropy.
- SecularG, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"...leading Microsoft executives to start discussing what they say is a less expensive alternative: turning a specially configured cellular phone into a computer by connecting it to a TV and a keyboard."
Assuming they have a tv and keyboard.
Why not use linux? Ubuntu comes with everything a child could need for school work. It is free. There is no licensing bs. Even if Billy G. said they could use CE, why give them a half-asked consumer OS without word processing, presentation, and spread sheet software. Additionally, they could preload those things with Edubuntu. That has ubuntu software plus educational software and classroom management software for teachers. You can't get that with Windows CE. - bloodyValentine, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I see no reason not to use Linux on these, it would work much better and give the users much more to work with and best of all its free of both legal restriction and pay.
- Koskun, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Correct me if I am wrong here, but weren't these laptops always supposed to have some form on linux on them from the start?
- CalJones, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Oh, and I also hope that this doesn't mean that the UN gets to take over regulation of the Internet through these cheap lappies, at the expense of wealthier nations that feel guilty for their largesse. Forced charity ain't charity, it's theft without a gun. Like all UN giveaways, it'll be the ruling elites that reap the benefits, not the real ones in need. Ask the dead in Rwanda about the UN or all the girls in Africa that UN workers sexually harassed/ abused. I don't trust the UN nor do I trust the UN's "charity" until their own accounting books are in order -- and they have not been in order for years. Spendthrift spies. This $100 laptop idea comes out of that sort of fake one-world Orwellian mind-think. Unfortunately, it happens to be a good idea. Unfortunately for Apple and M.Soft, that is.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I repeat my question for the retards....
HOW is Microsoft the villain here??
t h e y o f f e r e d o p e n s o u r c e CE.
Jobs told them to fook off! - aiwha, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2It's the $100 laptop, not the free laptop.
- nnonix, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3CLIFFosakaJAPAN just added "Microsoft" to the damning title to draw in the "idiot comments" and increase the digg rate.
This is the kind of thing that reduces Digg's legitimacy as a serious news portal.
All stupid people must die! - darcybrown, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2marked as SPAM. microsoft is not the baddie here at all. in fact i think their opinion on the matter is not only valid, but probably more legit.
- FuManchu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Inasmuch as I dissed this link and story for capitalizing unfairly on anti-MS sentiment, I think the idiots who are making anti-Linux, pro-Windows&Apple are going overboard in the other direction.
If you haven't used Linux LATELY, you are ignorant, so shut up. Several 2005 distros install flawlessly, easier than Windows, detect more HW than Windows and include FOR FREE all the software the average user needs for email, websurfing, word-processing and multimedia play.
No distro of Linux runs all MS software, even with WINE.
But if you haven't been running Windows software for years BECAUSE YOU'RE DIRT POOR, you aren't going to know or care about Adobe Photoshop or World of Warcraft.
Pre-installed, Linux will provide FOR FREE a stable, full-featured entry-level computing environment that is not harder to learn than MS Windows if you aren't familiar with computers previously.
Just because some of you MicroSnobs can afford to pay hundreds of dollars to get a full-featured Windows software environment [or know how to pirate the progs] doesn't mean a kid in Zimbabwe or Bolivia can do it. - moges, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2The conversation should have gone like this:
Negroponte : "I am making $100 laptops, Mr Gates, please give me software"
Gates: "No, we have a better idea, what we are going to do is get cellphones and..."
** Negroponte shocks Gates with a wind up taser ** - cannuck, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The latest Nokia cellphone N91 - is what's next - a complete computer in a cell phone. Add storage and software via WiMax - and every kid in the world is connected.
Which of course is very dangerous - imagine every kid in the world connected to each other! It all depends if the kids have been brainwashed into accepting the fairey - The Invisible Big Bogeyman (or other Bogeyman - like Mohammed or or or)- or instead are Humanists. - nathanstarr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I would just screw them all and use linux and open office. It's simple if Microsoft and Apple can't provide open source software for developing nations then like the guy said, rely on the 100 million programers.
- felchdonkey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Seriously, Cliff, lay off the intentional DUPING..
http://digg.com/linux_unix/Are_politics_delaying_the_$100_laptop_
You even used the same link to the same story.
Sheesh.
I usually don't care about dupes, since sometimes a story needs to be linked better or described better, or whatever, but it seems like almost all of CiffOsaka's posts are just dupes of other people's. - felchdonkey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I hereby eat crow.
I just looked at my posting time and Cliff's, and mine was LATER.
Apparently the "duplicates found" function isn't as good as I thought.
I hereby apologize, with egg on my face. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1BSD is teh devil! A license with no restrictions must be!
- cannuck, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Why can't I see the "FreeBSD" logo on Apple software or hardware packages ;)
- tazamore, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1More like the founder of the project wasted his time hoping that Microsoft or Apple would give him a free open source version of their OS. Fat chance. Microsoft counter-offered with a crippled version of WinCE. So he ended up choosing Linux like he should've in the first place.
- utnow, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3lol. You people are silly. He has no obligation to sell Windows any cheaper than he wants to.
If I run into walmart and ask the teller to sell me a futon for $4... I get 1. told to return the item. 2. laughed at... and 3. hauled off.
This guy does the same, and suddenly MS is the money grubbing evil empire.
Also... linux is a silly solution. If your best defense of it on this platform is to 'give people more to do' on their system or that it will 'work better' then you need to re-evaluate.
The whole purpose of giving these folks computers is to 'give them less to do'. That's the point of computers in the end.... right? To make our lives easier. Not to tie them up in endless nights of compiling drivers. - AttroPheed, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2The douche shoulda put linux on it in the first place. And shouldn't the title be "...Closed Source Software Politics" I don't see Jobs churning out an open source OS X.
- Kestral, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Actually, Steve Jobs offered and was turned down:
Link (Source: Wall Street Journal):
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB113193305149696140-442o71jo_IlBrLpyUeeOdsqDs7E_20061113.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top
Relevant quote:
"Steve Jobs, Apple Computer Inc.'s chief executive, offered to provide free copies of the company's operating system, OS X, for the machine, according to Seymour Papert, a professor emeritus at MIT who is one of the initiative's founders. "We declined because it's not open source," says Dr. Papert, noting the designers want an operating system that can be tinkered with. An Apple spokesman declined to comment." - Narrator, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2IMHO, Gates is being realistic. A cell phone running WinCE is a good idea that will work. This $100 laptop running Linux is doomed.
- ghostaliaz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Hey all you that think people will be more willing to surf the net or use a computer on an irritating small cell phone display are smoking some really strong stuff(haha). The guy should have went with open source anyway because you think that those money sucking Steve jobs & his twin money sucking Bill Gates want to give a piece of there cake away that keep them living lavish in a tower looking over & down at the rest of us, come one not them, yet right these greedy snakes just want there money & shoot the good thing for the people that will be getting these cheap laptops because then they won't have to download gates million updates & fight virus after virus & spy ware after spy ware & plus Linux is the future & if you are not on the bandwagon of Linux(open source) you soon will considering our government having a direct door in the future widows and apple Os's so I am already using Linux & learning more & more everyday because soon the noose of apple & Microsoft will be from at least from around my neck. Ilk people these cheap laptops are a good idea for people that have no other way to experience what we do everyday, so if someone has come up with a way to get it to them for a low price, then I say more power to him & for the rocks for brains that keep talking about how it looks, so what since when fruit boys have the computer world been a designer contest and if you want that then go buy your fruity mac, yes I own a mac but I bought it because I wanted one and I did not criticize someone else because of the dog on plastic or what ever, God people get a life already because this is a good thing this guy is doing, no matter what you say.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1And if it isn't Microsoft controlling it then it's not worth it? Gates saw a possible revenue stream and and threat to his profits and jumped on it to control how it's done. ***** him! And ***** the apologizers. You guys don't know just how fast you're making enemies. Mac and Windows zealots alike. I'm tired of this *****. It's ridiculous.
- RichMan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1How about shipping it out with Linux, but leave a notice to the buyer that you can go out and buy a copy of Windows and install it yourself.
- timtop, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2wow, so many people calling gates a money-grubbing, profit-driven anti-christ...
just the other day there was an article on how "Gates gives big". Do we so quickly forget that this is the same guy who donates almost 50% of his income per year to philanthropic causes inside of the U.S. AND internationally? I seriously doubt this is a greed thing on the part of Bill Gates. - bkmbr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"$100 laptop = 100% vaporware"
"You've got one? Used one? How else could you actually know?"
OMFG !!!! Plz... ====> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaporware - agimat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"$100 laptop = 100% vaporware"
">You've got one? Used one? How else could you actually know?"
... hes saying its *vapor*ware and you're asking if hes got one/used one.
i personally would like for this laptop to happen. if only so i can get them cheaper on ebay to take apart for parts. - mookieXL, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I don't care which system it gonna have. I want the damn $100 laptop. (we still got vmware, no:) )
- holojames, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This thread is just bizarre. To address some of the points above:
Since when do children in the third world have access to TVs and Keyboards. Surely the idea of this computer is for use in the classroom in poverty stricken villages where they can share a single internet connection. What do you think the handle on the side is for? It's for generating power to run the laptop, the target audience doesn't have TVs or mobile telephone tariffs.
If it comes with Linux pre-installed users are NOT going to have to mess about with drivers etc. This thing will come with a pre-installed browser, email client and word processor. That's about it. It's designed for the class room. Not for Computer Science 101, this is about providing means to distribute information cheaply and effectively.
Some people need to get a clue about what real poverty is like. It's not about only having one TV and crappy trainers. - bitswapper, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1MS is the 'villain' (well not really - see the frog and the scorpion) because they're desperately offering their dysfunctional idea to displace the idea of giving kids in developing nations access to cheap laptops. As per their usual strategy, MS wants to displace or derail a perceived competitor. Honestly, how many people here would opt to use their own cellphones to replace their laptops? It seems like if you gave a bunch of kids cellphones to use as computers, they'd use them as cell phones most of the time (particularly the teenage girls). Then, instead of learning about technology, they'd just learn to be consumers of technology. After all, the point was to get kids to learn, not dumb them down. That's for business college.
- pacogozalez, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The idea of a cellphone-laptop is no good because of connection costs. Obviously, the will sell the cell-laptop bundled with a 2 year contract for gsm-service at 1$, and then get their min. month fee of 30$ or more trough the contract. 24*30= 720$ !! This (and 318-bmw's) IS the main reason young adults have huge debts here. Call it Generation-Colonialism.
What about linux? It comes free, has a good development system on-board and a passable gui. The ideal platform to "play around" and maybe become a programming geek.
BUT:
Linux is terribly complicate. It's not intuitive and there are few comprehensible how-to's. The entry level difficulties for linux are extremly high compared to windows. Linux is good if you know it, and terrible if you have no idea about. The dedication linux demands is too high for computer illiterates. It will scare off people.
How about assembling an EZ-TO-USE linux distro? Linux-geeks, make up your minds. What seems obvious to you is cryptic BS for average-joe. Change that and linux will take off.
Me, i will buy a 100$ laptop. Even if it costs 300$. Regardless of the OS or colour. - flickr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This article is combining at least three old stories into one for drama... News.com.com sucks.
- skygeek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I see allot of problems with Gate's Idea. This guy is trying to bring computers to developing nation that don't have anything really. So what in the hell makes Gate's think that they have a TV or a keyboard just laying around, waiting for his new cell phone computer. That is a ridiculous idea for that market. I do agree with the Linux crowd though. If Microsoft or apple doesn't want a part in it..........then leave them out of it. We have choices these days. Explore them.
- Whatchamacallit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Apple didn't steal BSD! It was there for the taking, like a gift to society. The FreeBSD license allows anyone to use their code and distribute it anyway they wish. The only restriction is to leave the copy write notices intact. Apple didn't use BSD but NeXT did and Apple bought NeXT. Since the early betas of MacOSX it ran on PowerPC and Intel and probably a few other architectures we don't know about (MIPS/SPARC/ARM). NeXTSTep/OpenStep is the foundation of MacOSX, it was designed to be multi-platform from the start. It uses it's own Mach Microkernel and not the FreeBSD kernel but it uses the FreeBSD software suite so just about everything outside the kernel is FreeBSD except the GUI and the NeXTSTep API's (Cocoa). This made it a Unix like OS that was unique and still is. It was and is arguably the finest and easiest to use Unix workstation currently available. NeXTStep/OpenStep was way way way ahead of it's time. The team at NeXT did amazing things like be the first to ship a truly useful Object Oriented development platform and tools (outside of LISP).
Microsoft used the FreeBSD TCP/IP stack in WinNT which is now in WinXP and probably Vista too. Why? Because it was a fantastic piece of software that was developed and bug proofed for over 20 years! Microsoft would be stupid not to lift and load the FreeBSD TCP/IP stack! The Win9x stack was complete crap. What to keep people from taking your code and implementing into their commercial software? Use the GPL and not the FreeBSD license. The GPL forces users to return improvements by releasing the source code. If you use GPL code embedded into your application you must release it if you sell it. This means you can get away with using the GPL code in house as long as you don't distribute it or sell it.
Young Whippersnappers, try learning a little computer history! - rebrad, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Why should the $100 Laptop cost anything? Let the EU pay for it. They have deep pockets they can harvest. I'm sure the UN will deliver the $100 Laptop in units of 1000 for a mere 1 Mil to cover their handling and overhead costs of course.
If anything at all happens and the $100 laptop becomes a reality both Microsoft and Apple will benefit as users hock the linux doorstops for real PCs or if nothing else a Nintendo. - wilf_brim, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Fisrt, why in hell would Negroponte even consider something like WinCE or OS(n) in this machine. It is supposed to be stripped down and cheap: use Linux. Open source, well documented, and adapatable. What possible reasons could there be for anything else.
That having been said, I agree that the $100 laptop is 100% vaporware. I don't doubt that you can make something like it. However, there is no way that it will be made for the price they say. Look, even a crappy screen that size is WAY more than $100, just in materials cost. When I see one made for close to $100 I'll believe it. Not before. - Eccles, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Seems to me the title doesn't properly represent what's actually happening. Negroponte tried to get something from Microsoft or Apple, didn't get what he wanted, and thus decided to go the GNU/Linux route instead. I don't blame Gates or Jobs, both of whom were willing to provide something (just not what Negroponte wanted), I blame the headline writer. I think even Negroponte would be surprised at the headline; his project is proceeding and there's a major money being committed to fund it. Good luck, Nick!
- snowthrower, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Negroponte shouldnt be forcing Linux. If the child wants Windows, Microsoft is offering free copys of Windows CE, if the child wants Mac, Steve Jobs is offering Free Copies of Mac OSX, and finally, if the child wants Linux, then they can get Linux preinstalled.
- monkeyboy8686, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Why not go liunx? Ubuntu is definitely a great solution for desktop users. Besides, if those who have little to no exposure to technology are exposed to linux first, before becoming entrenched in Microsoft or Windows degradation, it will be a better world for everyone.
- FuManchu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I agree with nnonix. Half the commentators here either didn't actually read the whole Markoff article, or else don't understand English very well.
1] No digg, because it's a dumb article to start with, and the poster demonized MS in the title to get diggs.
2] It's a dumb article because Markoff is just speculating, based on a pastiche of rumours and old news.
3] Key sentence: "But in the year since Nicholas Negroponte. . . unveiled his prototype for a $100 laptop, he has found himself wrestling with Microsoft and the politics of software."
There is no factual support in the article for any "wrestling" with MS -- the original announcement specified Linux, not MS, not Apple.
Whatever offers Gates or Jobs may have made were immaterial to the project as announced. It's not like either of them threatened Negroponte, "Use MY OS or else..."
Typical NY Times BS masquerading as news. - bradyjfrey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1A cellphone? Bill, that's not right. You're gonna give these kids a cellphone versus a laptop with wirelss?
- cambrown99, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I don't think the issue here is about the operating systems--the inventor has been clear that it should be open source, and neither MS or Apple could provide that. The problem is that, according to the article, Microsoft is impeding development on the $100 laptop by suddenly coming up with its own solution and putting down the original idea. The real tragedy is that a very outside-the-box idea is getting trampled by second-guessing. But, hey, that's the American way right? Sigh...
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