[lug] One laptop per child

[Daniel Webb]

They seem to have put a lot of thought into hardware robustness (replacing a
backlight easily is a big plus and 2W power usage is fantastic), but this
article leads me to wonder about the software robustness.  For example, in my
experience Gmail needs a fast processor, high bandwidth, and low latency, and
all three will be lacking for the majority of users of this laptop.  Also, the
fact that they aren't going to sell them to the general public makes me very
suspicious.  If they want the Free software developers (who made their OS and
app software) to help develop stuff that will work well with this laptop, then
the Free software developers need to have one of these laptops!  What the heck
are they thinking there?  Their model strikes me as more cathedral than
bazaar.  I agree that the core system should be well-defined and consistent,
but if it isn't hackable they're missing a lot of the point.

As for the people who are doubters with respect to the money going into
technology rather than educational infrastructure, I'm just as skeptical that
an equal amount of money going into current school systems in these countries
would make as much of an impact.  Schools suck in most of the world.  If these
computers are really available and internet-connected, these kids will learn
English very quickly and bypass the education system, much like much of Africa
bypassed landline phones and went straight to cell phones.  The
English-learning part might require video, though, and I'm not sure if that's
possible with this project.

A big problem I see is the problem of kids' families selling them or theft.
That seems like a huge issue for this in a lot of the world.  Even if they
could only get $40 for them on the black market, that's a lot of money for a
lot of people in the world.  That would be such a temptation I doubt it would
be resistable in very poor areas.

----
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/30/technology/30laptop.html

Third-World Laptop Stirs Big Debate
Jodi Hilton for The New York Times

By JOHN MARKOFF
Published: November 30, 2006

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.  When computer industry executives heard about a plan to
build a $100 laptop for the developing worlds children, they generally
ridiculed the idea. How could you build such a computer, they asked, when
screens alone cost about $100?

<...>

Ms. Jepsen, a former Intel chip designer, found a way to modify conventional
laptop displays, cutting the screens manufacturing cost to $40 while reducing
its power consumption by more than 80 percent. As a bonus, the display is
clearly visible in sunlight.

That advance and others have allowed the nonprofit project, One Laptop Per
Child, to win over many skeptics over the last two and a half years. Five
countries  Argentina, Brazil, Libya, Nigeria and Thailand  have made tentative
commitments to put the computers into the hands of millions of students, with
production in Taiwan expected to begin by mid-2007.

The laptop does not come with a Microsoft Windows operating system or even a
hard drive, and the screen is small. And the cost is now closer to $150 than
$100. But the price tag, even compared with low-end $500 laptops now widely
available, transforms the economic equation for developing countries.

<...>

The idea is also that children can take on much of the responsibility for
maintaining the systems, rather than relying on or creating bureaucracies to
do so.

We believe you have to leverage the kids themselves, Ms. Jepsen said. Theyre
learning machines. As an example, she pointed to the backlight used by the
laptop. Although it is designed to last five years, if it fails it can be
replaced as simply as batteries are replaced in a flashlight. It is something
a child can do, she said.

That philosophy, at the heart of the projects world view, has stirred
criticism for its focus on getting equipment to students rather than issues
like teacher training and curriculum.

<...>

The debate is certain to enter a new phase when the machines go into
full-scale production by Taiwan-based Quanta Computer, the worlds
second-largest laptop maker. (The manufacturer, unlike the project itself,
will make a profit.) Overnight, even though it will not be available to
consumers, the laptop could become the best-selling portable computer in the
world.

<...>

One factor setting the project apart from earlier efforts to create
inexpensive computers for education is the inclusion of a wireless network
capability in each machine.

The project leaders say they will employ a variety of methods for connecting
to the Internet, depending on local conditions. In some countries, like Libya,
satellite downlinks will be used. In others, like Nigeria, the existing
cellular data network will provide connections, and in some places specially
designed long-range Wi-Fi antennas will extend the wireless Internet to rural
areas.

When students take their computers home after school, each machine will stay
connected wirelessly to its neighbors in a self-assembling mesh at ranges up
to a third of a mile. In the process each computer can potentially become an
Internet repeater, allowing the Internet to flow out into communities that
have not previously had access to it.

<...>

Ms. Jepsens display, which removes most of the color filters but can operate
in either color or monochrome modes, has made it possible to build a computer
that consumes just 2 watts of power, compared with the 25 to 45 watts consumed
by a conventional laptop. The ultra-low-power operation is possible because of
the lack of a hard drive (the laptop uses solid-state memory, which has no
moving parts and has fallen sharply in cost) and because the Advanced Micro
Devices microprocessor shuts down whenever the computer is not processing
information.

The designers have also gambled in designing the laptops software, which is
based on the freely available Linux operating system, a rival to Microsofts
Windows. Dispensing with a traditional desktop display, the software
substitutes an iconic interface intended to give students a simpler view of
their programs and documents and a maplike view of other connected users
nearby.

A video-camera lens sits just to the right of the display, for use in
videoconferencing and taking digital still photos of reasonable quality. The
computer comes with a stripped-down Web browser, a simple word processor and a
number of learning programs. For e-mail, the designers intend to use Googles
Web-based Gmail service.

Only one program at a time can be viewed on the laptop because of its small
7.5-inch display.

<...>

He said a program would be created to enable those in the developed world to
underwrite a laptop for a child in a designated country and to correspond with
the recipient by e-mail as a sort of glorified pen-pal program. But however
attractive the idea of a $100 or $150 laptop, he said there were no plans to
make it generally available to consumers.

They should buy Dells $499 laptop for now, he said. Ours is really designed
for developing nations  dusty, dirty, no or unreliable power and so on.

<...>