Oops: $25m For This

[adf]

Actually I wouldn't know. We have some kind of intel incentive program going in a few places (that for some reason requires dell laptops and very expensive magic blackboards).

We did move a bunch of our win servers to vmware on a linux server farm, though--so there is some hope

[BarryW]

Actually I wouldn't know. We have some kind of intel incentive program going in a few places (that for some reason requires dell laptops and very expensive magic blackboards).

We did move a bunch of our win servers to vmware on a linux server farm, though--so there is some hope
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=160401\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

Yea, we're consolidating some of our servers to virtual machines.  We're looking at getting 1 or 10 gigabit fiber between our main office and the high schools.  We'll then be able to pull some of the their file servers down town to us and consolidate some more.  The next school year is going to be fun, all the teachers are getting new laptops and we'll have to move their data to the new machines...  

[sdjf]

The Register article was blatantly wrong. Quoting OLPCnews:

" In short, there is no existing collaboration between Microsoft and OLPC aimed at outfitting the XO laptop with Windows."  This excerpt is hot off the presses from:

http://www.olpcnews.com/software/operating...xp_clarity.html

For more details, check out the above and other articles on the OLPC news site.

The hand crank idea died long before Gates commented on it because the cranks weren't durable enough.

And the price hike was made because the governments involved wanted to spend the extra money in order to have more memory on the OLPC devices.

OLPC has no intention of abandoning the concept of totally free software on a Linux platform.

sdjf

[desertrat]

The Register article was blatantly wrong. Quoting OLPCnews:

Sorry for the slight misinformation, at the time I did check and the story was carried by other news sites.

And the price hike was made because the governments involved wanted to spend the extra money in order to have more memory on the OLPC devices.

My impression was that a number of the governments were still balking at the original $100 price, because the moq is 1m pieces, they would have to splash out a minimum of $100m. Well at least the price increase seems to have bought more storage, more memory and a faster cpu - all required (but probably not enough) to run a crippled version of XP - looks fishy to me.

OLPC has no intention of abandoning the concept of totally free software on a Linux platform.

Hopefully. Just have to wait and see.

[sdjf]

Didn't mean to berate the news you shared.  oLPC made  prototypes available to M$ in the spirit of open source competition.  Someone probably said something about M$ testing feasibility, and it got garbled into  rumor that the OLPC units would run a M$ system.

Here's another article discussing the open source aspect and competition.

http://www.olpcnews.com/software/operating...pc_testing.html

I think the same as you, that they may be pricing themselves above availability to the poorest of the poor nations, although my friend who volunteers for the project may have other explanations for why some countries decided against committing to using OLPC.  IIRC, I remember him saying India needed to put money into immediate educational needs and not some future equipment.  With that kind of thinking, they might not feel it wise to even spend $5 per unit, let alone $50 or $100 or more.

Here's another interesting article on decision-making in various countries:

http://www.olpcnews.com/countries/india

sdjf

[adf]

we need them here.  badly. we don't need overpowered overpriced winmacdellbooks in small numbers. we need 1 olpc per student here in the us. I'm not sure if I can convey what a difference this could make (even in simple savings vs. overpriced textbooks). I bet we won't be funded for it either---exxon will need tax relief or something.

[desertrat]

I bet we won't be funded for it either---exxon will need tax relief or something.

It's sickening that however dire the circumstances and whatever the government, money can always be found to fund a war. Trivial things like health and education can always take a backseat when it comes to funding. Here's some food for thought:

http://dangerousintersection.org/?p=1274

Assuming the illegal Invasion of Iraq has cost the US Treasury 1 trillion dollars so far, that's the equivalent of about $150 for every single person in this world. Assuming children of school age makes up half the world's population, that is $300 for each of them - easily enough to pay for an OLPC plus any associated infrastructure, training etc. Assuming the US is not so benevolent in sharing this money amongst the world, assuming that half the population of the US consists of  children, then 1 trillion dollars is the equivalent of over $6000 per child - plenty enough to buy a top of the range notebook or three.