Jan
6
XO Laptop Dream …. Just a Dream
January 6, 2009 | Comments Off
I had heard a lot about Negroponte’s XO Laptop project, but had not touched one until this last summer (picture attached). The machine sure is cool and shows a lot of ingenuity. The fact that it costs under $200 is amazing, and the hope that it can teach computing skills to a kid on a developing country is even better. Since it runs on a modified version of Linux but without a lot of the standard applications it motivates kids to learn about programming and computer care: something kids are lacking on the industrialized world. This may be a great source of new engineers (if we can’t produce them on the industrialized world, maybe we can farm them on the developing world).
I see one flaw on the XO project – a big, huge flaw: Nobody likes to be told he/she is inferior to everyone else. While people may accept running at a slower speed, they will want to run the same applications the industrialized nation kids are running: this means they would like to run either Windows or MacOS. This seemed almost impossible until the arrival of the netbooks: under $400 PCs that can run a wide variety of applications with a more powerful hardware than the XO. There are plenty of news nowadays showing the pressure the XO Laptop project is suffering.
While the XO is certainly more rugged for places where electricity and cleanliness are not up to our standards, it also reminds us that if your village doesn’t have electricity or running water, you probably have higher priorities than giving a laptop to each child. Although Negroponte’s envisioned extremely poor kids on the yet-to-be-developed areas of the world, I think the laptops will be more applicable to kids on areas where development started to arrive: places with electricity, water, some sense of security and established school systems. Also, while I am a Linux fan and prefer it to Windows, I must accept that you have to train a kid on the OS that leads the market if you want to be effective at integrating him/her onto the information age.
I think that in the end, the commercial solution will prevail. Still, the charity based idea was the one leading the way on this effort. Negroponte made it possible and the big computer manufacturers will make it a reality. A beautiful idea that is getting closer to reality.
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