Negroponte vs Intel 283
Yogi_Stewart_4 writes "More OLPC/Intel love — apparently Intel used 'underhanded' tactics to try to block sales' contracts of the OLPC, trying to reach the customer directly after an agreement had been reached.
"They would go in even after we had signed contracts and try to persuade government officials to scrap their contract and sign a contract with them instead. That's not a partnership."
Mr Negroponte cited an example in Peru where Intel sales staff tried to persuade the country's vice-minister of education, Oscar Becerra Tresierra, to buy the Intel Classmate PC."
Is there a hidden 3rd party? (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm sticking with AMD (Score:3, Interesting)
Intel and MS (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't think MSFT is the driver, more of a means to an end for Intel. Their interests are aligned at some level but mainly Intel wants to sell chips. I'm guessing they don't care which OS runs as long as they can keep a finger in the emerging market pie.
MS and Intel have common goals, but that could change.
What's more interesting is the callous, self-serving manner Intel is undermining a project trying to help people. It's pathetic. Lacking in even basic decency. You can claim corporations exist only for profit but it hasn't always been that way. It's a fairly recent development that we have have, at least corporately, started to turn into the Ferengi. And there are limits. When you start undermining humanitarian projects in order to protect your market position, you're over that line.
Maybe Negroponte should just pull off the gloves and make a deal with Wal-Mart and Costco to carry OLPC's. Use the profits to donate machines to developing nations. Or use the profits to cut schools in this country a big discount. If Intel and MS want a war, give them a war.
Let Intel know what you think (Score:4, Interesting)
Corporate Mailing Address
2200 Mission College Blvd.
Santa Clara, CA 95054-1549
USA
(408) 765-8080
A phone call or a snail mail letter will go a long way toward letting Intel know it crossed the line.
Re:Negroponte (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Is there a hidden 3rd party? (Score:5, Interesting)
I think it's more along the lines that the entire portable industry has ignored the "subnotebook" market that the OLPC project has shown to be extremely viable, and are now trying en mass to jockey for position.
They supported Negroponte just far enough to basically test the waters, making sure there really WAS a market, then once the "useful idiot" outlived his usefulness, well, out come the daggers.
That's what innovation means nowadays in the computer industry: Wait for someone else to do something interesting, then steal the idea and market it faster than he/she can. I hope Negroponte's project survives this nonsense.
Re:Negroponte (Score:2, Interesting)
It's $50 cheaper than the Classmate PC. At $200 for the OLPC laptop that means that you can give five kids laptops for the same amount of money that you could give four kids the Classmate PC. And that's after the fact that the Linux discount saved them $35. Of course, one would assume that all the effort gone into designing an interface for children that encourages them to search and learn has some additional value. So basically the idea is to get more educational value for less price.
As for the advantages of open source, I'm not sure how long these kids will get to use the laptops, but 13, 14 year olds can do things that I can't think of.
I personally think that spending the money on books, libraries and teachers would work better. Atleast in my country (India), that is true, and I'm glad they backed off from the OLPC. However, Intel's actions are unconscionable any way. It is obvious their goals are different. Those few hundred thousand who won't get laptops because the price is higher won't matter to them.
Re:Negroponte (Score:4, Interesting)
Somehow, it just doesn't seem to be a very efficient or effective way to get laptops to these kids. It is also a very good example of how the Classmate PC is not in the same league as the XO in its design goals.
So maybe Negroponte is on the warpath to keeping diesel fumes away from kids.
LoB
Re:Negroponte (Score:4, Interesting)
The problem is that power saving is connected to the first two items. The XO mesh can forward packets while the motherboard is sleeping. Arguably, this can be done if the Classmate adopts the same Marvell radio and firmware. Similarly, e-book mode can also run without the motherboard awake, because the framebuffer is powered independently. I'm not sure if any of the G1G1 people tried it but I think the e-book battery life should be around 24hr.
Re:The classmate hardware SUCKS, at least... (Score:3, Interesting)
But the hardware design really is vastly better. The hardware on the XO is brilliant. You could make a "big keyboard" version and sell it as is to the military for $2000 a copy, its that rugged.
Just some of the weaknesses of the Classmate's design in comparison (beyond the 50% higher price tag):
a: Cooling openings are a weakness and unnecessary in a device which should be passively cooled. (Dust, dirt, and debris is the enemy. Even with the faster processor, a metal slug & fins could have been put into the case. It will get dirty, even in the 1st world. I've had computers die due to dust before.) I think it is actively cooled, which makes the problem worse!
b: The keyboard is not as ruggedized. (Probably feels a lot better, however.)
c: The monitor hinge is a weakness (as I said, 1 semi-dead laptop myself).
d: The screen is no where near as good. (You can really read text on the XO's screen, ranging from full sunlight to full-dark. But an 800x480 LCD? Ick).
e: No support for mesh networking.
f: Significantly more power requirements.
g: Even the lid-closure isn't as robust, compared with the XO's design (which covers all ports but power when closed, yet ups WiFi range when open)
The OLPC's politics annoy me, the software needs real work (I'd rather run WinNT 3.1 over the current OLPC software), but the hardware really is vastly superior. Intel's hardware is a bad joke in comparison.
Go wank off elsewhere (Score:1, Interesting)
If so, is it OK if I mug rich old grannies? After all, they're always going on about "kids today don't show their elders respect" showing a huge ego.
Did Negroponte shag your mum up the arse or something? You've got a hard-on for hating him for some reason...
Re:Got my OLPC a few days ago (Score:3, Interesting)