OLPC to laptop makers: Use our design
The One Laptop per Child initiative seems to have found that imitation isn't simply a form of flattery, it's grounds for a new business model.
Speaking at the TED 2009 conference, OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte said that the future of the initiative--which set out to put simple, durable, low-cost laptops in the hands of schoolchildren in developing nations--is to become, in essence, more commonplace, to "build something that everyone copies," according to Ethan Zuckerman, blogging from TED.
Bold colors were a key part of the original OLPC design.
(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET News)That copying has already begun, Negroponte said, pointing to the surging popularity in recent months of Netbooks--laptops built by a range of commercial PC makers with a focus on low cost and simplicity of design. "They didn't copy the right things from us, but they exist," Negroponte said, per Zuckerman. "We had to build the first laptop because no one else would do it."
In the early days of the OLPC, the group's design became famous as the "$100 laptop"--after the target price set for the device--but over time, the price crept up to nearly double that level; the $100 price tag would have to wait for economies of scale that proved elusive. Meanwhile, even before the advent of Netbooks, the price of higher-end laptops kept dropping.
Given the pressure from commercial markets--"It's sort of a tragedy"--Negroponte said that the OLPC would release and open-source its hardware design and invite others to copy it, according to Zuckerman. Within three years, Negroponte expects companies around the world to be cranking out some 5 million to 6 million such machines every month, compared with about a half-million OLPC machines now in use.
Last May, as the OLPC sought broader acceptance--and five months after Bill Gates told CNET News that the "OLPC hasn't done that well"--the group said that it would be working with Microsoft to make a Windows variety of its XO laptop, in addition to the original Linux model.
One month ago, amid harsh economic conditions, the OLPC announced that it would be cutting its workforce by 50 percent and cutting salaries for remaining employees. It also said it would hand off development of its Sugar operating system to the open-source community.
Jonathan Skillings is managing editor of CNET News, based in the Boston bureau. He's been with CNET since 2000, after a decade in tech journalism at the IDG News Service, PC Week, and an AS/400 magazine. He's also been a soldier and a schoolteacher. E-mail Jon. 
Unfortunately these factors led to the OLPC being a mute point at this time:
1. It never panned out to be that cheap for what you got
2. Devices were hard to connect
3. The goodwill of people tanked as the economy had a harder time
4. Netbooks, Netbooks, Netbooks, that worked quite well
Unlike software and code the open souce model for hardware is not something that anyone could just copy. and....given the lack of success of OLPC why would someone?
1) Negroponte's ego, and
2) the fact that OLPC suddenly dumped OSS along with most of its development team, and started whoring for Windows XP.
2It was better than what Intel had so they went with it instead of waiting for Atom
3Netbooks are awesome
Basically, it has to do with costs and community support.
When OLPC first began, it had a huge wave of support from the Linux community, all the way up until Negroponte got a massive case of narcissism, dumped Sugar, laid off its crew, and started courting Microsoft. The community got disgusted and dropped their support of him, leaving OLPC high, dry, and dying.
When a guy thinks that only he can save the world and do it with laptops, then pisses off everyone who supported him, what other outcome did you expect?
Let Microsoft save his arse.
/P
Someone: OMG there is a heat wave. Penguinisto: I bet its M$;s fault.
May be OLPC got off on the wrong with OSS, turned to MS but it was already too late?
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0%2C1895%2C2158614%2C00.asp
KieranMulleb
http://360oregon.com
In the developing world I think that Microsoft is more concerned about brand image than they are about making a lot of money. As long as people have a strong and positive association with Microsoft and software they will have a lot of long term potential growth in the developing world. Most of the developed world is pretty well saturated with computers. There isn't much growth potential for MS in the US, Western Europe, or the developed parts of Asia. Provided that they can keep Linux or any other competition out of the hands of developing world computer users they have plenty of growth potential in Africa, South America, parts of Asia, and parts of Eastern Europe.
BTW - which netbook out there allows one to seamlessly create an ad-hoc encrypted mesh network?
"BTW - which netbook out there allows one to seamlessly create an ad-hoc encrypted mesh network?:"
Well considering an ad-hoc network is the easiest network to set up and that every wirleless device has this option on current netbooks, I would say "all of them". Pretty much any netbook that can run Windows or Linux is capable of it.
Millerboy wrote:
"Penguinisto is wrong. The OLPC works better with Windows XP on it than Open Source Software."
I would disagree with that statement. I would rephrase it to say that the OLPC with Windows XP is what the end users wanted instead of Linux. The fact that they had both out and the XP version outsold the Linux one demonstrates that alone. Make of that what you will, but the facts dion't change. None of the Linux only laptops have ever succeeded. Heck, even when we had the Linux only Sharp Zaurus, it wasn't able to compete with the Palm, Windows, and Apple Newton offerings at the time.
Linux is a great system for servers. Not so great for implentation at a consumer level. That's just the way things are currently.
I agree with what you say, linux just isn't that easy to play around with for regular user, by that I mean the boys and girls that don't know what ie/browser means. Trust me there are plenty of them.
It takes too long to teach them how to look for software/installing them and honestly linux is still more for us geeks rather than those that just need something that works
Also, you claim it is end-user-driven... if that were the case, then why did it fail so sharply and so suddenly once Negroponte started sucking up to Microsoft?
Oh, and ab't marketshare? Here's a hint for you: Guess what Symbian (who still has roughly 70% of the cell and smartphone market) is based on? ;)
The "OAMG it's too hard!" FUD is dead now. Even MSFT realizes that, as they've actively begun hiring folks to try and counter Linux specifically. May want to ask them why, eh?
OLCP = Noble Idea, Netbook = Evil
Today, most customers who look at notebooks see the price and jump right on top of them, two seconds later, and telling them they have no DVD/CD drive, they are like.. god no! I want a real computer not something from fisher price!
I don't realistically ever see the small notebook market eliminating the more traditional notebook market, but as the processing power one can support in a small chassis with a 3-6 cell battery improves I think that interest in more cutting edge processors will decline. I the near future I think that the lack of an optical drive is a real turnoff, but as optical media decline in importance I think people will be bothered by that less and less. Furthermore, as we see improvements in wireless networks in both bandwidth and in coverage I think that online storage will become more practical.
alot of things can be used with it, and personally on-the-go I would prefer netbook, danm notebook too heavy for presentations and meetings. but thats just me.
o and you can keep kids off your primary comp with this thing lol
The OLPC was impossible to make at $100. It cost at least $200-400. And it is worse than a netbook in features.
With netbooks breaking the $300 barrier, OLPC becomes instantly a dead end idea.
It was good while it lasted.
The OLPC project isn't dead. There are several places in the world where they are in use, but I think that the project has underwhelmed Negroponte's initial expectations that there would be millions if not tens of millions of these machines across the developing worlds.
Go OLPC GO !
David Anttony
http://www.buy1-give1free.com
- by johnqh February 8, 2009 9:00 PM PST
- "Hey people, I have a loser hardware design which is underpowered and cost too much, I would like you to copy it so I have a chance to survive"
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