Comments on: Will the $100 PC fly?

CNET News.com's Charles Cooper says a struggle between Bill Gates and Nicholas Negroponte will only produce losers.

[i_made_this]

Charlie, well said...

...and the *world's poor* for such a project begins right here at home in North America, Europe and Japan. The Gates Foundation's efforts in areas it lacks expertise are certainly noble, though most probably not received by those desparately in need throughout the least developed world. I have long said that the Foundation might wish to add to its giving program something in which its executives have particular expertise if ever they chose to deploy it - giving desparately needed technology availability to those desparately in need who cannot afford it. Like 95% of the people on earth.

[gfsdfge]

Aren't there more important things than a $100 PC?

How about AIDS, illiteracy, disease, poverty, human rights, etc..
I?m sure Mr. Negroponte is a brilliant man, I just wish more brilliant people like him put that brilliance to better uses.

[recently123]

Of course there are...

However, Negroponte and Gates' prospective technologies do not inherently disregard the world's "bigger issues". When I first began studying their proposals, I thought the same way you do. I failed to realized that their proposals are based on the theory/concept of leap-frogging.

See: http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/001743.html

Additionally, I think it's important to remember that these proposals pale in comparison financially to many proposals on AIDS and hunger. People aren't saying, "let's forget about AIDS and hunger." They're saying, "let's spend $1 million on technology and $50 million on the other two issues.

[Mendz]

The mobile "PC"...

... should be cheap, small and powerful enough to serve anyone's lifestyle needs.

The mobile "PC" should basically be like what the iPod is: a life-stylish storage device. Put some chips and processors here and there, install an OS, add some applications and enable wireless connecticity then you have a small PC trapped in a device with limited abilities.

And allow it to be limited supporting the basic features already available to hybrid mobile devices today.

Because the saving grace should be the mobile "PC" docking device complete with everything PC that can't fit into a small device: more I/O and PnP ports, auxilliary drives/storage and maybe more processing power activated when docked.

The docking device can hook to monitors, keyboards, pointing devices and even game peripherals.

The docking device can also be designed hook up to digital home entertainment systems.

And because the docking device activates the full PC features of the OS installed, the mobile "PC" is literally a PC in disguise.

That way, you keep the mobile "PC" cheap, and the docking device separately expensive depending on the features available.