__/ [ Mark Kent ] on Wednesday 23 May 2007 08:04 \__
> [H]omer <spam@xxxxxxx> espoused:
>> Verily I say unto thee, that The Ghost In The Machine spake thusly:
>>> In comp.os.linux.advocacy, [H]omer <spam@xxxxxxx> wrote on Tue, 22
>>> May 2007 06:17:54 +0100 <31bai4-2ov.ln1@xxxxxxxxxx>:
>>>> Verily I say unto thee, that The Ghost In The Machine spake thusly:
>>
>>>> How long would the Classmate® survive? Five minutes? Good luck
>>>> getting your Classmate serviced in the middle of the jungle.
>>>
>>> Actually, the Classmate looks to be fairly rugged, according to
>>>
>>> http://www.olpcnews.com/countries/chile/olpc_and_classmate_pc.html
>>>
>>> so I wouldn't worry unnecessarily about that particular subaspect.
>>
>> Useful link, thanks.
>>
>> I watched the video too, where they appeared to throw something at the
>> Classmate while it was sitting on the floor ... the equivalent of a
>> "drop test" I suppose, only less revealing. Any standard laptop would
>> likely endure such treatment. That tells us nothing about how well it
>> bears up to conditions like sand, dust, moisture, heat, and sticky
>> little fingers.
>>
>>> Battery life and such, I'm not as sure on. It's a 256 MB RAM 2 GB
>>> NANDflash unit, with 900 MHz Celeron M. Interestingly, the Wikipedia
>>> entry suggests Intel will be selling them preloaded with Mandriva
>>> 2007. They are attempting to sell them to Mexico and Brazil.
>>
>> Well just to prove that my dissent is not specifically with Windows, but
>> with the Classmate initiative as a whole, I do not support even *Linux*
>> powered Classmate PCs undermining the OLPC project.
>>
>> Negroponte *depends* on large scale orders to make this initiative work.
>> By undermining his efforts with direct sales to schools, Intel is
>> effectively sabotaging the OLPC project, and of course they are well
>> aware of the fact. They simply don't care. It's all about the money.
>>
>> If you read the article again, you'll notice that although the Classmate
>> *can* be ordered with Linux, many are opting for Windows instead, since
>> Microsoft have adopted a predatory pricing policy ($3 IIRC) in order to
>> sabotage Linux standardisation across school's curricula.
>>
>> The poor countries of South America were eager and willing to migrate to
>> Linux (something *especially* important in education, since schools
>> should teach *principles*, not promote commercial products with
>> taxpayers' money), and the OLPC had a real chance of displacing the
>> current propriety Intel Educa curriculum with a more agnostic FOSS based
>> solution (amongst younger schoolchildren).
>>
>> But now, thanks to the sabotaging efforts of Intel and Microsoft, the
>> OLPC project is in real danger of failure, especially in South American
>> countries.
>>
>> Like I said, Negroponte is offering a non-profit solution to the global
>> problem of poverty and poor education, but Intel and Microsoft decided
>> that this "problem" was actually a business opportunity for them to
>> exploit the weak and poor for profit. It's one of the most vile and
>> disgusting acts of the 21st century.
>>
>
> If Intel had wanted to get in on this, they could readily have got
> involved in the manufacture of OLPC machines, which would not have had
> the effect of undermining the Negroponte effort. I agree with you here,
> I think this is a despicable act.
I am appalled to see some of the press covering this as though it's an
innocent confrontation between Intel and AMD. They fail to see that there
is/was a not-for-profit effort, intended to improve society as a whole. Just
think of all those Microsoft lobbyists like Sonia and Rob, who put
'placements' in the media to discresit OLPC. How can they sleep at night or
look at the mirror. Bear in mind that the company/ies they lobbied for
is/are now trying to defeat 'fire' with 'fire' (ClassMate).
--
~~ Best regards
Roy S. Schestowitz | Linux: just set it and forget about it
http://Schestowitz.com | RHAT GNU/Linux ¦ PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
run-level 5 Apr 28 15:45 last=S
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