Verily I say unto thee, that The Ghost In The Machine spake thusly:
> In comp.os.linux.advocacy, [H]omer <spam@xxxxxxx> wrote on Mon, 21
> May 2007 20:07:21 +0100 <9879i4-35c.ln1@xxxxxxxxxx>:
>> It is despicable when greedy corporations try to force non-profit
>> organisations out of business, and turn what was an altruistic
>> gesture into exploitation.
> Or perhaps it only *looked* like an altruistic gesture. IIRC,
> Microsoft donated some Windows software to India, for example.
The difference is, that Negroponte is providing a non-profit service
that only benefits these children, whereas Microsoft are just playing
the "they'll get sort of addicted" game to ensure future "customer"
loyalty (i.e. lockins).
> How much will AMD make on this deal? I doubt it will make much,
> though I do wonder.
Of course AMD will make money on the deal, but it isn't AMD that's
driving it. This is Negroponte's agenda, not theirs. The XO has to use
*somebody's* CPU.
> How much would Intel make?
I'd have no issue with Intel powering the XO, but now that the
hardware spec is established, is is disgusting that they should
attempt to sabotage this project out of sour grapes.
> How much would Microsoft make?
It's not so much about how much *money* MS would make, as about how
much of a *mess* they would make. Apart from anything else, the $100
laptop would rapidly become the $1000 laptop. Can you imagine being
some kid in Africa, under a tree, miles from the nearest access point,
and your Windows powered OLPC tells you that "This copy of Windows is
not Genuine". So you can't do anything at all that day with the
machine, need to wait until the next day when you get to school (get
to the access point) to try to fix the problem. And even then, would
you actually *get* a satisfactory solution? Microsoft's support is
horrendous in *developed* countries, I dread to think what it would be
like in the middle of nowhere in Africa.
>> It is clear that Barrett merely sees the Third World as an
>> exploitable market, rather than a society of people who need our
>> help. His attitude is repulsive. He should be stopped ... with
>> legislation if necessary.
> Not sure he's done anything illegal just yet, though I'm not sure I
> like his tactics.
During the last world war they had a name for that kind of behaviour;
it was called profiteering, and was punishable by imprisonment IIRC.
> Then again, it is naive to think that he'd sit idly by and let AMD
> grab the entire market.
Starving kids in Africa is not a "market". Viewing it as such is
cynical in the extreme. That's the whole point - this should not be
about profit ... or profiteering, it should be about *aid*.
If Bob Geldof offered a million tonnes of rice, supplied by Tilda, to
the Ethiopians, would you expect Uncle Ben to come running over the
hill with leaflets explaining how much better his rice was than
Tilda's? Would you expect rice FUD campaigns, anti-Tilda seminars and
lobbying of foreign governments?
Of all industries, the IT industry is surely the most venomous and
corrupt.
> One hopes the specs are clear enough so that both AMD and Intel
> units can work together.
The OLPC's Sugar interface was designed such that it would facilitate
a simple and standardisable integration into the school curriculum
across different continents. It's built on Free software (Fedora) and
requires very little processing power. Intel's solution is to offer
more expensive machines, with too much power (and therefore too little
battery time), which of course is needed to run the bloated Windows OS
it was designed for. That OS, in turn, would be gross overkill for the
intended purpose, *not* facilitate a simple integration into these
developing countries school curricula, further spread the disease of
proprietary software and broken standards, and fleece the poor of more
money than they could possibly afford (I'm thinking about the
inevitable "planned obsolescence" and "forced upgrades" scenario in
particular). The XO is also a remarkably robust machine, capable of
surviving the harsh conditions likely in the environments it will be
deployed. How long would the Classmate survive? Five minutes? Good luck
getting your Classmate serviced in the middle of the jungle.
AMD's motivation was to sell units to Negroponte, who in turn was
motivated by altruism. Intel's motivation is sabotage and greed.
> (Wouldn't *that* be nice.)
No.
>> This is also the first time I've seen and heard Negroponte himself
>> in an interview, and I was struck by his very genuine
>> demeanour. You can tell how passionate he is about his dream, to
>> pull the poor children of the world out of the poverty trap and
>> into modern society. Like he said, other than the satisfaction of
>> having achieved a greater good with his benevolence, he will not
>> profit by his actions, so to have a greedy corporation hound him
>> and his project like this, is quite shocking.
> It's sad, but I'm not sure it's all that shocking.
What's shocking is their sheer brazenness. Have Intel and Microsoft no
shame?
>>> Nicholas Negroponte shows documents proving that Intel is
>>> pressuring certain governments to not sign with OLPC and they also
>>> use their money to prevent mass production of OLPC. It's the same
>>> tactic they use to hurt AND. They engage in price wars that AMD
>>> cannot stand. Watch the references below. They try to get the
>>> children 'addicted' to a $3 Windows bundle. Still driven by greed.
>> It's sickening.
> Hmm....that could be worrisome. Of course, perhaps somebody goofed
> in the initial bid setup? Ideally, the governments would have let
> out competitive bids, with clear specs.
There should be no need for a non-profit organisation to worry about
"bidding".
> These would include POSIX compatibility, of course, plus whatever
> other standards -- presumably WiFi is one of them -- are necessary
> for interoperability. That is, after all, the objective. Never
> mind who implements the actual hardware; the interoperability's the
> thing.
Shirley(sic) the objective is solving world poverty by improving
education to the poor.
> Perhaps they can even share.
At this late stage, no. All Intel are concerned with now, is their
obsession about losing market share. They don't give a crap about the
consequences to those kids.
>>> What If Every Child Had A Laptop?
>> What if every child in the world used Linux?
> Then we'd have a Linux monopoly.
Impossible. How can the 100% adoption of freedom be a monopoly?
Monopolies are about greed; the obsession with money, and how to
destroy anyone who stands in your way getting it. It's about the
dominance of evil over good, dictatorship, fascism, the *inhibition*
of freedom ... indeed the *prohibition* of freedom.
Claiming that a world without Windows would be a world without choice,
is like saying a world without slavery is a world without the right to
commit human rights violations. Of course you wouldn't have the choice
to commit that violation, freedom of choice must be moderated within
the bounds of acceptability. If Microsoft's and Intel's recent
behaviour tells us nothing else, it tells us that they've crossed that
line ... in fact they *live* on the other side of it.
> Is this a good thing?
A worldwide monopoly of freedom, to the exclusion of all corporate
control of our society?
Yes.
> I'm not entirely certain. Granted, with Linux, at least in its
> present form, that child would have a fighting chance to swap it out
> for something else more to his liking in the future
Linux development does not inhibit or subvert the widespread use of
other systems. The same cannot be said about Windows.
> After all, Linux hews to standards -- and that allows
> interchangeability. But what's to prevent Linux from going over to
> The Dark Side?
The GPL.
> Us -- more precisely, the Linux community.
>
> That's about it.
We are free to do anything except inhibit freedom.
--
K.
http://slated.org
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