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Intel Resigns from One Laptop Per Child Project
Posted by
Soulskill
on Fri Jan 04, 2008 09:22 AM
from the taking-their-toys-and-going-home dept.
from the taking-their-toys-and-going-home dept.
theodp writes "Reportedly angered by the One Laptop Per Child project's demand that it curtail work on its Classmate PC and other cheap laptops, Intel has resigned from the project's board and canceled plans for an Intel-based OLPC laptop. Intel's withdrawal from the project comes less than six months after the chip-making giant earned kudos for agreeing to contribute funding and join the board of OLPC. It's the latest blow to the OLPC, whose CTO quit earlier this week to launch a for-profit company to commercialize her OLPC inventions."
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OLPC CTO Quits to Commercialize OLPC Technology 168 comments
theodp writes "The One Laptop Per Child project suffered a blow Monday, with CTO Mary Lou Jepsen quitting the nonprofit to start a for-profit company to commercialize technology she invented with OLPC (the first of Jepsen's pending OLPC patents was published by the USPTO on Dec. 13). The OLPC project halted consumer sales of the cheap laptop at the end of December."
[+]
Hardware: Why Intel and OLPC Parted Ways 393 comments
runamock writes "The New York Times has an article that sheds some light on why Intel left the OLPC board: 'A frail partnership between Intel and the One Laptop Per Child educational computing group was undone last month in part by an Intel saleswoman: She tried to persuade a Peruvian official to drop the country's commitment to buy a quarter-million of the organization's laptops in favor of Intel PCs. Intel and the group had a rocky relationship from the start in their short-lived effort to get inexpensive laptops into the hands of the world's poorest children. But the saleswoman's tactic was the final straw for Nicholas Negroponte.'"
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That name is awesome (Score:5, Funny)
For profit corporation (Score:5, Interesting)
(burn karma, burn)
Marketing data in place ... (Score:5, Insightful)
For an insightful view of the project from India I may refer to 'OLPC -- Rest in Peace' [deeshaa.org], already written July 2006. 'Formula for Milking the Digital Divide' [deeshaa.org] might also be interesting.
Disclaimer.
CC.
It's all about learning (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:It's all about learning (Score:5, Insightful)
But it is caused by lack of information and lack of education.
The OLPC comes loaded with electronic 50 books in the native language, it would cost $1000 to print that many books, even more to ship them to the kids. The OLPC also gives access to the web, which allows an amazing amount of information (and an amazing amount of crap too, but that doesn't stop the information).
Parent
OLPC not a success (Score:5, Interesting)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/04/technology/04laptop.html?ref=business [nytimes.com]
I don't see a problem with Intel moving on, they were trying to push their technology but weren't ready (too much power consumption with their proposal). I do see a problem with the OLPC process apparently not working out and little being done to expose this. If more people knew about it perhaps some would step up and buy the machines.
Re:OLPC not a success (Score:5, Insightful)
According to GP-posting, they sold only 50000 boxes. Even if the profit-margin was a whopping $100 on each, that's only $5mln — or barely enough to pay decent salaries/bonuses to top 10 executives for one year. The more likely margin was, of course, in single-digits (10 times less), and the people involved were in it for much more longer than one year...
Right. A famous excuse for every failing idea.
Excellent. Tax the citizens, milk the donors — a Socialist's dream.
Parent
Re:OLPC not a success (Score:5, Insightful)
There is a problem with counties spending the citizens money for what you perceive as a good thing verses you spending your own money on what you perceive as a good thing. The Linus quote was addressing how he cares little about the names being thrown out. Not that he endorses socialism. I'm not aware of any time Linus took tax payer money as a condition of giving Linux away.
Please don't confuse the subject or act like you don't know the difference. You doing something with your own money is noble. You forcing a nation to do the same thing by collecting taxes under the presumption of pain of imprisonment is somewhat a bad thing. Not always but outside of Fire, Safe drinking water and effective security, you know, basic governmental infrastructure, it is generally not good.
Parent
Maybe not a bad thing (Score:5, Interesting)
markets, ideas and idealism (Score:5, Interesting)
Just Appalling (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, the article is Intel's version of the break. I think that if Negroponte really required Intel to drop the Classmate, it would have been too naive from him. It's almost as if he wanted to pick a fight with Intel and then tell the world that it's Intel's fault and that Intel doesn't want to play ball.
I think OLPC is a great idea, a great project and great technology, but this one didn't look that good for them (at least from the article, which is Intel's point of view, maybe the whole story is a little different, we'll know).
OLPC should try and use the best possible technology to produce the best laptop for the least possible cost. Considering that Intel has been doing lots of advances in cheap mobile power-saving chips, excluding Intel is not a good idea for the OLPC project. With the size of Intel, they are not losing that much by losing the OLPC project comparing to how much OLPC will be losing without Intel's support.
I agree that Intel was not being that clean with OLPC by having their competition project the Classmate, but even then, Negroponte should have been more diplomatic on this issue (again, the article is Intel's version, maybe it didn't happen just like that).
What's Intel's value to OLPC? (Score:5, Insightful)
It would have been nice if Intel and OLPC could have come up with an arrangement to differentiate themselves in the developing world market, but it didn't work out. So they go it alone. The computers are quite different, the OLPC being designed from the ground up for its purpose, the Classmate and friends being crippled conventional laptops.
And whether or not Intel and friends manage to kill OLPC, they wouldn't have had a dog in the race at all if not for OLPC.
OLPC will stand or fall on the XO laptop itself (Score:5, Insightful)
I have an XO laptop, and it seems pretty clear at this point that the existing XO can do, technologically, what it's supposed to do. The hardware tradeoffs were very clever, very well thought out, and they seem to be manufacturing it successfully in quantity. I'm assuming that some teething pains and glitches, which are no worse that typical commercial products at first release, can be dealt with.
I'm not the intended audience for the software. I don't particularly like the Sugar UI, and can't judge how much is just because I just don't "get it" and how much is because I've been brainwashed by two decades of the Mac and Windows. It seems to me that the software has rather a lot of rough edges. But it doesn't matter. It's perfectly clear that the thing works, and is more than capable of being used in classrooms. The browser works, the Alto/Star/1984-Mac write and paint programs work, the PDF viewer works, the wireless access works.
The collaboration and social-networking stuff seems to sorta-kinda work. I have some reservations, but it's there, and there's nothing comparable built into Windows or standard Linux today.
It doesn't matter whether Intel throws a hissy-fit and stomps out or not. Nor does it matter that their hardware designer left: she completed her work and it was good work.
If their education premises are correct, this device is good enough to fulfill them.
And the XOs not comparable to anything anyone can do in the way of building a cheap Windows laptop. The XO has carved out a very distinct, very new, very innovative niche in product space. Nobody is going to be able to make the equivalent of an XO just by taking a standard Wintel laptop and paring down the OS and replacing the disk drive with 1, no, 2, no, 4, no 8 GB of flash, and adding a Windows version of TamTamJam.
If an Intel and/or a Microsoft truly signs on to the OLPC's education premises and puts in an equivalent amount of work producing something as good, as cheap, and as good a fit to the same product space, they might be able to trample OLPC but OLPC's goals could still be achieved. However, the likelihood of Intel and Microsoft doing this is about the same as the likelihood of GM producing a two-wheeled, pedal-powered Hummer that costs $139 and is suitable for a ten-year-old kid.
Screw Intel. They need to be ARM Based. (Score:5, Interesting)
Most arm chips are made with Cell phones in mind as well, some support MMX and Jazelle Java extensions.
Many have Micron CMOS camera chip interfaces and built in LCD drivers, and a mess of GPIO and MMC etc.
Linux and Uboot are a sweet combination on them also.
Look at PXA270 and PXA300 from Marvell & Blackfin (uC Linux)
Also ARM is licensing there chip design for 8 Cents a copy, so you can easily make a ASIC based on arm.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_architecture [wikipedia.org]
Also another option is that there is already $5 computers in China and India. There not laptops and you need to connect them into a TV but still they have Keyboard, Mice, Game joysticks and 100's of pirated games on them. Even ones that can web surf. these are from a Chinese company called Gold Leopard King, but they are impossible to track down and contact, but the markets there are flooded with them.
http://ultimateconsoledatabase.com/famiclones/gold_leopard_king.htm [ultimateco...tabase.com]
The whole computer is just passive switches, and there is only one Chip in the entire PC, it's in the cartridge. Amazing thing, Perfect copies of Mario Brothers, Pac-man, Donkey Kong, Defender, Galaga, Dig Dug. I always get one for the kids when were in India, and just give it away when we leave, it's PAL video out, so we can't use it back in the USA.
Re:FPFPFPFP (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Abso-fuckin-lutely (Score:5, Insightful)
Exactly. It should also be noted that not-for-profit refers only to the entity; it's goal isn't to make wealth that is distributed to its shareholders. Salaries are still paid to NFPs' employees including the principals who founded the institutions. Sometimes these salaries are very high.
However, this isn't a failure of capitalism. Capitalism allowed the OLPC to be created at all levels, and it was OLPC wanting Intel to cease it's production of more cheap laptops that caused Intel (who had previously done a great deal of good for the project) to step out. OLPC wanted to be the only game in town. Having more cheap laptops for children in the world is a good thing, regardless of who makes them. If the XO is a better laptop, then people will get those. If OLPC can't meet the demand because their product is too good, better to have a Classmate than nothing. So if you want to demonize someone for keeping cheap laptops out of childrens' hands, then demonize OLPC for biting the hand that feeds it.
Parent
Re:FPFPFPFP (Score:5, Insightful)
I may be in the minority, and of course I grew up in the US, but I didn't have unprotected sex (or any sex), shoot up with needles or have ritualistic blood letting ceremonies with my teachers in school.
Somehow I doubt things are THAT different in Africa.
Parent
Re:FPFPFPFP (Score:5, Informative)
I grew up in the US, but have a Colombian father and was privileged enough to live there as an adult for 5 years, so see how the other side lives.
Priveleged in the sense I got to live and work for pesos, no credit cards, cold showers in the Andes, etc. It changed my life.
Sex between adults and teens is very common and excepted in other countries. I know in Colombia when I was a 30 year old college professor, i could have dated 16 year old girls without too much trouble, parents would encourage it. They saw stability in an older, employed person, rather than a young rake, so to speak.
If you ever read missionary works about Africa, particularly Paul Theroux, you will realize most missionary and peace corp people do get it on with the local people.
And I am not only talking about the visiting teachers, but the native ones as well. It is a cultural thing, and they are are very different culturally than we are.
I would reccomend to anyone that things that thinks are "not THAT different" in Africa(or other countries) to truly vistit them for more than a vacation.
Africa is poverty stricken and a wild and wooly country. If the teacher is the guy with a few coins in his pocket to pay you for sex, to in turn feed your family, then you fuck the teacher.
Culturally, it could be an honor to bang the wise man.
And of course since AIDS is rampany in Africa, I think the numbers are valid.
And if you count no shoes, living in huts, abject poverty, and disease as not different than what we have here, you need to take a leave of abscence and see the rest of the world, not Amsterdam.
Parent
Re:FPFPFPFP (Score:5, Interesting)
1) Minimum production runs are required to meet the desired price point
2) Meeting minimum production quantities had been difficult
3) There is demand in the private/consumer market for the product
It seems to only make sense to offer the units to the consumer market, which would solve the minimum production run issue AND help subsidize the cost of the units shipped to their intended market. Especially since, by definition, their intended market is the demographic that can't afford them in the first place.
Extending and promote the "get one give one" program, is one way to do this. Another way is to sell them for a slight profit ($300 each instead of $200?) to schools in industrialized countries for the same purpose. Being a non-profit company does not preclude actually making money.
=Smidge=
Parent
Commercial sale risks alliance falling apart (Score:5, Insightful)
Several of the world's most important tech companies, and lots of talented people, work for free at cost on the OLPC. They do this because OLPC is not competing with their own business operations.
If the OLPC becomes a commercial operation, then they risk cannabalising these firm's own operations, therefore OLPC have to tread very carefully.
Parent
Re:FPFPFPFP (Score:5, Insightful)
I would normally agree with you... Except that a commercial low-end laptop offering by Intel wouldn't compete with the OLPC. Quite the opposite, in fact! OLPC had Intel pouring money and technology into a project that would effectively give away what Intel hoped to sell.
I consider myself pretty hardcore anti-corporate, and I find it pretty hard to call Intel the bastards on this one. They wanted to sell to a market that OLPC didn't want to touch (and apparently didn't want to let anyone else touch, either).
Parent
Re:FPFPFPFP (Score:5, Insightful)
I think your conflating personal feeling with actualities and are getting confused in the process. But that is something that is expected when you look at things through emotions.
Parent
Re:Really a blow? (Score:5, Informative)
OLPC has always been a Linux offering I thought. There is no Windows about it it, and that's what MS has been whining about.
Parent
Re:yes, Wintel (Score:5, Insightful)
it'd have to move completely off the x86 platform to really reduce the possibility of Windows use (and even then, I think CE works on some non-x86 setups).
Anyway, who cares, if someone wants to pay extra and put windows on it, it's their business. It's not my job (or yours, or anyones) to dictate what OS can be used on someones computer.
Parent
Re:Collectors items (Score:5, Informative)
You can still profit but its more like:
1. Buy two laptops for $400
2. Give one to charity
3. Sell one for $400
4. Break even on cash
5. Get a $200 charity tax receipt
Your net up is a tax receipt which has value which varies depending on how much you pay in taxes.
Parent