Intel Resigns from One Laptop Per Child Project 338
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."
FPFPFPFP (Score:2, Insightful)
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:FPFPFPFP (Score:5, Insightful)
It's a blow? (Score:3, Insightful)
Just my two cents,
Peter.
No profit in poor people? (Score:2, Insightful)
Are you telling me this isn't true?
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.
What's the OLPC afraid of? (Score:4, Insightful)
Competition is good. The more different players in this market, the better. Because more innovation will deliver lower costs, and products closest to what people want. If the people at the OLPC care most about getting computing power to the people in developing countries, they'd welcome that,not try and stop it.
The OLPC people just don't get the real world. They closed their "buy one give one" despite that giving free laptops to the sort of people that they claim to be serving.
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.
Faulty math (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Re:FPFPFPFP (Score:0, Insightful)
Mind you, neither should rich countries' schoolchildren be considering laptops until the sore deficiency in basic skills is fixed, but at least a purchase from their rich parents not going to take money away from food and shelter.
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.
Intel did this to me (Score:2, Insightful)
I would bet that the CEO is going to work for Intel to develop a cheap laptop for them. The pattern just looks to familiar.
Re:yes, Wintel (Score:2, Insightful)
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).
Re:Marketing data in place ... (Score:4, Insightful)
For the kind of dollars India has to spend to see a reasonable percentage of the OLPC they could do many different things. Assuming the OLPC really does cost the equivalent of 30% per capita income in India that means if they just buy 3 million of them thats the same as 1 million teachers salaries.
These numbers blow my mind.
Not to mention that India is now probably the largest growing IT country in the world.
The OLPC was meant to be "teach a man to fish and he will feed for a lifetime" , but instead it seems to be more "give a man a cheap JetSki and he will eventually learn to fish".
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.
Re:OLPC will stand or fall on the XO laptop itself (Score:4, Insightful)
Capitalism (Score:2, Insightful)
The great thing about capitalism is that it allows us to run commercial for-profit businesses that provide capital that can in turn be used for non-profit purposes. By selling OLPC commercially and for profit, money could be raised to send them to communities that need them. However, I think the test for "need" should include that food, housing, health, and infrastructure needs are met (again, with money from other capitalist sources).
Re:For profit corporation (Score:1, Insightful)
So when you buy her fancy new device using this display technology, the patent licensing fees are helping education programs elsewhere. I don't know if you'd consider this a moral improvement or not, but it sounds like a good deal for the OLPC.
Re:FPFPFPFP (Score:4, Insightful)
If they had a way of looking up things that interested them whether it be educational or not it is a light year past what they are getting now. Even if we were to take the $150 per laptop and give them the cash you can note the first paper and look for World Bank restructure, there it tells you even when the countries have money they are instructed by the World Bank what they are allowed to spend on this is quoted "conditions set by the World Bank and IMF within the context of structural adjustment".
The best bet to help these kids is to give them SOMETHING. There are even hits on Google that show the UK is hiring up most of the teachers from 3rd world countries that are any good. These kids have nothing, at least this will give them a chance to augment their lives with some social knowledge and maybe a static copy of Wikipedia. That might give them somewhere to start, something solid, something.
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.
Re:Marketing data in place ... (Score:3, Insightful)
OLPC can't be a success (Score:2, Insightful)
It could not be working out for the same reasons, these guys [slashdot.org] failed [wired.com] — they are/were trying to work against a fundamental law of nature.
Steorn tried to violate the laws of Thermodynamics. OLPC is trying to compete for talent with the vibrant economy, that offers enormous rewards to hardworking smart people...
Yes, a project can capture such people's time and attention by appealing to their charitable side. And they will work for non-monetary rewards such as fame and/or pleasure derived from doing a (seemingly, at least) good deed.
But such interest can not be sustained for very long. The novelty wears off, and the internal conflicts cool people's enthusiasm and make them ask questions like: "Do I need this shit?"
The group of wild-eyed and bushy-tailed enthusiasts begins loosing members — including (possibly — beginning with) the brightest ones... And "cadres decide everything" — even more so today, than when the quote was uttered [wikiquote.org].
Nor is the stated goal of OLPC entirely convincing. Surely, the connectivity and the instant access to the vast amount of information are very appealing and should be very helpful. But wanting to learn, and knowing how to learn are even more important for a child (and an adult) than the actual knowledge of anything in particular. Plenty of kids, who already have computers, use them to exchange pictures/music, and chat with friends — not to learn anything...
At the same time plenty of people, who grew up without a computer (much less Internet), are happy and active users of them now.
If you wish to help the poor, take care of yourself first — and gain the life experience to understand, what kind of help helps, and what kind spoils. Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, and Muhammad Yunus can be your examples... [wikipedia.org]
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.
Re:OLPC not a success (Score:3, Insightful)
But nice try buddy to paint everyone who wants to solve world problems without involving big fat corporations a Socialist. As Linus said, that if Socialist means to do good things to people, then yeah, we are Socialists.
Re:I have one of these... (Score:4, Insightful)
The UI is not awful, and is good enough, and it was probably correct to think it through from scratch instead of trying to riff on the Alto/Star/Lisa/Mac/Windows. But it still tastes to me like other not-so-good UIs, in which the designer and people that can be coaxed into the same mindspace can be convinced that it's better than it is.
I read the human interface guidelines [laptop.org] and I'm not convinced. I've often talked to people who have believed their UI was easy to use because "you always do thus-and-such to achieve this-and-that, and the frammises are always on the left edge, and you ferthboinder toward the top to glorp persistent quibinicks..."
One of the things that was fascinating about the Mac in 1984, which I approached with virtually no previous experience, was that you could intuit it and use it without ever formulating or deducing the consistent left-brained rules by which it operated. For about three days I used it effectively without understanding it at all. I wanted to achieve something, I took a wild guess as to what might work, and it usually did.
I don't feel that way about Sugar, although maybe my brain has just ossified.
If the Journal functioned the way it's supposed to, I don't understand why it, rather than the "home view," isn't the center of the user experience, and the thing you boot into. Seems to me that you'd more often be returning to an old activity than starting a new one.
I "get" the idea of a linear, chronological arrangement of activities rather than a hierarchical tree of documents, but I don't understand how you navigate that arrangement unless you are punctilious about giving each saved activity a good name, and clever at naming them in such a way that you can search for them by typing search strings (which I think only search the name of the journal entry, not the content of the saved activity).
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.
Just saw one today - disappointed (Score:3, Insightful)
The functionality is similar to iPod Touch at 2/3rds the price. If Apple puts this in a larger screen, say an iTablet Touch- that could be a competitor.
Re:FPFPFPFP (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Abso-fuckin-lutely (Score:1, Insightful)
What *would* be a failure of capitalism? I keep hearing this from ultra-pro-capitalists, it seems like capitalism is completely tautological and immune from rational analysis. This is what I dislike about discussions of capitalism on slashdot their are a lot of pro-market / pro-libertarians who wouldn't know was a *failure* of capitalism is due to religious faith in dogmatic ideals divorced from how a system actually exists and effects people, you cannot unwed the idea from the person or the people and culture in which it exists and their behaviour which is a result of valuing certain values above others even if it is completely irrational.
Einstein said it best on the interconnection of all things; "A human being is part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty... The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which they have obtained liberation from the self. We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if humanity is to survive. (Albert Einstein, 1954)"
So I want to know what exactly would qualify as a failure of capitalist idealogy? If nothing, then speaking of "true capitalism" is like speaking of the toothfairy: It doesn't really exist.
When people speak about systems they speak and criticize *how they really work and effect people* not some ideal theorized version that lives in fairy fairy land.
The idea that most people are under is that somehow capitalist ideas are somehow divorced from the world it isn't we can go to relativity to prove the nonsense of such 'seperation'.
"When forced to summarize the general theory of relativity in one sentence: Time and space and gravitation have no separate existence from matter.
Physical objects are not in space, but these objects are spatially extended. In this way the concept 'empty space' loses its meaning. Since the theory of general relatively implies the representation of physical reality by a continuous field, the concept of particles or material points cannot play a fundamental part, and can only appear as a limited region in space where the field strength / energy density are particularly high. (Albert Einstein, 1950)"
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).
Re:It's all about learning (Score:4, Insightful)
To whom? You are thinking of the potential for the western laptop market. To the child in the developing world, the 50 preloaded books and the educational software are far more important.
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.
Re:OLPC will stand or fall on the XO laptop itself (Score:1, Insightful)
The eMate was also a far less capable machine (even compared to standard low end PCs of the time). It was more like a Newton, only physically larger.
Re:Abso-fuckin-lutely (Score:2, Insightful)
The reason Capitalism doesn't fail normally is because consumers don't allow it to. If they don't like something they can immediately retaliate by not purchasing it.
That being said, we do see Capitalism fail frequently in this country because it is too closely tied to government. Capitalism fails when, to get a competitive edge, it is cheaper to buy a politician than make a better product. For example, our sugar prices are 5x the world price because of quotas paid for by the U.S. sugar industry and our corn prices are low because we've already paid most of their subsidized cost in taxes. As a result everything in America is made with corn syrup instead of sugar, even though it tastes worse and is one of the largest causes of obesity in this county because of the way our bodies metabolize it. That being said, this isn't Capitalism's failure so much as the separation of Capitalism and a free market. Similarly, Altruism is great, but if you separate from it the ability to distinguish between which actions help others and which actions hurt others then things can also get ugly. The difference is a free market is able to be set by policy where as it's part of being human to make frequent misjudgments about what others want.
Re:It's all about learning (Score:2, Insightful)
Education is indeed on the path out of poverty. Unfortunately in many areas targeted for the OLPC, other hurdles must be overcome before education (and realizing the potential of the OLPC) is possible.
Re:OLPC blows (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:OLPC == Scam (Score:3, Insightful)
Wow. Go learn [wikipedia.org] something about [wikipedia.org] AIDS [wikipedia.org].
Or, if you're too lazy, I'll spell it out for you: A blind bus driver is actually blind. A gay person may be slightly more likely to get AIDS, but not all gay people have it. And there are other "lifestyle choices" that are actual choices, and actually contribute a good deal more -- like drug use involving dirty needles, or swinging without adequate protection... (Yes, there are monogamous gays. Shocked?)
My first computer certainly changed my life (Score:3, Insightful)
While Western folk who may be experiencing guilt may contribute to this project (perhaps quite handily). There is an iso-standard heap of people who are not guilt driven, and are contributing.
This computer will be the Apple IIe, and the C64, AND the Amiga 500 for two entire continents of people. If you are too young to remember that era, good for you, young is great. But I was there, "poking" machine language instructions into high-memory in BASIC so I could run very tight programs hundreds of times faster than the BASIC interpreter allowed. The OLPC computer is vastly more powerful and friendlier than my Vic20 and C64 were. Kids with a tiny fraction of my obsession with electronics will make their OLPCs do 10 times as many cool things.
This isn't about a cheap-teacher's assistants in foreign schools, this is about kindling a passion for technology in people who currently have little access to it. The Vic20 made a fundamental change in my life. I'm participating because I'd like to make that fundamental change in someone else's.
>And when the local warlord rounds up all these laptops to sell them for arms money, what good will all that valuable information do?
Between the small keyboard, the small screen and the lack of support for any non-Linux O/S. I think a warlord is going to be very disappointed what he can accomplish with these computers.
>Education is indeed on the path out of poverty. Unfortunately in many areas targeted for the OLPC, other hurdles must be overcome before education (and realizing the potential of the OLPC) is possible.
Country's are like Ogre's. They have layers. Even in very troubled countries there will be a layer of kids who get enough to eat, and have enough clean water, but currently go through the whole school year only seeing computers on a television, at a place where they have electric power.
These laptops are for kids in that layer. They will not feed the hungry at the layer beneath, nor overthrow the unjust government over-layer whose poor decisions stifle the nation's progress. These are noble tasks and I greatly admire the people who attack these problems.
I have chosen the problem I am suited to help with. I will donate some laptops to kids in that middle layer and I will find a way to make them more fun/useful/educational.
I don't know if this effort will succeed, but then my parent's were quite certain my Vic20 programming was a waste of time, and that worked out quite well.
"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."
--Winston Churchill
Re:What's Intel's value to OLPC? (Score:4, Insightful)
You'd be wrong. Intel-insides are actively bidding against OLPC in developing markets. Whether or not the bids are worthy, they are backed by the normal corporate dirty tricks -- including FUD and dumping to name two -- and aimed to kill.
Re:Just saw one today - disappointed (Score:3, Insightful)
You propose giving poor African, South American, and Asian kids big beautiful glass and polished stainless steel laptops and then send them walking home from school -- maybe a three to five mile walk?
They'd get fucking killed. They'd get mugged and every one of those things would be stolen.
It's for kids. Little kids. It should look like it for no other reason than to just keeping these kids safer.
--Richard
Re:OLPC not a success (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:OLPC not a success (Score:4, Insightful)
Next, the problem is as you mentioned "A chance", You cannot ensure that the money isn't just a waist because of other factors being the problems. You thinking it might be a good idea doesn't make it one. You thinking the outcome of those actions will create a certain environment doesn't mean it will. You thinking that it is the only way or the best way doesn't make it true. You thinking I need to agree with you under pain and penalty of imprisonment is a bad idea. Surely if it is such a great idea and the case has so much merit then people would be more then happy to fund it from private donations. Including the people who would be paying the taxes.
You see, that is the problem with socialism, if it is such a good idea, then why do you need to force people into it? Why do you need government to make people participate? It would seem that it would just be something already happening with a framework of freedom if it is such a great idea. What happens is that you think it is a good idea and other don't for what ever reason. And the reasons for or against might be just as valid. But when you use the government to force people to participate, you are in effect ignoring all the reasons except your own however flawed it might or might not be.
And no, giving kids laptops isn't securing the future of the country. It is giving kids laptops. if the environment is there that allows them to make something of it, then it won't happen. No amount of laptops will ensure the country is still there in the future. It can only make the future a better place but again, that is dependent on other variables that aren't likely to be present.
Re:OLPC will stand or fall on the XO laptop itself (Score:3, Insightful)
So yes, the specs were less, but that's not how I measure "capable". And I think the XO folks are making the same point. The XO is more useful (ie. "capable") than many laptops of significantly more robust specifications.
I think dismissing the similarities so quickly is to ignore a valuable historical lesson. Even if you disagree that it portends likely failure, if you want to succeed you should probably try to learn from the comparison.
"The Economist" on OLPC (Score:3, Insightful)
OLPC's problems, which can be distilled into four main areas, risk turning a wonderful idea into a plastic paperweight.
In their zeal to rewrite the rules of computing for first-time users, OLPC shipped machines with a cumbersome operating system. For example, adding Flash to do something like watch a YouTube video requires users to go into a terminal line-code and type a long internet address to download the software: it seems impossible to cut-and-paste the address. ... OLPC tried to reinvent the wheel and came up with an oval.
Second, the go-to-market execution...was imperfect. There was a lack of documentation, support and methods to integrate the PCs into school curricula, teacher training, and the like. OLPC seemed to think that just by handing out laptops, everything would sort itself out...The consumer is not the nine-year-old user with infinite time on her hands, but a government bureaucrat who has to evaluate the machines relative to other options.
That leads to the third problem. Since the project launched in 2005, commercial rivals have emerged: Intel's "Classmate" at around $250; Acer's laptop at $350...There are many more...All computer buyers will have to compare the XP to a lot of other products in the market--something that never seemed to have struck OLPC's staffers as a possibility, but should have.
This leads to the final problem that has done the most to disappoint OLPC's fans: the hubris, arrogance and occasional self-righteousness of OLPC workers. They treated all criticism as enemy fire to be deflected and quashed rather than considered and possibly taken on board. Overcoming this will be essential if the project is to succeed past its first release. Technology products improve based on user feedback. The OLPC staff will need to learn to listen to the candid criticism of outsiders for the second-generation of the laptop--or they do not deserve to build one.
Ultimately the OLPC initiative will be remembered less for what it produced than the products it spawned. The initiative is like running the four-minute mile: no one could do it, until someone actually did it. Then many people did. ... Mr Negroponte's vision for a $100 laptop was not the right computer, only the right price. Like many pioneers, he laid a path for others to follow.
One clunky laptop per child. [economist.com]