Ever since the introduction of the $100 laptop (1 laptop per child project), there has been competition for the lower priced alternative. Despite its cost which most people assume is proportional to quality, this low cost laptop can mean a revolution not only in prices, but also hardware and software.
Looking into the laptop itself, there are some features that should not be underlooked at despite the low cost of the laptop.
Hardware-wise
This new low-cost laptop makes use of components that you cannot say are of low quality — AMD chips, Wireless support, a 253 MHz CPU; You can say it might be better than computers years ago. A low cost laptop with some basic features can turn the tide even against normal laptops.
Software?
Software used by the low-cost laptop are generally open-source software; Yay for the non-profits. Part of the reason is due to cost. Of course, because they use open-source software, this 1 laptop per child project will bound to promote open-source in essence.
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Even though this project concerns the less fortunate, giving a laptop to every child will bring adoption of computers to a new level — perhaps doubling the number of computer users today. Computer (and Internet) literacy is no longer bounded by inaccessibility.
However, why does this low-cost laptop gets fired at by big players like Microsoft? This is because of the nature of the laptop, which will eventually cause people to use less of commercial software, and move to open-source ones. In business, this would lead to lower sales unless they do something innovative.
Nonetheless, the very existance of this abitious project is a sign of good things to change, opening the door to a world where everyone can have access to a piece of modern technology.
