More of my sites

WinInfo Daily News
SuperSite for Windows
Windows IT Pro Magazine
Connected Home
Thurrott Dot Com
Windows Weekly at TWIT

About this site

For six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul

Monday, May 21, 2007

Is Intel trying to torpedo the OLPC?

Larry Dignan in ZDNet Blogs:

Nicholas Negroponte, head of the One Laptop Per Child project, blasted Intel for trying to usurp any momentum his effort is getting.

Negroponte’s argument delivered via 60 Minutes: Intel was pitching its wares and a cheap PC dubbed the Classmate to torpedo the OLPC effort, which needs 3 million orders to start manufacturing.

I happened to catch 60 Minutes as I was flipping through channels and admit I was torn by the whole story, which even included a 60 Minutes gotcha moment–documents Intel was sending to OLPC potential customers touting its chips. The OLPC uses AMD chips.

“Intel should be ashamed of itself,” Negroponte says. “It’s just – it’s just shameless.”

I watched 60 Minutes last night and I have to say, I found Negroponte far more credible than Intel's CEO. Clearly, Intel, which had belittled the OLPC project repeatedly, later jumped into this market solely to prevent Negroponte from selling AMD-based hardware to third world countries. Meanwhile, all Intel has really accomplished is preventing Negroponte, who is clearly and blatantly acting solely out of charity--OLPC is non-profit--from fulfilling his dream of spreading computing around the world. Intel should be ashamed of itself. This is an outrage.

Labels: Linux

[ Posted at 1:59 PM | Permalink ]