Forum Masters Degree
Joined: 10 Dec 2007
Posts: 518
Location: Nashville, TN USA
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Didn't know whether to place this in general discussion, in the news, or here, if one of the mods wants to move this thread I understand!
Apparently, the OLPC, which I am becoming more and more skeptical of, will now be sold with Microsoft. This will come at a cost increase (yet again) of around 20 dollars. 3 dollars for the operating system and the rest to increase the system resources of the laptop to run the modified version of XP. Putting the OLPC somewhere near the 300 dollar mark (they originally claimed they were going to debut the OLPC for $100 USD)
Huzzah for Microsoft's corporate takeover of third-world nations! Now Millions of children will be safe from the stability, community, and freedom forced onto them by Linux!
It makes me sick, they claim the reason the olpc isn't selling well because it doesn't have microsoft, but how do they expect their target demographic (third-world children) to be able to pay $300 USD? And why do they expect wealthier people to pay for a system that wasn't made to operate the same way people have been made used to by the Microsoft Monopoly?
Of course now the citizens of better off countries will have no problem buying it, but then all that donated money to get laptops into the hands of poor children goes to giving rich people more gadgets.
It all comes down to the countries who's governments are buying the laptops for their people. The leaders of these countries are more "comfortable" with Microsoft (probably have deals with them). Microsoft vs Linux means nothing to children of third-world nations, they will have an equal learning curve for either Linux or windows! They have no "I'm used to my computer working this way" biases the rest of us have! And before you call me an elitist who wants the poor using Linux and the rich using windows, I prefer to use ubuntu and would rather pay for Linux than windows.
Seriously! I lost faith in the OLPC project a long time ago, but this is turning into such a large scam it is starting to really get to me! The only remotely valid argument (not really valid since it is only driven by economics and market-share, not actual Operating system capabilities) I see against linux is among the gaming community, and the OLPC sure does not fit into that category!
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“It’s no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense.” - Mark Twain |
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