| OLPC official challenges Michael Dell |
Jul. 14, 2007
 Walter Bender, the One Laptop Per Child program's director of software, told DesktopLinux.com on July 13 that he invites Dell Computer founder and CEO Michael Dell to help figure out how to better use 125 million computers that are discarded annually because they are archaic.
Bender was responding to statements by Dell, who said earlier this week that he doesn't think that making inexpensive laptops for underprivileged kids is very helpful. The so-called $100 laptops the OLPC is building and distributing "won't be powerful enough to make much of a difference in their lives," Dell said.
"The issue is not so much what does it cost, but what does it do," Dell said during a question-and-answer session with customers and finalists of the Dell/National Federation of Independent Business Small-Business Excellence Award.
According to Dell, inexpensive laptops won't meet the needs of their intended recipients. To illustrate his point, he noted that roughly 125 million computers come out of circulation every year worldwide, but aren't recycled because they're considered archaic.
"Nobody really wants them because they don't do very much," he said
Bender had a specific suggestion for Dell.
"If he can figure out a way to make those [125 million] computers work off the grid, work in dust and mud and rain, and if he can figure out how to make those computers work in 50 degrees centigrade, make them portable, and work in different languages ... anyway, maybe he can. More power to him if he can," Bender told DesktopLinux.com.
Meanwhile, OLPC on July 13 announced an agreement with Intel, the project's biggest and most powerful rival, to enable the chip maker to join the board of the nonprofit and contribute funding.
"This will help us broaden our content base, and our family of offerings as well," Bender said. "Right now, we're using AMD chips in the machines, but who knows what we'll be needing down the line."
The nonprofit "$100 laptop" campaign has been signing up governments in several countries to buy the machines, which at the moment cost about $175. But Intel's child-focused Classmate PC has provided stiff competition in some countries for OLPC's machines.
One Laptop Per Child's computers will continue to use processors from AMD, but Intel is expected to work with the project on future technical developments, Bender said.
Background on OLPC
The idea behind the OLPC laptop is to provide children with the opportunity to learn about learning itself—to explore, experiment and express themselves, an OLPC spokesperson said. The laptops will be distributed in schools.
AMD, News Corp, Google, Brightstar, Red Hat Linux, Nortel, Marvell, eBay, Quanta, Chi Mei, SES/Astra and Citigroup are founding members of OLPC. The United Nations and Inter-American Development Bank are its nonprofit partners.
The OLPC project, based at the MIT media lab in Cambridge, Mass., is finishing its second year. Recently, the New York Times reported that Libya became the fifth country to express serious interest in the inexpensive student laptop—the others being Nigeria, Brazil and Argentina. Brazil and Thailand had expressed some early interest in the project but have since cooled on the idea for various internal reasons.
--Chris Preimesberger
More about the OLPC Project
For lots of background on the OLPC's Linux-based low-cost laptop project—including features, specs and a timeline of announcements—be sure to check out our comprehensive OLPC special report:
Hot Topic: The "One Laptop Per Child" project
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