Brazil may build $100 laptops

[rpm]

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/06/30/brazil.laptop.ap/index.html

"The laptops, which would cost $100 each, are part of a project championed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Nicholas Negroponte that aims to provide "one laptop per child," to children around the world."

 

[kilps]

thats amazing - I mean they would probably suck but loaded with a user freiendly version of linux it would be perfect as an education tool - web browsing, word, excel - anything else and spend a bit more on windows

This + cheap telecoms would put SA right up there

 

[werner]

It's a nice idea, but I'm not sure if it would work.

If my country is under-developed, and if I'm tired, poor, thirsty and hungry, what use is a laptop to me? (besides using google maps to find a mcdonalds..).

I could use it to dig a hole, and collect water in the hole overnight. I could use it to smack a rabbit and kill it for food....

But I sure as heck dont have any electricity so that I can plug it in...

It is a positive step in getting the poorer countries going in the right direction, so I'm not against the idea, but I do feel that basic building blocks need to be in place first. A $100 water purifier would maybe be a better investment.

 

[bb_matt]

I think they are aiming it more for your lower income group, aspiring to middle income.

I'm thinking a for domestic workers children who are getting an education to have the opportunity their parents never had - so long as it's sponsored by government, as even a R700 is way out of the budget of a domestic workers salary !

Possibly affordable for a bank clerk for their kids, or a taxi driver.

I'm quite sure they are not talking about the poorest of the poor here - unless of course it's the children of those families who have access to education and a computer at school.

 

[futron]

$ 100.00 ?!! Well yea maybe a piece of crap, but but I also think that the idea is not only for ppl in their country this could be a step as to move them into the international trade market it would give their country a bit of an income boost if these could be marketed internationally in other developing countries for yes educational purposes and the NEW kind of marketers on the move in Afica and other third world country's. A bold step but I think a possitive one life is about chances and if you don't take a chance now and again you will never know what the outcome may be.