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Intel blasts $100 laptop

Lord Blackadder

Lord Blackadder

macrumors P6
Original poster
May 7, 2004
15,684
5,516
Sod off
Intel's chairman says that MIT's $100 laptop will be a "$100 gagdet", without practical applications.

I think that's pure FUD-slinging, though I can't imagine what the motive could be. I have yet to think of one reason why the MIT's program is not a good idea....
 
The $100 laptop is made with AMD processors, right? If so, maybe Intel is looking for any possible way to take a swipe at AMD...
 
stonyc said:
The $100 laptop is made with AMD processors, right? If so, maybe Intel is looking for any possible way to take a swipe at AMD...
Click to expand...

Yes, AMD will supply the CPU - but if that is the reason Intel is bashing the laptop then that is quite a cheap shot.
 
Lord Blackadder said:
Yes, AMD will supply the CPU - but if that is the reason Intel is bashing the laptop then that is quite a cheap shot.
Click to expand...
Isn't one of AMD's claims against Intel in its anti-trust suit unfair business practices? Offering steep discounts and forcing some purchasers into exclusive partnerships for only offering Intel chips in their products... one could argue that Intel's swipe at AMD in the case of the $100 laptop is really just par for the course.

EDIT: Just as an FYI, I've owned both AMD and Intel-based PCs in my time... so I'm not an AMD fanboy trying to find a vast anti-AMD conspiracy here. It's all just a little curious though, don't you think? :)
 
Yeah, the Intel-AMD war is quite dirty.

Still, I really don't see the $100 laptop as a "gadget". It was designed as a learning tool and Intel is just jealous because it has a hand crank.:D
 
i don't see what Intel's problem with the laptop is, it is not going to be available to the general public. It will only be used in developing countries.
 
it's quite obviose why intel is trying to make this $100 laptop not seem like a "real" computer. If people find out that a decent (aka: useable) machine doesn't need to cost more than $100 than they'll stop paying $600+ for a laptop.
 
Right, if a $100 laptop can do everything a 5 year old machine could do then thats pretty damn amazing.

Which is pretty much the whole point.

The thing is cheap, but it works and can do a great deal - it just cannot be compared to a modern machine.

But i don't really think the target audience minds - they just want something to help them with basic skills.
 
when will those $100 notebooks be available?

and how many of you will buy one? (i'm sure they will show up on ebay as soon as the first few million are produced. and i think it's nothing bad to buy them in the first world as well, because a educated developer base for a machine like this will only make the notebook better over time.)
 
andiwm2003 said:
when will those $100 notebooks be available?

and how many of you will buy one?
Click to expand...

I would. I think they are cool.

FoxyKaye said:
See, that's what I thought too... Of course Intel's gonna blast it, but don't they have better things to do with their time? (Like preparing those quad-core CPUs for 2008).
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I'm excited about the new Intel processors, but I hope Apple doesn't become embroiled in this AMD/Intel war *but secretly hopes the AMD chips show up in a Mac at some point*.
 
That $100 laptop for "3rd world nations" is the most stupid thing ever!

I am here in Venezuela and the last thing a kid in the street need is a laptop, what for? they do not even have where to plug that stuff, they do not even have shoes or money to buy medication or even the chance to go to school. They can not even write their own name, Korn Flakes is a luxury they can not afford and you want to give them a laptop? they do not know what that is.

I mean, is useless to go over this thread to start with based on the unrealistic end of the computer itself.
 
mymemory said:
That $100 laptop for "3rd world nations" is the most stupid thing ever!

I am here in Venezuela and the last thing a kid in the street need is a laptop, what for? they do not even have where to plug that stuff, they do not even have shoes or money to buy medication or even the chance to go to school. They can not even write their own name, Korn Flakes is a luxury they can not afford and you want to give them a laptop? they do not know what that is.

I mean, is useless to go over this thread to start with based on the unrealistic end of the computer itself.
Click to expand...

well, that laptop isn't meant for starving kids. they need food first of course.

but in russia, china, egypt and many other countries there are kids that need to learn and keep up with the "digital revolution". they can't afford a $600 dell but their goverment can easily affore $100 laptops. the laptop is meant for these kids.
 
mymemory said:
That $100 laptop for "3rd world nations" is the most stupid thing ever!

I am here in Venezuela....Korn Flakes is a luxury they can not afford and you want to give them a laptop? they do not know what that is....

I mean, is useless to go over this thread to start with based on the unrealistic end of the computer itself.
Click to expand...


last I heard Venezuela with its HUGE oil exports is NOT a 3rd world country but its nice to see you have a High Opinion about your own people. LOL.

Anyway, it has a hand crank so the point about not having a place to plug it in makes you seem even less informed.
 
Intel's pessimism is poor PR but it has a point.

"Price always matters, but the prime thing that people are looking for is for information technology to solve a problem that they actually have," Willy Agatstein, general manager of the platforms definition and development group at Intel, told vnunet.com in August.

Look, I'm not defending Intel's attitude in their claim. However, its important to realize that computers solve problems and perform functions in people's lives. Cheap computers open the possibility for people in third world countries to take advantage of those functions but, just because a rice patty farmer gets a laptop doesn't mean it'll be useful functioning tool for him. Many people had the same pessmism about cell phones in 3rd world countries; they argue "who would they have to call? they don't have infrastructure to live our way of life.". This has proven incorrect as cell phone popularity is enormous. I hope cheaper computers not only solve problems people actually have (as the above quote states) but gives them new tools to do things they never thought possible.
 
notalawyer said:
Cheap computers open the possibility for people in third world countries to take advantage of those functions but, just because a rice patty farmer gets a laptop doesn't mean it'll be useful functioning tool for him.
Click to expand...

Not people: children, more specifically, students. These are designed to be a learning tool for children. They were designed with 2 things in mind: 1) Has to cost $100. Why? Because these GOVERNMENTS are buying the laptops for the children under the OLPC (One Laptop per Child). The minimum order for these is one million units (or $100 million). 2) Lack of infrastructure. These are third world countries; MIT (who developed/designed these computers) designed them without needing AC or DC electricity... they operate by capacitors charged by hand cranks. The laptops also create ad hoc wireless networks (similar to Bonjour or other Zero-Config networking) so documents/etc can be shared within a certain radius.

It's all here.
 
It's also important to remember that how these computers are used is more important than the computers themselves.

They are a tool, and just like any tool they need to be used properly to be effective. I think they are great devices that open up new options for education that didn't exist before.
 
The problem I have is that the $100 laptop does not run a REAL operating system. I runs linux. Linux is not an operating system that the developing world needs, it has such a huge learning curve. They need OSX.

TEG
 
TEG said:
The problem I have is that the $100 laptop does not run a REAL operating system. I runs linux. Linux is not an operating system that the developing world needs, it has such a huge learning curve. They need OSX.

TEG
Click to expand...

I disagree; OS X is essentiually Linux, and yet it is user friendly. Most off-the-shelf Linux OSs are not user friendly, but that doesn't mean they can't be made user-friendly easily.
 
TEG said:
The problem I have is that the $100 laptop does not run a REAL operating system. I runs linux. Linux is not an operating system that the developing world needs, it has such a huge learning curve. They need OSX.

TEG
Click to expand...

So if you have Linux on a computer, having never used a computer before, and if you use that computer for, lets say an hour - how much would you have learned?

Linux is fine, these $100 will run fine doing the sort of Powerbooks were doing 5 years ago.
 
TIVO's run Linux?

Didn't know that, but then TIVO died a slow death in the UK.

People are so used to MAC OS X and Windows being huge resource hogs that they don't relise you could create an OS that needs bugger all to work.
 
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