Intel probably lefy because Negropontius didnt want to pay for the CPUs. I am sure this thing could get along with a VIA CPU just fine, or the Geode from AMD.

Stacky Botrus

@NeoPoliticus: We don't back anyone, Intel or Negroponte. But it's true that Negroponte has been acting wacky since the beginning and, from his actions and declarations, gives the appearance of being a self-absorbed egomaniac.

jesusdiaz

Intel doesn't care about the future of third-world children. They care about dominating the third-world market. Just as Microsoft does.

It's embarrassing for Giz to back them.

NeoPoliticus

I think Intel thinks its about competition and OLPC doesn't. I am more in agreement with Charax. What would Intel's real motivation be? Not to lose money that's for sure. Besides, the Classmate had few features that made it different than any other cheap ass notebook, whereas the OLPC actually has some real benefits to 3rd world user base.

geschmidtt

Intel cannot provide with a low cost and low enough power processor to power an Intel version of the XO laptop. That's the reason Intel quit OLPC, Paul Otellini didn't want to look like a fool unveiling a crappy Intel-powered XO at CES. I post more of my opinion at [charbax.com]

Charbax

OLPC = "Let them eat cake"

discomonkey

Deep-seated.

kindall

OLPC is an outdated hippie dream that is not feasible, realistic, or attainable. If it were any of those things, we would see more concrete progress by now. And in all reality, the children who are the target of the movement would probably be better served by a real OLPC - One Lunch Per Child.

SkyLab

if negroponte *really* cared more about getting laptops into the hands of poor kids than he does about making a name for himself and attracting money to his programs at MIT he would welcome intel, asus and whoever else to the party because competition lowers prices and creates innovation.

the more companies making little, cheap laptops the higher the quality will be and the lower the prices will be. just look at the success asus has had.

oldmanstan

I don't think giz is anti-OLPC. I think that the OLPC has just been getting it's ass handed to it lately and giz reports on that like all other tech blogs. NicNeg doesn't seem to think he should have any competition either. I don't think he's used to getting stomped like this.

shini

@Conneriscool: it's obviously a reference to beavis and butthead.

MasterJoefus

The weird thing is that it seems Gizmodo is anti-OLPC. I think that Negroponte is onto a good idea, bring the PC's to the nations that basically need a kick-start to compete in areas it previously couldn't.

And by Intel's background in monopolizing anything they've been a part of, why not limit the monopoly for once using the same tactics/verbiage they've once used to Dell and other companies about not using or competing against them?

Fair is fair. Negroponte is a dreamer, that's no doubt. But the rants against OLPC are adding up Gizmodo.

gerbick

I never understood the idea to be honest... poor starving kids need laptops about as much as I need another burger.

djdare

are they gay or something? why two guys on the same couch sitting down??? soooooo gayyyyy

Conneriscool

children? I thought this was about money?

bobide

If NN is acting a bit wacky maybe, just maybe, it's because his project is being dicked over by what were supposed to be his commercial partners. Nobody seemed to be interested in the ultra low end of laptops until he said "we're doing this", and suddenly every company and their mother is trying to horn in on the action. I'd really like to hear the OLPC take on the situation, because my bet is that Intel raided the project for their tech ideas and NN obviously took exception to that kind of "cooperation". So, yeah, Intel has more business savvy than NN and it is sad (although not unexpected) that Gizmodo paints his altruistic nature as insane.

Computer_Chef

Yet again the point is proven. Hippies are great at ideating and hot unshaven hippy love on the side, but never put one in charge of anything more important than sandwich pickup. That, and never go with them to a second location.

Whether the OLPC was a good idea in theory or not, in practice Negroponte has consistently assumed that his vision was the "correct" way, and that he was above and beyond economic and political reality. The implementaion has suffered greatly as a result.

junyo

OLPC - might still work.

Its called patience and/ or vision.

flyboy

AMD should dive in and support Negroponte with free stuff.

dcartist

@gerbick: Is Gizmodo really anti-OLPC? or are they just commenting on the fact that OLPC is obviously a failure. I remember them claiming less than $100 dollar laptops, and ones that would help educate kids, when all they designed were $200 devices that can't do much at all.

wvv

Negroponte is a narcissist.

Reports from CNN are saying that OLPC 2.0 has an extendable mirror that pulls out of the top of it so he can see his Tales of the Crypt'esque' mug of his at all times while doing 60 minutes interviews.

CT7

The OLPC project was ALWAYS a mess. They where HANDED help from Microsoft, Apple and other companies, completely free and thus able to match or even possibly be sold UNDER the proposed 100 dollar price tag and Negroponte said no out of warped as hell issues he had and a requirements that it could not use components of any big corporation, even if they where getting them for FREE.

OLPC was a great idea, but Negroponte should have been tossed off it 4 years ago and locked out of the MIT gates. He is the number 1 WORST enemy the project ever had, not its competition. The guy needs serious psychological help.

Falconfire

The OLPC project is a mess. All we hear about is the negative press. No wonder Intel walked.

bms

NN deserves to be trashed. The way he's run this is as a vanity project rather than an aid project. If his intentions were altruistic, he would've enlisted help from EVERYONE who wanted to. Apple, Microsoft, Intel, etc. All could've created a sum much greater than the parts.

But no. NicNeg wanted this [b]his[/b] way. Well, he got it. And the OLPC is a failure as a result. His demand for Intel to stop selling CPUs to other customers is just risible.

Buford T. Justice

@djdare: Completely agreed. The whole OLPC is like a South Park episode. How about clean water and vaccinations first and then help these third world kids send some spam about the Euro Lotto?

getz76

@oldmanstan: Exactly.
.
Negroponte attempting to stifle commercial competition is self defeating. If he really wanted to help poor kids get computers, the very best thing that could happen is big companies compete for that space, driving price down and quality up. He should encourage big companies to put him out of business by developing better solutions... unless his own self-aggrandizement is more important to him than the organizational mission.

frigg

Negropnote is a douche. He should be hardware agnostic. Why should he care which machine makes it? So long as he fulfills his mission of getting a laptop to every poor child in the third world.

Noobs-R-Us

This is the way Negroponte and his MIT buddy Bernie Krisher operate in the third world. They dream up big idealistic projects, and then shove it onto poor rural people. Like building schools in the jungle that have broadband internet access, even though the teachers won't teach the kids to read unless they get bribes.

One of their projects involves distributing mosquito nets in villages, but they refuse to cooperate with NGOs trying to treat malaria or teach villagers how to prevent outbreaks by draining wet areas or covering water tanks. And if another NGO comes in and tries to blast wells, they throw a hissyfit.

Negroponte and Krisher are wealthy and influential, it doesn't mean they know what they're doing.

Sihanouk-s-Poodle

Maybe I'm missing something. But this entire OLPC started with an arogant thumb-in-the-nose venture at everyone and everything, including the very principles and organizations needed to make it successful. Now it chicken is about to roost and it needs a viable business model and support from those it ignored as being of value. And yet the OLPC continues with their thumb-in-their-nose attitute. It's Intel's fault. Right! Good intensions, great ideas, good people, good techology, hard work; lousy business model.

And oh yes, it is true this is not about technology. It never is. Anyone who has been around IT with their eyes opened knows that the hardware costs are around 10% of the total life-cycle costs of ownership & success. A $100 price-point for a laptop is not the issue. The rest of the value-chain and how this is set up and implemented...that is the issue. And that doesn't exist. The ultimate success-failure of this was set in motion and predictable years ago. Anyone that thought otherwise was sniffing fumes from the bursting of the tech bubble years back...the false notion that these new technology ventures don't need to abide by traditional business models...they're different.

DarrellOwen

Since when has the OLPC project always been a mess? The reason Windows and OS-X were rejected was because Apple and Microsoft refused to let their OS's be open source. That's why it's running Linux. As for the technology, no one has produced anything that comes close to it.

ASUS puts a solid state HD in a crappy laptop and the blogosphere can't stop gushing about it. But the XO, which is truly revolutionary, gets slammed. This is the only site where I've seen it deemed a "failure" while crap machines like the EEE and Classmate are hailed as successes because they run Windows. That's pretty sad.

To me, it seemed that Intel joined OLPC more to try and get their greedy hands on the hardware design and not out of altruistic reasons.

If you want to compare your EEE or Classmate to my XO then let's make a fair comparison. Let's go to the beach where I plan to use my XO and we'll see how the machines compare. After a few hours of squinting at the screen and watching your power source dwindle then we'll talk about the glory of all the software your EEE can run - if only you could see it.

blaerk

@falconfire: how would a free version of XP or OSX halve the cost of the laptop? do you think the hardware costs $99 and the sugar OS costs $120?

bspp

The whole "kids need food, not laptops" argument is the definition of shortsighted.

The jealousy argument is flawed as well. NN is trying to place a learning tool into the hands of third world kids, something that has the potential to shape the minds of these children and possibly eliminate the technology gap in a generation. Intel (Classmate PC) and Microsoft ($3 Windows initiative) are trying to undermine the project, which will kill OLPC so they can ultimately pull out due to the lack of profitability. And of course at that point everyone who now thinks we should have just bought them all hamburgers will be visionaries.

bspp

@Gerbick: Only because the price has been adding up like some mathlete on steroids.

FalconBeach