Bill Gates Mocks the MIT $100 Wireless Laptop Project

Posted Mar 16th 2006 10:32AM by Brian White
Filed under: WiFi, LAN - Local, PAN - personal, Applications, Business

Well, Gates has done it before - mocked certain technologies and products only to see them try to overwhelm Microsoft, who then has made it a habit of rapid-fire catchup to ensure the franchises that add billions to the Microsoft coffers are covered. But, what has he to gain by making fun of a $100 laptop with built-in wireless mesh networking meant to assist low-income countries and villages into sharing information among themselves and even globally? Remember, many of these people have never seen a computer, much less Windows.

Lacking a hard disk and having a smaller-than-normal screen are secondary to the potential these devices have to transform the exchange of information from and to people who previously had not even touched a computer. Is the lack of a hard drive a huge label of doom to these devices? No. Unless, of course, these devices use any recent form of Windows, considered "bloatware" by many. You don't need a Windows OS to connect people using inexpensive devices through wireless mesh networking. Although most of the civilized world is "hooked" on Windows, new customers need a cheap and intuitive interface to the world and they will be just fine. With Google backing the OLPC, this in and of itself makes me think it will flourish.

Now, if Microsoft can get the disappointing "Origami" devices to $100, I'll change my mind. But $1,000? Where is this market at? Who wants to own a full-capability laptop, an Origami device AND a Windows Smartphone?

Reader Comments

(Page 1)

1. Great post. I couldn't agree more. "Bloatware." I'm still laughing over that. Kudos.

Posted at 7:08PM on Mar 16th 2006 by Rand

2. Lacking facts. What did Bill Gates say? How did he "mock" the project? What is the source? Interesting topic, but I was disappointed in your lack of support.

Posted at 3:46PM on Mar 18th 2006 by Jeff

3. Hi Jeff,

Use the "Read" link at the bottom of my post to see my source for the post and why I took the stance I did on the post about the story.

Posted at 4:20PM on Mar 18th 2006 by Brian

4. If these laptops have internet access, then why do they necessarily need hard drives? Several companies, including AOL with XDrive and others offer online storage. With most any free email account, you can get 100mb of storage. It shouldn't be terribly difficult to envision some company cropping up offering some extra free storage too. In fact, perhaps manufacturers should quit trying to cram more GBs into Palms and PPCs, and support an ad-supported, online storage interface. People in Africa probably don't have to worry a lot about security as they won't be using these laptops for banking, online trading etc.

Heck, if were confident in the security, I would definitely prefer online storage. Why deal with defragmenting, corrupt files etc?

As long as there are enough internet cafes [hotspots] or good wireless coverage in the area, why not store online? At least that way, you don't have to worry about it disappearing (as long as you stick with a financially stable company that's not gonna start charging after picking up customers).

Posted at 9:29PM on Mar 18th 2006 by EP

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