MIT Declines Free OS X for $100 Laptop. Demo Soon

[Veedems Veteran]

A working prototype of the much anticipated MIT $100 laptop will be shown off at a U.N. technology conference on Wednesday. While there is still much development to be done, production could begin in late 2006 or early 2007, according to the Wall Street Journal.

At least two dozen countries have expressed a desire to purchase the laptop, with Brazil and Thailand the most interested. Although the device is aimed at children in developing countries, the state of Massachusetts is considering spending $54 million to give a laptop to every middle and high school student in the state.

Google, AMD, Red Hat, News Corp. and Brightstar have all pledged $2 million to a non-profit group called One Laptop Per Child, which oversees the project. Furthermore, five companies are vying to produce the system, according to officials.

Other technology players are also interested in joining the project. Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and strategy CTO Craig Mundie met with Nicholas Negroponte, MIT Media Lab's founding chairman, to discuss the project last week. While Microsoft is not formally involved with the project, discussions are ongoing to determine what role the company could play.

Apple even offered a helping hand, but it appears as if MIT was not interested. CEO Steve Jobs reportedly said Apple would provide free copies of Mac OS X for use in the laptop; however, officials declined as the operating system is not open source. It should be noted that a good deal of the Mac OS X operating system is indeed open source, as it is based on UNIX.

Full Story @ BetaNews

[Caleo Global Moderator]

Owned?

Tbh, I think it's what they deserve for trying to ###### popularity by being the OS on the laptop. :p

[fascist]

Hey he gets some good feedback for helping the poor, but he dosent have to pay.

[madnuke]

Apple got 0wned, Tell Jobs to shove that up his pipe and smoke it, :p

Just because he wants to spread Apples OS around why not give it for free or release OS X x86? Besides would it even run on the $100 laptop?

[Veedems Veteran]

I think the rejection would lie in concerns that the offer may not always stand. Nothing like having it free one day and being without a supplier the next.

[Caleo Global Moderator]

I think the rejection would lie in concerns that the offer may not always stand. Nothing like having it free one day and being without a supplier the next.

586814547[/snapback]

Haha..

"We'll give you free copies for the first wave. But when you start distributing them we'll make you pay XXX dollars per copy!" :x

[Evolution]

or perhaps it might have been seen as some sort of massive advertising campaign... imagine 90% of computer users running OS X, if there is a massive production in these $100 notebooks for 3rd world students.

And yes, if you get them hooked on one type of OS, it's not exactly convenient to change it along the way, i.e. 5 years from now.

[Veedems Veteran]

or perhaps it might have been seen as some sort of massive advertising campaign...  imagine 90% of computer users running OS X, if there is a massive production in these $100 notebooks for 3rd world students.

586814608[/snapback]

Don't you think RedHat is going to use this as an unofficial ad campaign too? No matter what, someone is going to benefit a little.

[tomcat68]

Apple was denied because their OS isn't open source... yet it sounds like MS is trying to get their pesky OS in it... which is FAR from being open source?!?!? WTF!?!?!? :rolleyes:

Tomcat

[Veedems Veteran]

OS upgrades to the next version will not be free,

while RH upgrades are free.

586814656[/snapback]

Another point I've been trying to post for the past 5 minutes lol. Damn servers.

[Express]

OS upgrades to the next version will not be free,

while RH upgrades are free.

[CaKeY]

Don't you think RedHat is going to use this as an unofficial ad campaign too? No matter what, someone is going to benefit a little.

586814611[/snapback]

Well, Red Hat also donated millions of dollars and the OS WILL be 100% open source. Two things Apple didnt/doesnt bring to the table.

[Leddy]

Nah uh. Red Hat charges for Enterprise Linux. The "free" flavour is Fedora.

[CaKeY]

Free or not it IS open source. Whats your point Leddy?

[dw2003]

hmmm News Corp eh... sounds dodgy :ninja:

[tOta]

I would be intrested to buy such a laptop... Im in a high school so this would be great deal for me.

IMO its better to make a distro for this laptops. Something like a multimedia/offce distro ;)

[markwolfe Veteran]

Nah uh. Red Hat charges for Enterprise Linux. The "free" flavour is Fedora.

586814858[/snapback]

They offer a service contract that you can pay for, but oddly enough, you can find their Red Hat Enterprise Linux offerings here: ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/enterprise/

No charge, of course.

[madnuke]

I hope they do actually comercialy release these laptops, I know many people would buy it.

[markwolfe Veteran]

^^^ Yes, there was another thread here announcing the concept was going forward. It mentioned that they were considering letting commercial manufacturers build and sell these for 'regular' consumers, at a markup - $200 was mentioned as a possible price point.

Sounds like a decent deal on a package that looks to be pretty cool (and with a hand-crank, so you can use it as long as you need to without access to a regular AC outlet). (Y)