Re: [Fsfe-uk] Time to boycot OLPC?

[Ian Lynch]

> Well, I agree with that (to the extent that you realise you're dependent 
> on the investment of others ;), but again, it doesn't matter how cheap 
> you can get it unless customers want it, and I think that's the problem 
> OLPC have bumped into.

I wonder if they had a more conventional looking machine it might have
been an easier sale? In the East European market where we are targeted I
would much rather try and lease a service at say 6 Euros a month with an
Ink media machine than try the same at 4 Euros with a OLPC even though
it is a price sensitive market. I think by the time we really get going
we could have the price down to 4 Euos anyway. Since we are selling a
service we can offer the clients a choice. OLPC (except we can't source
them, I tried ;-) ) ASUS EEEPC, Elonex one, InkMedia or a conventional
Windows PC laptop - really we don't care about the device except in that
it makes our content and qualifications accessible and it is a price
sensitive market. I'm guessing somethig low cost, very close to what
they are used to seeing with Windows but without viruses etc might well
be attractive.

> >>  and that's basically what has happened to the OLPC project, 
> >> except that there 'education' supplants software, to seed the kind of 
> >> self-learning that 8-bit micros did. They've just realised that you 
> >> don't need free software to do that.
> >>     
> >
> > You don't if the software license costs come down to zero or very close
> > to it. Free software is likely to be instrumental in making that happen
> > though and then as stuff moves to the web the desktop OS will become
> > irrelevant anyway. I think that is probably worse for MS than for anyone
> > else. 
> >   
> 
> Possibly. I'm not sure; I think that would require a much greater degree 
> of commoditization than currently exists and is likely to exist in the 
> next 10-15 years. I don't think price is the issue at this point; you 
> basically can't give a free desktop away at the moment.

I think that is mainly fear about running apps. The more apps get ported
to Linux and the more move to the web the more that fear reduces. As
fear reduces and confidence grows more people will change and MS will
reduce prices. It might take 10-15 years but I'd be surprised if it was
that long given the changes in the last 5.

Ian
-- 
New QCA Accredited IT Qualifications
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