Sure these laptops are not for everyone - but that doesn't make them useless!

Sure these laptops are not for everyone - but that doesn't make them useless!

Posted Feb 6, 2006 16:48 UTC (Mon) by pdundas (subscriber, #15203)
Parent article: $100 Laptop: Great for the world, great for Linux (ZDNet)

It seems to me that computers at this price might be useful for those third world students (particularly with technical aptitude) who are privileged enough to take up post primary education, but not quite rich enough to afford computers at conventional prices. There must be quite a few people like this.

Not everyone in poor countries is penniless, homeless and starving. Even if education is effectively limited to an elite, anything that expands the size of that elite, by making the education more affordable, must be a good thing.

Copying e-texts is only one application. Programming the things is another (less mainstream perhaps). But I'm sure that at least some of the new ownwers of these machines can come up with other profitable uses for them.

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