BILL GATES ON MIT'S $100 PC

Gates and the $100 PC

A case of sour grapes? Gates scoffs at $100 PC for developing nations.

The Gates ire is usually considered to be a blessing in disguise. After all, you aren't doing to badly if Gates notices you. Now Bill Gates has inadvertently managed to channelize much publicity and kudos to the concept of the $100 laptop PC, being developed by MIT Media Labs' chairman and founder Nicholas Negroponte, by ridiculing it.

The laptop, which is being backed by rival Google, is geared towards a relatively untapped market. Lacking features such as a hard disk and software, it also skimps on several features that go into the typical PC. Gates, speaking at the Microsoft Government Leaders Forum in suburban Washington, was quick to pounce on that, saying "The last thing you want to do for a shared use computer is have it be something without a disk ... and with a tiny little screen."

If Mr. Gates had paid attention to what happened to another well-known computing bigwig, he might have opted to remain silent. When Intel chairman Craig Barrett commented on the PC by saying, "Mr. Negroponte has called it a $100 laptop — I think a more realistic title should be 'the $100 gadget'," and that "It turns out what people are looking for is something that has the full functionality of a PC. [Something] reprogrammable to run all the applications of a grown up PC… not dependent for hand cranks for power," he earned himself much ironic contempt from the media, who projected his response as coming from nerves about the competition rather than any expertise on the technology. An engadget.com report pointed out the irony aptly, saying "we certainly do get a kick out of a multi-millionaire businessmen yammering on about what the world's poor really want from a computer while the competition is, um, hanging out with Kofi Annan and garnering UN support."

What is the $100 PC? Negroponte sums up his project with the slogan "one laptop per child," and aims to have it completed by the end of this year. According to him, such a laptop, which would be more than a textbook, could greatly benefit poor children from developing countries by becoming an important educational tool, perhaps for the entire village.

Although he admitted that the manufacturers would be making money off the venture, he clarified that this was not a profit venture. And perhaps this will be its biggest selling point. Negroponte is already talking to the Chinese education ministry and a bulk order of a million laptops may be placed.

Perhaps what is rankling Gates is that the PC will be using a Linux operating system. If the PC catches on and truly becomes the tool Negroponte is visualizing it to be, orders for it would far exceed that of its upper-crust Windows running cousins. On the other hand, maybe Gates is right, maybe he's the real philanthropist, and is actually concerned about the PC not being good enough for the poor children of the world.

Let's not forget though, that technology geared towards the poor is rare. Medical research that works with 'poor' maladies is rare (though obesity and heart problems will find the funding, never mind the small percentile that needs it). Contraception that would not harm the woman or require her to use it has only recently been developed. And medication for AIDS does not come cheap. Is Mr.Gates' comment really about imperfect technology or a disdain for perfect technology that does not immediately produce profits?