MIT’s $100 Laptop
To serve the needs of the global educational sector, the MIT Media Lab is building a “$100 laptop” for educational users in the developing world. “The idea is to distribute the machines through those ministries of education willing to adopt a policy of ‘one laptop per child.’ Initial discussions have been held with China, where there are approximately 220 million students (for which an order would drive prices way down). In addition, smaller countries will be selected for beta testing. Initial orders will be limited to a minimum of one million units (with appropriate financing).”
The laptops will run Linux (of course) and will have relatively modest hardware — 12″ color screen, 500 Mhz processor and 1 GB of storage. However, these specs are less than 10 years behind the cutting edge and still the price is almost unbelievable.