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Intel’s agreement with the OLPC Foundation included a ‘non disparagement’ clause, under which Intel and One Laptop promised not to criticize each other, according to Nicholas Negroponte in the latest article in the Wall Street Journal.
The One Laptop Per Child Project and Intel have put their differences aside, at least for now, as Intel agrees to take a seat on the OLPC Board of Directors. The new "peace" between Intel and OLPC will also involve the project receiving some funding from Intel, and according to a statement, "Intel and OLPC will explore collaborations involving technology and educational content."
Hello dear reader. I've just been reading an article on News.com, which explains in some detail the exit of Intel from an OLPC alliance. It happened after some few years of disagreements and heat between the teams; and after they seemingly made up and OLPC started developing an Intel-based model (which I would love to see).
The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project has been in the news a lot in recent months. Reports last fall that Uruguay purchased 100,000 XO laptops and soon US consumers could do the same via a special campaign soon gave way to news items about a patent lawsuit and Intel's abrupt departure from OLPC's board.
Sure, the low-cost computers developed by OLPC and Intel may look cute, but actually using one reveals a host of shortcomings. In the OLPC XO, software was complicated and buggy. For weeks neither my brilliant niece, nor her well educated parents, could figure out how to get it to connect online. The Intel Classmate was no miracle of modern design, either.
"Jabi Lake Secondary School, on the outskirts of Abuja in Nigeria, is the poster child for a project set up by chip-maker Intel aimed at bridging the digital divide."
Comment:
The One Laptop Per Child Project (OLPC) is toying with a novel source of power for its low-cost XO laptops: cows. "We plan to drive a dynamo (taken from an old Fiat) through a system of belts and pulleys using cows/cattle," wrote OLPC's Arjun Sarwal
Now that OLPC plans to distribute OLPC XOs in the States through OLPC America, I sent Agnes Kwan, Intel spokeswoman, an email asking if Intel planned to compete in this market with their Classmate PC.