US$100 Windup Linux Laptop for Schools in Developing Countries
This is fairly old news now but MIT have developed a US$100 laptop that runs Linux for distribution to schools in the developing world via government programs. MIT has a website for the laptop (which is not yet in production), but the pictures that are available show it in a rather shocking luminous green colour!
The specs are (according to the FAQ):
The proposed $100 machine will be a Linux-based, full-color, full-screen laptop that will use innovative power (including wind-up) and will be able to do most everything except store huge amounts of data. This rugged laptop will be WiFi-enabled and have USB ports galore. Its current specifications are: 500MHz, 1GB, 1 Megapixel.
There is no “Why that colour ?” question in the FAQ unfortunately..
November 23rd, 2005 at 3:20 am
I also guess that they avoided military-looking colours, colours that show dirt readily, and colours used for dangerous things, although there are some chemical drums made in approcimately this colour.
November 23rd, 2005 at 3:48 am
They’d also want to avoid colours associated with bad luck, and it also needed to be cheap too. Of course this is a sample size of 1, they may come in a small range, or it could be the old Henry Ford “any colour you like as long as it’s green”.
June 10th, 2006 at 5:59 pm
[...] The first working prototype of the Linux wind-up laptop at the center of the One Laptop Per Child Project has been demonstrated at the Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange What’s Next Forum by Nicholas Negroponte running a cut-down version of Fedora Linux in glowing orange (at least it’s no longer shocking green). [...]
March 19th, 2007 at 10:40 pm
yayayayayayayayayayay i WANT one.