I believe in computers, so when I heard about the One Laptop Per Child project, I got really excited. Then after reading the background of the project, I got even more excited. While these laptops are computers, the first intended use for them is not as a computer, but as an e-book reader. In the initially targeted countries they have a problem in acquiring textbooks, keeping up to date, especially in their native tongue.

This article by the highly respected Robin Miller, “Commentary: Gates wants poor to spend $600+, not $100 or $200, for computers” is disappointing. While properly skewering Bill Gates and his recent comments about the OLPC project, he throws in some FUD of his own. The bottom line is this: something close to 1 out of every 6 people in the world have never even seen a computer. The first one they do see, I want to run Linux and be full of other FOSS (Free and Open Source Software). Any deeper analysis than that, frankly, I don’t care to hear about. I believe in this project in my soul. I know it is the right thing to do. This is not a zero sum game. If this project wants to try and put a computer into the hands of millions of people, it doesn’t mean instead of providing people sustainable water and food. Who know? Maybe providing computers to more people will help us find out how to provide water and food; by none other than the people that receive these computers and most need it.