I'm not sure I really get this project. I don't know much about it, but it seems they had a starting vision of how this would work & are now in the process of squeezing it into reality.
Is technology really the issue here? Is the operating system or dust proof case really the bottleneck?
1. They are giving away machines at about ~100 dollars less than a basic Dell machine (and Dell can probably go even lower when dealing with governments). These machines are vastly inferior to a Dell machine, and Windows, like it or not, is a more suitable OS for business and educational purposes.
2. They are missing out on a key fact: Computers are just not that useful for education. Yes, you can get a world of information from them, but if you actually see young people interact with them, it's mostly games and social sites and porno. This was true when I was a kid (except for the porno), and still is from my observations. A small number of students will actually use the computers to real effect.
3. AND that small number of kids can be serviced by a few computers per school. Think Gates and Allen at their school's single mainframe hookup.
1 The first one I agree is a huge problem. Their machines are not inherently better then commercial machines that can produced. They may be designed with a particular purpose in mind, but they are vision driven, not market driven. There is an ideological notion here about what sort of machine should be available that just shouldn't be there.
2 & 3 I think they were trying to address these with the software & the personal laptop issue. Sticking a few machines in a school means they support whatever the school was doing before, innovation will probably not happen this way. They probably don't have that much of an advantage there.
The way I see it, they're not that far off base but they still may be completely irrelevant. Computer literacy is important in that later on, at 15 or 18 or 25 those kids will be able to decide "I want to learn to program" or "I need to know accounting" or "I want to know if what this politician is saying is BS" or "I want to start an internet business" & go do it. You need to be comfortable enough with the machine to know where to start.
I know that if I want to know about bookkeeping or the French Revolution or growing sweet potatoes in slightly acidic sandy soil, I can do it online. It's about making it cheaper & easier for people everyone to know this too.
Is technology really the issue here? Is the operating system or dust proof case really the bottleneck?