“Hardware is a small part of the cost”
…“If you are going to go have people share the computer, get a broadband connection and have somebody there who can help support the user, geez, get a decent computer where you can actually read the text and you’re not sitting there cranking the thing while you’re trying to type,”
What else could the chairman of a Microsoft say? I read an article on Gates mocking MIT’s $100 laptop which made me think a little about Microsoft’s view of the world and rural populations in the world. MIT’s $100 project is not to create a fancy toy or a niche product for gadget enthusiasts. Its definitely not to create a ultra-portable device to help people who are not able to carry their notebooks when going on a trip to the country side! The project is to make computers affordable and usable by the rural masses.
Gates should probably come out of Redmond, go to the rural parts of the many developing and under-developed countries. In many of these places even small companies cannot afford a regular computer system - leave alone a notebook! Hardware is definitely a small part of creating computing capabilities, but could Mr.Gates mind going through his haloween documents and say the samething again? There is better quality software that comes for free, it costs nothing and it is free in many more senses.
I am Prasad Sunkari,
co-founder of