Washington Post: MIT $100 laptops for world's children use Linux

[Kevin Cole]

[This is the latest update on a story I sent out to a few lists several months
ago. For info straight from the sources' mouth, see Negroponte's web site at
http://laptop.media.mit.edu/ -- KJC]

Source: Washington Post Express, Monday, 10.03.2005, p. 14
URL:    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/express/pdfs/EXPRESS_10032005.pdf

CRANK UP THE $100 LAPTOP

CHEAP COMPUTING | The $100 laptop computers that Massachusetts Institute of
Technology researchers want to get into the hands of the world's children
would be durable, flexible, and self-reliant.

The machine's AC adapter would double as a carrying strap, an a hand crank
would power them when there's no electricity. They'd be foldable into more
positions than traditional notebook PC's, and carried like slim lunchboxes.

And surrounding it all, the laptops would have a rubber casing that closes
tightly, because "they have to be absolutely indestructible" said Nicholas
Negroponte, the MIT Media Lab leader who offered an update on Wednesday.

While a prototype isn't expected until November, Negroponte unveiled
blueprints at Technology Review magazine's Emerging Technologies conference
at MIT.  Among the key specs: A 500-megahertz processor (that was fast in
the 1990s but slow by today's standards) by Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)
and flash memory instead of a hard drive with moving parts.  To save on soft-
ware costs, the laptops would run the freely available Linux operating
system instead of Windows. (AP)