# Gates Whines that Windows Won't be on $100 Laptops

Seems [Bill Gates has his shorts in a bunch][1] over [MIT's $100
laptop program][2]. The laptops are meant for developing countries,
with the intent that governments will purchase the laptops and give
them to children for free. They will come with GNU/Linux installed,
and with the ability to mesh wirelessly with other laptops nearby,
allowing for sharing of (possibly rare) Internet connections. They
are also designed to be rugged, and have a hand-crank for use
without power. The LCD has a high-contrast mode for use in bright
sunlight. They will have 500MB flash drives, but no hard
drive. Obviously, they are designed for use in environments that
normal laptops would last about 5 minutes in. According to the
article, Gates is quoted as saying:

> "The last thing you want to do for a shared use computer is have
> it be something without a disk ... and with a tiny little
> screen..."

Well, 500MB would hold about one or two Word documents of almost any
size (anyone else noticed that?), but plenty of OpenOffice.org docs
or program text. And:

> "Hardware is a small part of the cost" of providing computing
> capabilities, he said, adding that the big costs come from network
> connectivity, applications and support."

I think Bill is just a little out of touch with the mainstream. Has
he forgotten that software is becoming a commodity? Does he get that
Windows would cost more than the laptop itself? Applications? Every
Linux distro I've used has come with more usable apps than I can
shake a stick at, no licenses required. Support? I suppose Bill
would love it if kids in developing countries called MS's support
line for help every time they blue-screened, oh, wait, most of them
don't have phones, let alone a credit card to pay for the
support. They can support themselves with Linux, let's give them
some credit, kids will be resourceful if offered the chance. Network
connectivity? The idea is that kids will be able to form ad-hoc mesh
networks amongst themselves, and perhaps share a single Internet
connection, if it is available. But the best quote is this one:

> "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..."

I suppose he wants to pay for the infrastructure to bring broadband
to developing nations (the scary thing is, he could probably afford
it). I know he's being "funny" with the crank comment, but you crank
it first, then type. And I suppose Bill has just such a "decent"
computer he can offer? Oh, yeah:

> ...a new "ultra-mobile computer" which runs Microsoft Windows on a
> seven-inch (17.78-centimeter) touch screen. Those machines are
> expected to sell for between $599 and $999...

I suppose we could get MS to give away a few million units for
"charity", let's throw in the OS license for free and MS Office
licenses and some commercial educational software, since notepad and
solitaire don't cut it in the classroom. Don't forget MS Visual
Studio, unless you don't want the kids to hack on code in their
spare time. Seven-inch screen, eh? Looks to be the same size screen
as [ the $100 laptop's planned design][3], anyway. So much for the
"tiny little screen". I guess the text would look just as small, at
least for the first few minutes of use, until the shiny
"ultra-mobile" computer was dropped and its screen broke, or the
hard drive crashed, or... Well, let's put Windows on the $100
laptop, shall we? I suppose I don't even have to mention how well
Windows XP/Vista/whatever would run on a 500 MHz laptop with 128MB
of RAM. He could just come out and say that he wishes they had
chosen Windows for the $100 laptops, but he has no real way to
justify this. At least [Steve Jobs kept his mouth shut][4].

1]: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/03/16/gates_hundred_dollar_pc/
2]: http://laptop.org/
3]: http://wiki.laptop.org/wiki/Hardware_specification
4]: https://web.archive.org/web/20060623095958/http://hardware.silicon.com/desktops/0,39024645,39154227,00.htm
.