One laptop founder hits back at Intel

Nicholas Negroponte has hit out at Intel's withdrawal of support from his One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project.

The OLPC project founder and former Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab co-founder yesterday ended his silence following Intel's announcement last week, issuing a harsh response to the chipmaker's decision.

"Intel was unable to work co-operatively with OLPC on software development. Instead, over the entire six months it was a member of the board, Intel contributed nothing to OLPC," stated Negroponte.

Intel has refused so far to add any additional comment to its original statement of events, citing "philosophical" differences between it and the OLPC board over its activities to promote non-OLPC platforms, including its own Classmate PC.

But the OLPC newsletter has endorsed a New York Times report of events leading up the announcement that suggests it was aggressive competitive tactics from Intel that did indeed lead to the breakdown in relations.

Reports of an Intel saleswoman who tried to persuade a Peruvian education minister that the Classmate PC was better than OLPC equivalent, the XO when 40,000 units of a 270,000 XO order had already begun shipping was apparently the final nail in the coffin of its relationship with Intel. Apparently she did not know that the minister was also fellow MIT alumnus with Negroponte.

"They played another dirty trick in Peru," said Negroponte. "It's a little bit like McDonald's competing with the World Food Programme."

The report also confirmed the shelving of the first demonstration of an Intel-based XO model that was due at this week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The low-cost, rugged, Linux-based operating system (OS) laptop designed for educational use in developing regions currently uses chips from Intel rival, AMD and open source software, at a price of $188 (£95). Intel's Classmate PC costs about $350 (£117.46) and runs Microsoft software.

But Christoph Derndorfer, a member of the OLPC Austria group that supports the project pointed out in the independent 'One Laptop Per Child' news blog that the non-profit organisation would do better to look at the reasons why some countries may prefer the rival Classmate.

"Maybe that Intel also provides organisations and NGOs [non-governmental organisations] with the option to purchase Classmates in quantities as low as 100 units? ('We don't talk to anyone unless he wants to buy 10.000+ laptops.')," he questioned.

Presumably wide a mind to such business concerns, reports have appeared that the OLPC may soon extend its Give One Get One campaign that ran through last November and December in North America to the UK and Europe, given its successful results announced today.

"In total, the campaign raised $35 million [£17.75 million] and more than 100,000 XO laptops are already in the process of being distributed to children in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Haiti, Mongolia and Rwanda," the OLPC stated.

IT PRO asked Intel to provide its response to the New York Times article and Negroponte comments, but the company declined to comment further.

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