> http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/03/30/stories/2006033001820300.htm
>
> ...
>
> In a bid to take computers to the rural communities in India, global
> chip major Intel unveiled ...
What happened to the Simputer project that got quite a bit of press a few years back? It had similar goals. http://www.rediff.com/money/2001/apr/24spec.htm http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,44642,00.html
Is anyone in India looking at the MIT Media Lab hundred dollar laptop project? That is aimed mainly at schools, rather than general use, but there's considerable overlap both in goals and in the problems that need to be solved. http://laptop.media.mit.edu/
> Intel's solution partners for the initiative include NIIT, Microsoft,
> ... the community PC range may be priced
> at Rs 20,000 to Rs 30,000.
Interesting. The Simputer was targeted at under Rs 10,000. A web check shows Rs 20,000 as about US$ 450, so Intel is way above MIT's goal too.
How much of that goes to Microsoft? Neither Simputer nor the MIT design uses proprietary software; they're all Open Source.
-- Sandy Harris Zhuhai, Guangdong, China