Earlier this week, the New York Times reported that the government of Libya has agreed to order 1.2 million computers from Nicholas Negroponte’s One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Project.
“When I met with Qaddafi, it had all the mystique and trimmings expected: middle of the desert, in a tent, 50 degrees C. etc.,†Mr. Negroponte, who was traveling to Asia on Tuesday, wrote in an e-mail message. “It took him very little time to find O.L.P.C. appealing as an idea.â€
The article doesn’t put Microsoft in a very good light because it suggests that Microsoft refused to sell its Windows operating system to OLPC for an acceptable price. Also, see my related previous post on Intel’s Classmate PC.