A laptop for $ 100

Do you think a laptop sold for $ 100 serves only as a toy for your kid? It’s time for a second thought.

The idea of a $ 100 laptop is not new. Prof Nicholas Negroponte, Chairman and Co Founder of Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab, unveiled such a project in 2005. The project, named One Laptop per Child (OLPC) is aimed mainly at computer education for children of the poorer countries.

The laptop is yet to hit the market, but solid orders from governments keep flowing in.

The project has big names like eBay, Google, AMD, News Corp, Nortel Networks, Red Hat etc as patrons, each of which has contributed in the tune of $ 2m for the project.

The proposed Linux machine comes without a hard drive. A 500 MHz AMD Processor and 128 MB RAM provides more than basic performance. It does comes with a 500 MB Flash memory and four USB ports, leaving enough scope for external extra memory. Wireless broadband connectivity comes as icing on the cake.

Intel and HP too have plans to roll out similar projects.

This would open up chances of internet cafés in all villages, creating more and more entrepreneurs. The computer will also be enough for basic data entry jobs that are largely outsourced today. Back offices of Silicon Valley can go to the living rooms of India, Philippines and Malaysia.