A British company is actually shipping a $35 computer.
http://www.raspberrypi.org
It says it wants children all over the world to learn programming. I’m not sure that this device will make it happen.
Aside from its capabilities (512MB of RAM?), it’s both too expensive (when the cost of a screen is added) for the truly poor people in the Third World (24 of the world’s 191 countries have GDP per capita of less than $1k/year), and too cheap for everyone else.
Born hackers who cannot afford anything else will welcome it, although how they could realise what their destiny is under such conditions is unclear. Anyway, they are not many.
The rest of the proletariat and its offspring will have no patience for something like this just as they haven’t had for netbooks, Web-only computers, Web-via-TV, Windows CE devices, the netbooting version of the original soapdish iMac, and their ilk. The smallest of the netbooks got some sales on the cuteness factor but that wore off once it became clear that this was mere emptiness masquarading as a kitten.
Patience and perseverance is for pros. The great unwashed require luxury.
No comments:
Post a Comment