I was thinking about the $100 laptop project this morning, then amazingly there was news about it today, on how you can buy two with one to give away to those in need.
The laptop is still priced above $100, there there’s no need to wait for that price to come down. Want to get a $100 laptop now? Here you go.
That’s eBay, with plenty of old laptops for sale at that price or lower. Why aren’t we just refurbishing these laptops for use?
I was pondering all this when I was flipping through a computer magazine this morning. That magazine always does a “flashback” showing what was covered 5, 10 and 15 years ago. Looking at all those machines they covered then, I thought how these are all perfectly fine for use — it’s just in our disposable society, we move on.
I’ve got at least five old laptops sitting in the cabinets behind me, ones that I’ve moved on from over the years. There’s nothing wrong with them, other than I moved up to more powerful software.
Ah, but the $100 laptop project is supposed to be durable, no moving parts, powered by solar, be waterproof. OK, I get that. But seriously, there’s no way for us to better figure out what to do with old, good computer and cycle them down as hand-me-downs that could help others, rather than them gathering dust or hitting dumpyards?
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Ha, my phone costs more than that.
It’s funny — just last week I re-purposed my old laptop by putting a big, faster harddrive in it. It should work fine for years with xp/office ’03 — so long as I don’t make the mistake of taking the software beyond what the hardware was built for.
I donate all computers, I no longer use, to various charities or kids, who I know would appreciate it. But, back when I just started my business, I used to line them up and build linux internet servers, all running off a DSL line. That was pretty fun – a mini intra net in my living room.
From what I understand, this is still standard to linux system administrator community – we keep the smallest computer we have and try to create the smallest OS possible to fit in one.
That doesn’t quite help does it? (I’m way too geeky, I suppose.)
What the …. !!!!! are you talking about
I am due to go back to Africa in mid May, I want to bring back some computers however old they are, it would be a big boost to the education of the village students. I am bringing two students with me to have them share their educational experiences with this trip.
Great Thinking Ben. I wish you good luck.
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