I’ve been reading a lot of blog posts and several news articles about OLPC, Intel Classmate PC and Magalhães. There are basically two classes of posts:

  • International posts arguing on the great technological advances of the OLPC, the mastermind behind the project or the non-profit motivation against the be-evil empire of Intel
  • Portuguese posts trashing Magalhães based on the previous arguments or about the political opportunism of the Portuguese government, the ruling party and the prime minister José Sócrates

    • Because I have a very different opinion on this subject I decided to do this post!
    Let me start by saying that I won’t argue on the technical advances of the OLPC or that Sócrates didn’t took advantage of the situation. I like Magalhães because it has a much bigger chance of being a success than OLPC. Here are some of the differences that make me think this:

  • Intel and J.P. Sá Couto (Magalhães manufacturer) are in it for the money and that’s what motivates them
  • OLPC is a NGO with great vision but no money, as stated on OLPC blog by OLPC’s founder Nicholas Negroponte: “Like many other nonprofits that are facing tough economic times”
  • Magalhães runs Windows and Linux (Caixa Mágica)
  • OLPC only supports Linux. There is a Windows port that was developed internally by Microsoft
  • Magalhães shall (I expect) be widely available in Portugal, Venezuela and other countries - The e-escolinha project will give away 1 Magalhães for each 20 Portuguese citizens
  • OLPC projects have been a nightmare mainly due to bad operations and logistics: “Other than the incredible Carla Gomez-Monroy who worked on setting up the pilots, there was no one hired to work on deployment while I was at OLPC, with Uruguay’s and Peru’s combined 360,000 laptop rollout in progress”
  • OLPC’s goal of under $100 looks great in slides and speeches, but the actual price on Amazon is $199, which can be better used helping 8 entrepreneurs around the world on Kiva
  • Magalhães is priced €258 at FNAC because Intel and J.P. Sá Couto need to pay operational costs and still make a profit

    • Basically OLPC is all about technology sand box and an utopian vision that a $100 laptop will help the poor. Magalhães is about the economic development of all the partners involved, including Intel, manufactures and countries deploying them.