Bravo, Intel

Bravo, Intel. For years now you've been doing yourself a disservice, generating heaps of bad PR by competing with the altruistic One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project. Sure, I can sympathize with you a bit--after all, you did get snubbed by the OLPC folks when they decided to go with AMD chips in the XO laptop. But can you blame them? They were trying to keep the thing affordable and while Intel may have the performance edge, nobody knows a deal like AMD.

Of course, there's also money to be made in selling hardware and software to developing nations, even at a loss. These markets may someday grow thousands, if not millions, of tech consumers and I really can't blame you for wanting a piece of that pie. But was competing with the OLPC project really the way to go? While they used open standards and free software, you tried to build a machine with a closed architecture. And where did that get you? You ended up with a more expensive PC ($250 to the XO's $179) that remains in limbo to this day while the XO gets ready to ship. Face the facts Intel, you lost.

However, I must say I am pleased to hear you're finally putting your differences with the OLPC folks aside and putting your weight behind the project (see today's top story in "Geek News"). It takes a great amount of humility to admit you've lost and it takes an even greater amount of humility to help out a one-time rival. Ultimately, you're doing yourself a favor: all that name-calling was only making you look bad in the public eye. This way, you'll have a say in the future direction of the project, the OLPC folks will get some much-needed funding and a few thousand kids will get their first computers. Everybody wins. Difficult though it may be, I really feel like you're making the right choice here. You know what they say, Intel: better late than never. -Mehan