"[...] current PC technology is totally sufficient for most office tasks and consumers desires and [...] any performance bottleneck is not in today’s PC’s but in today’s COM pipes. This in itself might slow down replacement cycles and life time shortening until we find true MIPS eating applications - a priority not only Intel should subscribe to."
--Joachim Kempin, Senior vice president for OEM sales, Microsoft
Some children in Nigeria have
gotten hold of OLPC's 'competition', which is the Intel Classmate. You may find the following quite curious:
The renovation has been paid for by the government and Intel, with the chip firm covering the majority of the costs of the technology.
As you can see, Intel has resorted to dumping techniques in its fight not only against AMD but also against a charity. It is suppression and a stranglehold using the depth of one's pocket. A source was identified which claims that Eee PC may serve a role in this plot as well.
Just to refresh your memory, Microsoft has meanwhile been using bribes in order to fight something which is hard to combat without incentives. It tried to defeat Free software (Mandriva Linux in this case) and it has
similar plans in Russia where Intel is assisting Microsoft in the fight against transition to GNU/Linux in all schools (localised Mandriva derivative called ALT Linux).
Do remember that this is not even a case of giving something for free. In this case, Intel
loses money just to crush the competition, which is illegal (economists would name it "dumping"). This has been yet another demonstration of
monopoly abuse.
You will find more information in the following items (and the items cited therein):
There are some valuable references in the items above, so they do not need to be repeated or explained further. They are necessary for context however.
The story about Intel's (and Microsoft's) sabotage of the OLPC is a disgrace, but what's most disturbing is the
the media's fear of proper coverage. Groklaw will give you a good idea of what
really happened. There are other issues that Intel is yet to face for its abuses, e.g.:
Kickbacks
Hiding of evidence
Corruptions identified
We hope that somebody finds these links helpful. Intel's systematic abuses make some of us embarrassed and since knowledge is our friend it needs to be shared.
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"There are no significant threats to the Intel or Microsoft desktop PC franchises through 2003."
--Chris Goodhue, Gartner Group analyst (c/f Microsoft association)
