> If the advantages of the Simputer at $480 are so much greater than that of > the desktop at less, let's urge small churches or cafes or schools in the > poorer nations to buy one or two or three and share them, until such time > as the folks in the community can afford to buy their own. >
This was *exactly* the design model of the Simputer. The only thing that the individual *might* own (and they do not *have* to own one) is the flash card. By the way, this has another advantage in that training in how to use it (if any is needed) can be concentrated in the church, cafe or school, and given to individuals on an as-needed basis. Illiterate people do not *need* to know how to use a word processor, but they might need to know how to find and press the "fish icon" that shows them the price of fish in the next nearest city. On the other hand, there is no reason why manufacturing in larger quantities can not bring down the price so more and more people (or churches, cafes and schools) can afford them. md -- Jon "maddog" Hall Executive Director Linux International(R) email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St. Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. WWW: http://www.li.org Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association (R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. (R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other countries. _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
