I know exactly how this guy feels. I'm an IDEA man -- very innovative, but not exactly what you'd call a workhorse. Why can't I get paid just to sit here and have the ideas, and then let other people worry about the details?

Maybe I should start a one personal media device per child initiative???

Duh

@jetexas: Yes, because we don't have enough lazy fatass children lying about as it is. You know, like those kids they show in those BFE Backwater Country in Africa commercials. For only the cost of a cup of coffee each day from you, these children can lay around allowing us to make more commercials to get more money for you. They might even color something and mail it to you, or at leas we'll tell you it's from little Haji.

Damn lazy ethiopian children! I bet they claim they're starving.

Why don't we start a one cheeseburger per child initiative?

Yeah, that's a shame. Good tech people are rarely good CEO's and good CEO's are rarely good tech people. That's why so many companies can't continue to innovate.

For example, take MS. Love them or hate them, once Gates stepped down from CEO the company hasn't been the same. HP, Dell, Sony, Apple, it has happened to every company at one time or another. Once you let the "Good Business" people run your company they produce bad technology.

The best CEO's are the ones that love the Technology as much or more than the company.

@dallasmay2: Microsoft doesn't innovate. They jumped the shark well before Jobs stepped down. Once you reach a certain size it is easier to buy up companies that innovate than it is to innovate on your own. Cisco suffers from this as well.

Negroponte didn't love technology. he loved kudos and applause for being a great humanitarian. when others stepped in to compete with his humanitarian efforts, he became jealous and insane.

So a new leader was needed. a realy good one will unite all the efforts for something greater; an average one will keep OLPC floating along; a terrible one will destroy it.

Xavac,

I am as big an Apple Fanboy as anyone, but I disagree about MS never innovating. While widows was built under some questionable circumstances, MS earned the Office monopoly. Office 97 was a stellar Office suit. Unfortunately for MS they perfected the Office Suit in 1997. Few people actually use any of the features that have been tacked on since then.

Now Office Vista or 2008 or whatever they call it is just Bloatware. I have tried the Ribbon. It sucks. It's bloat. They broke Office just to sell more software. (See the business suits all over that. ) Even Bill Gates said Vista Sucks.

Another example is that Direct X was really good when it first came out. Now it's bloated DRM.

Also this was a well known problem at IBM too.

@dallasmay2: No, they've done some innovation in the past. It's just that they don't really do it anymore.

Drewheyman,

The competitors to OLPC are competitors to OLPC. They are not non-profits. Take MS for example. MS has no desire to educate the children of Africa or to created an economy there. They just want to make sure that their OS remains the monopoly. Operating system monopolies are not like other monopolies. To have a Monopoly in the OS world you have to have the Monopoly in EVERY CORNER OF THE WORLD. No exceptions. If China ever switched to Linux, people in the US would have to become compatible with them to do business.

OLPC is a great program and should be commended. A good economy is the only way to break out of the third world. And Education is the only way to build a good economy.

@dallasmay2: No, that's what the Bill & Linda Gates foundation is for. The man donated billions of dollars to start a foundation to help bring technology to 3rd world children. OLPC is right up his alley, except it doesn't run Windows.

Hey, Nick! Could you check on the status of my "give one get one" OLPC before you bail? Ordered it in December, still waiting.....

@dallasmay2:

"The competitors to OLPC are competitors to OLPC. They are not non-profits. Take MS for example. MS has no desire to educate the children of Africa or to created an economy there. They just want to make sure that their OS remains the monopoly.

The problem with OLPC is that it turned out that its non-profit goals were better met with a for-profit company. If the goal is to get a laptop into the hands of poor kids and improve their education, money grubbing corporations are actually better positioned to achieve that goal. If you genuinely care about the goal (or if OLPC genuinely cares about the goal), it shouldn't matter whether the organization that delivers it is for profit or non profit.

@dallasmay2: I agree. Big Companies tried to get into the OLPC and try very hard to make it fail.

Why? because while the actual computer is very sucky, the idea behind it is moving away from monopolies and get into free territory.

I once was organizing a class trip and everyone was going to pay $50 for a seat. The guy that handled trips on my school said why was I doing it, and to stop it and let him handle it and we rwere turning into partners, I said I wasn't make any profits, so no... So he hired a bunch of the guys in my class and made my trip fail. Of course I paid my trip but mostly no one in my class went because they couln't afford the $90 ticket.

The guy making money will go out of their way to get rid of competitors. it's capitalism.

I have one of the OLPC XO, it's the most impressive piece of technology ever made, everyone that sees it is completely hypnotized by its complete 100% innovativeness.

Asus Eee, Everex, Classmate and any of the other attempts at generating anti-OLPC bashing on the Internet are jokes in comparison, so is this Gizmodo article.

Now the OLPC CEO will be able to be a little less gentle, a little less neutral, and realize the whole potential of the OLPC technology, by selling a whole bucket load of millions of them during the next few months. This will shake-up the whole industry the way it deserves.

Laptops need to be half priced every 18 months and consume half the energy ever 18 months, read Moores law.

With name like Negroponte, it's got to be chapter 11!

@Xavoc: Going to Ethiopia in a couple weeks. I'll report back on the validity of the starvation claims. I expect mucho HIV and pico nutrition though.

@drewheyman:

i second that! the big numbre uno fail was nick himself. if they do get a really fantastic CEO, then with alot of work, and an even greater amount of luck, they may actually be able to pull this project out of the shitter.

I am a huge fan of the efforts of OLPC and even I say bravo for having him step down/aside. Hopefully they will hire a real leader and not some academic wannabe...

Of course, remember back in the 80s when people said Steve Jobs was not a good leader for Apple and he himself helped bring in Sculley (who then ousted him)???

@Charbax: I hope you are right about the millions in sales and I agree the tech is amazing. But my nephew got an XO for Christmas and the interface is far from intuitive and comes with zero documentation. I have been in software development for 16 years and consider myself quite technical and even I had to use my Vaio to go on-line and RTFM before I could figure out how to get it to connect to the internet and use the browser. How is someone in the developing world without a computer supposed to figure that out? I agree kids will teach one another, but I do not believe social education is a total solution.

IMOHO the OLPC needs to switch to Penguin Linux for usability/accessibility reasons and allow that amazing tech to be easier exposed where it can really shine. They should also add a built-in OS tutorial that walks the user through the basic with a description/user-run example/description/example flow.

At the end of the day, Negroponte is disappointed -- that it's not his laptop, but his competitors' that is being bought en masse -- but knows that he really has to right to: his objective has been fulfilled.

I can't believe I fit that into one sentence lol

The only way to build an economy is to establish the rule of law so people will gain rewards from their effort. Education certainly helps, but if you lose everything after 20 years of work due to the whim of some official, why try?

Sihanouk,

Sure, but why are the people allowing the dictator to have his way, it's because they are uneducated

@Xavoc: better than a pos laptop anyday..

@Vagabum: get 'em windows xp and then they can out do the east indians in dell tech support.... LOL