Difference between revisions of "The High Price of Computer Systems"

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[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source_software Open source software]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source_software Open source software]


[http://capitalactive.wordpress.com/2008/08/17/computer-entry-trends-in-computer-pricing/ Trends in computer prices]


[[http://www.microsoft.com Microsoft]]
[[http://www.microsoft.com Microsoft]]
[[http://www.gnu.org GNU Project]]
[[http://www.gnu.org GNU Project]]
[[http://www.unix.org Unix]]
[[http://www.unix.org Unix]]

Revision as of 12:29, 18 September 2009

Back to Economic Driving Forces

Description

This page is being edited by Piotr Ptasinski

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Still related to poverty, the current price of a computer system is still beyond reach of many people in the world. With many people still struggling to fulfill their basic life needs, getting a computer could never be their priorities or even dreams. In other words, a computer is still a luxury to many people.

A basic working computer system is already expensive in hardware components. Added with the high cost of mainstream operating systems and other commercial software used widely, they create a huge barrier for people to get access to computers for themselves and/or their children. Learning from this condition, the project aims to break the barrier by creating an ultra-low-cost system.

To start with, they think of creative ways to bring the cost of the laptop down. An example of this is to use a cheaper version of display (with a portable DVD player display) and using the open source software including a Linux operating system and all other open source applications.

Enablers

The monopoly and domination of Microsoft

High price of components, mainly monitors

Intellectual property / patents

Inhibitor

Open source sotfware

Advanced technology / miniutarization

Declining prices of components

Move of production to low-costs countries

Low trade barriers and taxes

Paradigm

  • Open source concept has sprung up in reaction towards Microsoft’s domination and monopoly. These days many aspects of computing software will have an open-source version available for free on the Internet. Although some have surpassed the performance of commercial products, most of these open-source systems are normally not as reliable as their commercial counterparts.


Expert

  • Richard Stallman, GNU Project pioneer


Web Resource

Open source software

Trends in computer prices

[Microsoft] [GNU Project] [Unix]