The device that will change the world

The Wall Street Joural Online has an article on the $100 laptop, a device currently being developed under the auspices of MIT. The device can bring two major changes with it. First of all, despite attempts by Apple to prevent it, the laptop will be running a version of Red Hat Linux. This means that as the device is supposed to get rolled out in millions of units it will, for the first time, give Linux a shot at disrupting the installed user base for desktop OSes. The other major shift the device could bring is in the telecoms market. I suppose that it will be possible to install a VoIP client on the machine. Couple that with built-in wireless networking capabilities in the machine and all of a sudden you get a situation where hundreds of millions of people who don't have access to a phone all of a sudden will be able to conduct voice conversations through IP technology.

If this device really does make it to the market and is adopted by the governments of states like Brazil, India and China, the world could find itself facing a tectonic shift within the space of a single generation.