A Fight to Save the World Ends Peacefully

Intel and the MIT-led One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative have finally stopped their squabble, and announced plans to work together. The goal of OLPC was to provide impoverished children with specially equipped, low-cost computers. Using chips from Intel rival AMD, OLPC hasn’t cut the cost of the notebooks down to $100, its original goal, but the price tag is dropping. Intel’s own initiative, called Classmate PC, has been shipping notebooks priced at $225 for several months. Intel isn’t exactly the bad guy in the fight; the company spends $100 million a year on education initiatives. But OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte reportedly has said that Intel’s rival laptop program was hurting its own efforts. Now Intel will join OLPC, and the two organizations will work together to get computers into the hands of poor children, so they, too, can learn, grow and watch Internet videos of people doing silly dances.—Gregory Mone