MIT 3rd World Laptop is a Commodore 64

MIT has offerred (via Dr. Negroponti), to produce a computer for $100 that
will be availble to any 3rd world citizen.

The computer already exists, although the production line shut down in the
early 90's.

The Commodore 64

One key use of a 3rd world computer would be to ease writing. The C=64
has access to a number of good, usually public domain word processing
programmes. I use The Write Stuff, which contains a spell checker, word
count, outliner, & the ability to send formatted emphasized text to my
Epson ink jets. Commands can call from the Epson size scaling, dingbats,
etc.

Internet use for e-mail connections & information searches can be
accomplished by dialing service providers such as community networks that
support the Lynx browser & Pine e-maiol programme. As these "boards"
become fewer, Novaterm 10 does allow use of dialup connections with the
C=64, & telnetting to "boards" with that dialup connection.

Spreadsheets according to some sources, only have about a half dozen
regularly used commands. Commodore spreadsheets have far more commands,
but always include the normally required ones.

Normally, the Commodore 64 requires an intelligent but slow disk drive,
which takes
some of the workload from the computer cpu. There are though non-volatile
ram drives that can function as the primary drive & are as fast as any pc
storage device (Ramlink, BBU supported REU, BBGram, QBB, etc.).

Most C=64's need ac power. But I have known people off the grid in Alaska
& Arizona who ran the computer from a car battery. There was a prototype
laptop C=64, which did not go into production.

The basic C=64 is now available as a joystick with all of the C=
capabilities built in. Hacks have connected a pc keyboard & Commodore
disk drive.

I bought my joysticks in June for $10 each.
If a flash memory card & pc keyboard were added, I wonder how much less
that $100 would be spent.

The largest caveat is that the Internet as an audio-video device would not
be supported. I can view & print gifs & jpegs in lower resolution, &
listen to short wav's on my C=64. Educational purposes do not need a
mimic of high resolution television.

John Elliott