At the World Economic Forum in January last year, Mr. Nicholas Negroponte, chairman of the MIT Media Lab announced an ambitious plan to provide 100 million to 150 million inexpensive laptops to children in the third world. The program, now administered by the One Laptop per Child project has advanced up to the first working prototype in November of 2005.

Enter Red Hat, who have just announced their participation. They've been involved in the program since April, when Mr. Negroponte said he is interested in basing the project around open source software.

"At Red Hat, we believe that open source technology can change the world, and is still in its infancy. It's a guiding principle that is embodied in everything we do," said Matthew Szulik, chairman, president and CEO of Red Hat. "Beyond a founding corporate sponsorship, we've put engineering and other strategic resources behind the OLPC initiative to add our expertise, global reach and focus to the project."



Although the project is considered "a well intentioned waste of time" by some, and the device itself a "gadget" by people such as Intel chairman Craig Barret, the MIT Media Lab have proved that technical difficulties can be resolved and the OLPC is getting another boost of credibility now that the UN has joined the partnership.

Red Hat is currently working to provide technical resources to the project, but also considers issues such as training, support, providing updates and integrating additional technologies over time.

Production is to begin when 5 - 15 million units have been ordered and paid for. Countries who expressed interest include China, India, Brazil, Argentina, Egypt, Nigeria and Thailand.