Gates wants poor to spend $600 , not $100 or $200, for computers

"There are plenty of people in the world who can scrounge up $100 or $200 for a portable computer but can't afford to spend $600 or $1,000 for one. These are the people you see riding motor scooters instead of driving cars in developing countries. Telling them they can't have a cheap Linux-powered laptop but should have an expensive Microsoft-designed one is like telling them they can't have scooters but must wait until they can afford cars -- and, no doubt, cars with air conditioning, automatic transmissions, plush upholstery, and push-button windows instead of simple, stripped-down ones.

To Bill Gates the difference between $100 and $600 may be too small to notice. And to a family living in a mud hut, wondering if they're going to eat today, a $100 laptop is as distant a dream as a $600 one. But most of us are somewhere between these two extremes."

Ditto.

And he's still a butthole.