ABSTRACT
In this chapter I do not seek to compare all the low-cost computers on the market for providing education to schools in developing countries. 1 Rather, I compare just two of the most dominant of them that also happen to constitute diametrically opposite ways of going about this task. (This gives the reader a good sense of how the same problem can be attacked in such different ways.) Nor, when evaluating these alternatives, do I attempt a comprehensive approach. My more limited goal is to ask which of the two competitors generates a more equal distribution of computer use and why. Which of the two, in other words, can be described as the more appropriate product (where appropriateness is defined to include the way in which the product is accessed)? Concretely the question is as follows: given a certain amount of income, which type of computer provides more students with access and use? This is, admittedly, only one element in the selection of a low-cost computer, but it is surely an important one.
