"A pilot project in Africa aiming to provide a single computer that can be used by four students simultaneously has stumbled across one of the business world's basic facts of life: Why make a cheap machine when customers in the developed world will pay good money for a more expensive one?
"The question hangs over efforts being made by American computer-maker Hewlett Packard, which in the last two weeks introduced the Multi-user 441 desktop, a computer based on the open-source Linux operating system. HP reckons the unique design--in which four keyboards and monitors are connected to a single central processing unit--will save schools up to 60 percent of their ballooning computer costs..."
