The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project will boost the market share of Linux on the desktop to about 12 per cent, claimed the project's chairman Nicholas Negroponte. 

"One of the side effects of the $100 laptop is that it will boost the worldwide consumption of Linux on the desktop so incredibly that it will, over a very short period of time, be at par with where it is in the world of servers," Negroponte told delegates in a keynote at the Red Hat Summit in Nashville. 

The most recent server market share data from analyst firm IDC put the Linux share of the server market at 12.2 per cent, with revenues growing at a rate of 17 per cent year-over-year.

The One Laptop Per Child project aims to fight poverty in the developing world by providing children with a personal laptop computer.

The project is supported by the United Nations and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where Negroponte heads up the Media Lab.

The first working OLPC prototype was unveiled last week and the first units are expected by December. OLPC is aiming for a $100 price tag, but expects that to drop to $50 by 2010.

Microsoft and Intel have publicly criticised the project, claiming that it is wrongly focusing on the cost of the hardware. 

Intel launched its $400 Eduwise laptop in May targeting students in developing nations.

Microsoft launched its pay-as-you-go FlexGo programme late last month that allows consumers in developing nations to purchase a computer that is activated with pre-paid cards and belongs to the user over time.

"If I'm annoying Intel and Microsoft, I know I'm probably doing something right," Negroponte quipped.