The OLPC XO Laptop
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The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Project and its XO Laptop
This page chronicles my experience with the XO laptop which I have yet to receive. In the interim, the page will host some general information and links to the OLPC project and the XO laptop it distributes to children and schools in impoverished areas of the world.
The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Project
Our goal: To provide children around the world with new opportunities to explore, experiment and express themselves.
[further OLPC description goes here]
The XO Laptop
The XO laptop hardware is built from the ground up to fulfill it's stated purpose. From it's low-power-use design to its daylight-visible LCD display, it's mesh networking to it's rugged and easily-serviceable chassis, the XO laptop is truly a modern work of functional art. But it is the XO's software approach that will allow it to grow and mature without artificial distortions of a company reuired to meet corporate shareholders' expectations of widening profit.
From the OLPC webpage on the XO software:
XO is built from free and open-source software. Our commitment to software freedom gives children the opportunity to use their laptops on their own terms. While we do not expect every child to become a programmer, we do not want any ceiling imposed on those children who choose to modify their machines. We are using open-document formats for much the same reason: transparency is empowering. The children—and their teachers—will have the freedom to reshape, reinvent, and reapply their software, hardware, and content.
For an interesting and well put-together information page on the XO, look no further than the BBC.
My experience with the XO
Well I got the XO, in fact I'm typing this on it now. I've had the XO for about 20 minutes, and I must say the first impression is a good one. I snapped the battery in, opened the display, pressed power button, and was greeted by a visual/textless boot screen, and watched the progress timer tick away. The thing is small. The thing is cute. And best of all, the thing is easy.
The visual menus are well conceived. To get online, I press the button for neighborhood view, and I see immediately the wifi connections available, each one is a circle with color inside. The better the connection signal strength, the more the circle is filled. Anything with encryption running has a padlock graphic hanging on the circle. easy.
I clicked the cursor on an open wifi and the circle turned white. Looking at the OLPC webpage for the XO, I found this meant I was connected. I didn't have to startup a service or dhcp or anything. easy. I clicked on the browser icon, and found myself at google. OK, end of first edit. I want to read about this thing. More wiki here later.
News and info links for the OLPC and XO
Added 20080104:1311
- Fortune - EXCLUSIVE - Negroponte on Intel's $100 laptop pullout
- Fortune: What's the biggest single reason your partnership with Intel fell apart?
- Negroponte: The biggest single reason was that they were directly selling their Classmate laptop as opposed to having it be a reference design.
- BBC - One laptop project loses partner (Intel)
- The first versions of the OLPC or XO laptop were powered by a chip made by Intel's arch-rival AMD.
- The Inquirer - Intel's OLPC moves blighted by the old paranoia
- By pushing the Classmate, you are doing everything that you should not do. You are dividing a market that needs no division and you look like childish, tantrum-throwing bullies.
- Times Online - Intel withdraws from laptop charity after row
- Intel will not take part in the One Laptop Per Child project for developing nations after "philosophical" differences.
- NYT - Intel Leaves Group Backing Education PCs
- Intel said Thursday that it had chosen to withdraw from the One Laptop Per Child educational computer organization, which it joined in July after years of public squabbling between Intel’s chairman, Craig R. Barrett, and the group’s founder, Nicholas P. Negroponte.
Glossary
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