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XO or OLPC – either way it sounds good October 6, 2007

Posted by Al in : computers,interesting , trackback

The One Laptop Per Child project has been talked about for a couple of years now, and has suffered from inflation as it now costs $200 rather than the $100 first estimated. It has also been ridiculed by a lot of techy people as low-tech, pointless and no comparison to other laptops, running Windows or Mac OS, that are not much more expensive. However, this misses the point, as the XO project (as it is now called)

appears to have produced something that will appeal to children around the world, helps with education, is cheap to produce and built to last.

There are a few things I really like about the XO laptop, and the first is the built in wireless that automatically links each laptop to any nearby laptops. That’s neat, will definitely appeal to kids, and has practical uses as well. I also like the fact that the LCD screen backlight can be turned off, that the battery lasts for a long time, that the unit can be recharged manually, and that it’s reasonably kid resistant. What I really like, and what may make a huge difference in 10-20 years time, is that the code for all it’s inbuilt applications is quickly, and easily available to the children using the laptop; and that they are encouraged to experiment with changing this code as they can revert to the standard code at any time.

The XO laptop is an excellent idea, and I hope that it achieves all that it set out to do, and more. I’m impressed with the final result.

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