Public Can Purchase $100 Laptop

[Taggart]

Public can purchase $100 laptop

"The backers of the One Laptop Per Child project plan to release the machine on general sale next year.

But customers will have to buy two laptops at once - with the second going to the developing world."

"The first countries to sign up to buying the machine, which is officially dubbed XO, include Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Nigeria, Libya, Pakistan and Thailand."

[britmaveric]

Why would you want to???

[Nikkijah]

Why would you want to???

So my 2 year old boy could hammer at the $100 keyboard and not at my more expensive laptop keys

Or to attempt to show my technophobic partner where the space bar is

[cdnvic]

Noble gesture but IMO they'd be better off recycling old pentium 2/3 laptops and loading a lightweight linux OS on them. If electricity is an issue I think the kids have more pressing concerns than finding 3000bt for a laptop.

Recycled desktops for their schools are a better idea I'd say.

[Nikkijah]

Noble gesture but IMO they'd be better off recycling old pentium 2/3 laptops and loading a lightweight linux OS on them. If electricity is an issue I think the kids have more pressing concerns than finding 3000bt for a laptop.

Recycled desktops for their schools are a better idea I'd say.

Good point cdnvic but initiatives like that are not very commonplace in governments are they?

[Nikkijah]

they're quite sweet actually! These are just concept images but it will surely look something like this

I would definitely get one for my boy if they turn out to be more than just a fisher-price lump of plastic - it would certainly save my laptop from destruction and might(hopefully) serve as an educational tool too!

http://www.laptop.org/index.en_US.html

[Crushdepth]

Why would you want to???

I'd like to get one just to play around with and see what they've done. Probably end up donating it once the novelty wore off, but not being dependent on a power supply would actually make it quite a useful field computer.

Hope they produce one in corporate grey though

[astral]

I think the idea is very noble, but totally ill conceived.

Within weeks these plastic computers will be a broken piece of junk

thrown in the corner.

I never allow children and other heavy fisted users on my notebook.

Notebooks are notoriously difficult of maintain and upgrade.

Even if the hardware does survive, the software will need maintenance.

Only a few in-judicious key strokes can wreak havoc.

Just look at some of the questions that come up in this forum.

[dobbelinas]

Recycled desktops for their schools are a better idea I'd say.

I agree, much simpler and cheaper to repair to.

Once the laptop/s malfunctions, where are they going to fix it ?

Mudhut2, where the local cow is running the electricity thread mill,

being repaired by Endolo Moboko, Nigerian government IT certified medicine man

[Crushdepth]

I don't know. I'm just very keen to see one and what they've come up with. I'm sure there will be plenty of problems but it will probably improve with time.

[Nikkijah]

I think the idea is very noble, but totally ill conceived.

Within weeks these plastic computers will be a broken piece of junk

thrown in the corner.

I never allow children and other heavy fisted users on my notebook.

Notebooks are notoriously difficult of maintain and upgrade.

Even if the hardware does survive, the software will need maintenance.

Only a few in-judicious key strokes can wreak havoc.

Just look at some of the questions that come up in this forum.

I agree with you if we are talking about regular notebook construction/hardware/software but judging by the pics above these laptops are going to be a different concept all together - structurally at least

Do we know what software will be installed?

[MikeWill]

re: "Noble gesture"

Is it just that?

Be real... Serious people like Nicholas Negroponte are working on this project... and you came up with the "Recycled" stuff.

Astral,

The machines are "durable and as simple to use as possible". "The XO's software has been designed to work specifically in an educational context. It has built-in wireless networking and video conferencing so that groups of children can work together."

It also means that the updates can come from the Internet (or a special network). Internet access is one of the main features of the OLPC project.

I will definitely be the first to buy one for my daughter (4). Even now she has a laptop toy (to play with) at home and they have a computer class at school. BTW, the price for the toy laptop that plays some songs and speaks numbers is about TBH 2,000.

[MrSnrang]

Looks like something fun. I wonder when the mods for this will come into the market...

[Taggart]

Latest update:

'$100 laptop' consumer launch rumours denied

David Meyer ZDNet UK

Published: 11 Jan 2007 10:38 GMT

The organisation working on a low-cost laptop for developing-world education has rushed to deny speculation that the machines may become generally available to the public, following news reports earlier this week.

One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), headed by MIT Labs' Nicholas Negroponte, insisted suggestions that the XO laptop would be sold through eBay, to anyone who was willing to pay for a second machine for third-world countries, were untrue.

"Contrary to recent reports, One Laptop Per Child is not planning a consumer version of its current XO laptop, designed for the poorest and most remote children in the world. XO will be made available to governments in very large quantities to be given to all children free, as part of the education system," said Negroponte in a statement issued on Wednesday.

However, the statement went on to add that many commercial schemes, such as "buy two and get one" have been considered and "may surface in 2008 or beyond". Negroponte also revealed that an OLPC Foundation would be launched later this month, "specifically to accommodate the huge goodwill and charity that has surfaced around the idea of a $100 laptop".

News organisations forced to retract their earlier reports included the BBC, which had to change the headline on its $100 laptop story from "Public can buy $100 laptop" to "$100 laptop could sell to public".

The notion that the laptops would be made generally available clashed with Negroponte's previous statements, which had suggested that exclusivity to the developing-world educational sector was essential to stopping the machines ending up on the "grey market". This approach was compared to that of the US Postal Service, which has never had one of its trucks stolen due to the social unacceptability of doing so.

OLPC aims to produce the XO laptop for under $100 (£52), although current designs have production costs at around $150 (£77) per machine.