According to this 2 January 2007 story on the BBC web site, the first batch of so called "XO" computers built for the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project could reach users by July this year, with test machines to be issued in February. The BBC piece quotes Nicholas Negroponte, whose brainchild the OLPC laptop is, as follows:
"I have to laugh when people refer to XO as a weak or crippled machine and how kids should get a 'real' one. Trust me, I will give up my real one very soon and use only XO. It will be far better, in many new and important ways."
"In fact, one of the saddest but most common conditions in elementary school computer labs (when they exist in the developing world), is the children are being trained to use Word, Excel and PowerPoint. I consider that criminal, because children should be making things, communicating, exploring, sharing, not running office automation tools."
Plenty of pictures and commentary (some of it snide) here at engadget, and these previous posts from Fortnightly Mailing may also be of interest:
- One laptop per child - further information and progress. 29 November 2006 link to piece by David Weinberger;
- What would you install on one laptop per child? 17 October 2006 Guest Contribution by Steve Ryan from talk at LSE by Jonathan Zittrain;
- The "One Laptop Per Child" wiki. 1 August 2006 posting which includes a video of a working prototype of the laptop.
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