News OLPC announces "Give 1 Get 1" XO

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2007/09/24/olpc_announces_give_1_get_1_xo/1

Want to get your hands on an XO, the innovative charity laptop? Well, if you really want to have one then you'll have to pay for two in a new OLPC promotion.

 

so they aren't really forking out money for charity they want us to do it?

 

They already spent the time and money designing and building these systems, what more do you want from them?

 

As its 188$ in the US, the suggested price is 199, according to the BBC, with buyonegiveone, itll be $398 to buy one (and one for an african) so doesnt seem that good a deal no more, when considering its very very low by todays specs and you could get one twice as good second hand for that price?

 

these arent that bad for starter computers.

 

they aren't that bad for work computers..... just insert a larger hard drive and you are good to go..... and a black coat of paint.

 

Will we be able to buy one over here cuase tbh i wouldn't mind one as a cheap internet hub kinda thing and if i can give one away at the same time even better

 

where can i get one here? im broke after my new rig, and yet a laptop would be very useful.

that laptop is great for some small office action or lecture note viewing. but it's a shame that it won't be able to play World In Conflict

 

they may not be powerful, but one thing lots of people are forgetting is that these things are designed to last. light, low-power, and most importantly, very durable. not to mention it's rechargeable "in the field" with a foot pump and such. then there's the screen: e-ink capability, fully readable in sunlight.

$400 is actually pretty good if durability and battery life is one of your requirements. i can see ecologists toting these things into the forest or whatnot to take notes.

 

Or you could go for the Asus EEE, which is a similar price and much better, not to mention its not green.

 

Well i will get one , i can claim both or at least one back in my tax return : )

love charity

 

your clearly missing the point here

Does your asus EEE give half of its cost to charity. Im thinking NO!!!

The point is your getting what is a very good laptop for the money, as mentioned above is tough, durable, light, rechargable with or without a power source and its perfect for general task.

Plus the added kick of half of what you pay goes to making another one that goes to someone in the world that needs it more then you do. Is like giving presents to your local charity to give to kids etc... except this time you get one and some kid gets one

 

all you jerks can go buy Asus EEEs. I want an OLPC to get my moddin' hands on.

 

No review, no testing and they want the the first world to bankroll the onset of the finished product. I know the third world on average are very poor financially but give me a break not everyone that lives there suffers from that condition. These where designed for them so why are there no takers for them in the countries designated for these system.

Before purchasing you need to weigh in your mind why there have been no reviews about these systems that actually had benchmarks attributed to them in order to demonstrate their abilities. You would not want to purchase an expensive toy or help to contribute to a not ready for prime time product?

The saddest part of the entire concept is Mr Negroponte recount of the experiences he had for coming up with the idea in the first place. He said he assisted in bringing laptops to an impoverished village, some of the people used their laptops as a light source for the entire family. Would it not be better money spent if you are in a giving mood to donate your charity to building generation or at least purchasing generators for these villages so the children could have light to read a common book before introducing laptops to them. this whole thing smells of what Paul Theroux wrote in his excellent book Mosquito Coast where the character brought Ice to an area when Ice was the least of their problems.

 

it is a good idea

 

I can't seem to find if the browser will be enough to play, videos, flash, etc, anyone have an idea? and how well they will run

 

If not it should be hackable. The specs look just about high enough to get flash running, and it's open source so you can always use package manager to grab Mozilla, right?

 

my concern is my current laptop has a 1Ghz p3 celeron and it runs flash and video but really horribly