Should you Give One, Get One in order to get an XO to use as a netbook for serious adult-type productivity? I wouldn’t: The child-sized, rubbery keyboard wasn’t meant for grown-up touch typists. And while OLPC has introduced an XO that runs Windows XP, the G1G1 laptops are the original ones, running Linux and the decidedly kid-oriented “Sugar” user interface.

There's one big improvement this year. OLPC has arranged for Amazon to handle fulfillment.

Last year, the fulfillment firm chosen by OLPC proved incapable of getting laptops out to donors in an organized and timely fashion: When I made a donation I didn’t to the fact that I had to wait for weeks after the estimated arrival date had come and gone so much as that the fulfillment house lost my mailing address. Repeatedly.

Teaching children to use Windows is like teaching them to smoke tobacco—in a world where only one company sells tobacco. Like any addictive drug, it inculcates a harmful dependency. No wonder Microsoft offers the first dose to children at a low price. Microsoft aims to teach poor children this dependency so they can smoke Windows for their whole lives. I don’t think governments or schools should support that aim.

(Photo by cheetah100)

Unfortunately, it doesn't have a suspend-and-resume capability, which Stallman called "somewhat inconvenient." Nor does the battery charge while it's running, which he called "an annoyance."

"But it's worth it to you," I said.

"For freedom," he responded, "I will make a sacrifice."

I'm no fan of Microsoft's software or business practices, but turning to a machine wholly developed in China doesn't exactly scream "freedom" to me, either. CEO Steve Ballmer may be a tyrant, but even he bows to Paramount Leader Hu Jintao.

From: Mary Lou Jepsen
To: Paul Boutin
Subject: Re: A question from our readers
Date: July 29, 2008 4:27:25 PM PDT

Paul,

I visited remote Peru last spring. It's poor there, scant electricity, little wifi, and not really clean water in the most remote places. The latter led to a painful eye condition, that had me literally half-blind for several months. I'm happy to report that I'm on the mend, and the patch is off and my vision has much improved.

What I discovered: a patch is a kid magnet. I was very popular with the under-10 crowd when I sported it.

best,
- Mary Lou

Bender and Negroponte are quarreling over open-source software, a subject which one doubts the laptopless of the third world care about, if they have even heard of it. Negroponte wants OLPC's XO laptops to run Windows; Bender wants to adapt its open-source Sugar software to multiple platforms through his new nonprofit, Sugar Labs. Any platform, that is, except an XO laptop running Windows, since it appears that Negroponte's request that Bender adapt Sugar for Windows is what precipitated the dispute.

The OLPC Foundation is looking for a new CEO, Negroponte says. For that role, we nominate Helen Lovejoy of The Simpsons, the one who famously uttered "Won't somebody please think of the children?" At this point, a cartoon character could do no worse.

Scott, Scott, Scott: Negroponte has never been in the business of doing anything. His core competency is talking. The sooner you learn this, the happier you'll be at One Laptop Per Child. Negroponte's goals with One Laptop Per Child are admirable and visionary. As with many visionaries, his contact with reality is infrequent and tenuous. The best way to get OLPC's hardware and software built: Send Negroponte on another worldwide goodwill tour, keeping him as far from the labs as possible.

Which is nonsensical: One of PayPal's features is that it gives merchants a verified address. And why wouldn't they get in touch to complete the order? Apparently he "might have good news in February." Some customer service that is. Snafus like this prevent the OLPC project from being taken seriously. If you can't ship laptops to a few reporters in California, how can you deliver hundreds of thousands of laptops to developing countries? Of course, the nonprofit has no profit motive to spur it to deliver on its promises. The invisible hand has a way of providing visible results.

Yes, it was One Laptop Per Child's XO. The owner, who was being interviewed by some Web publication, told us that he "really liked" the OLPC and thought it had "great potential" to change the lives of children in the developing world. Then he went on a tangent about how the MacBook Air was too expensive and all we really needed was the OLPC because we could all load free software on it and then the world would be a better place. Then he started talking about how great socialism is. Welcome to San Francisco, but really, isn't he at the wrong conference?

Some more pics from the blogger lounge:

I HEREBY REQUEST YOUR HELP AND ASSISTANCE TO HELP SEND ME TRANSFER THIS US$20,000,000.00(TWENTY MILLION, UNITED STATES DOLLARS) INTO OUR COUNTRY SO THAT WE WORK TOGETHER AND INVEST THE MONEY IN A LUCRATIVE BUSINESS IN OUR COUNTRY.

I NEED YOUR ASSISTANCE TO TRANSFER THIS MONEY INTO OUR COUNTRY SO THAT WE BEGIN THE BUSINESS IN EARNEST. MY FAMILY LAWYER; JUSTICE MUSTAPHA AKANBI WILL ALSO ASSIST US TO FACILATE THE TRANSFER OF THIS US$20,000,000.00 INTO OUR BANK ACCOUNT.

I WILL LIKE YOU TO KEEP THIS INVESTMENT PROJECT CONFIDENTIAL UNTIL WE START IT IN EARNEST. I WILL GIVE YOU A 20% GRATIFICATION AS SOON AS THIS US$20,000,000.00 IS TRANSFERED INTO OUR BANK ACCOUNT. I WILL ALSO REFUND YOU ALL THE MONEY YOU WILL SPEND IN THE COURSE OF TRANSFERING THIS US$20,000,000.00 INTO YOUR BANK ACCOUNT. ON YOUR RECEIPT OF THIS MAIL, LET ME HEAR FROM YOU SO THAT WE KNOW THE NEXT LINE OF ACTION AS REGARDS THIS INVESTMENT PROJECT. PLEASE I LOOK FORWARD TO HEAR FROM YOU ON YOUR RECEIPT OF THIS MAIL.REMEMBER TO GIVE ME YOUR PHONE AND FAX NUMBERS IN YOUR REPLY FOR EASY COMMUNICATIONS.CONTACT ME BY EMAIL ON YOUR RECEIPT OF THIS MAIL: SO THAT WE DISCUSS MORE ABOUT OUR INVESTMENT PARTNERSHIP IN OUR COUNTRY.

AS I WAIT TO HEAR FROM YOU.
REMAIN BLESSED, BEST REGARDS DR, TOM BELLO

For-profit companies threatened by the projected $100 price tag set off at a sprint to develop their own dirt-cheap machines, plunging Mr. Negroponte into unexpected competition against Intel and Microsoft.

Intel, which normally doesn't sell computers, introduced a small laptop for developing countries called the Classmate, which currently goes for between $230 and $300. It hopes to prevent AMD, whose chips are in Mr. Negroponte's competing computer, from becoming a standard in the developing world.

Some potential buyers are having second thoughts. Officials in Libya, who had planned to buy up to 1.2 million of the laptops, became concerned that the machines lacked Windows, and that service, teacher training and future upgrades might [therefore] become a problem.

It now sells for $188, plus shipping. The higher price has made the laptop vulnerable to competition. Taiwanese, Indian and Israeli sellers of inexpensive Windows laptop see the developing world's more than one billion potential young customers as a big opportunity.

At a private meeting with a group from Rwanda, Negroponte announced that 20,000 laptops, courtesy of the "Give One. Get One." program, would soon be distributed. Carine Umutesi, who works for Rwanda's Information Technology Authority, questioned who would fix them if they break.

Mr. Negroponte said some initial tech support would be provided by Brightstar Corp., a Miami-based wireless equipment distributor. Just who would provide support a few years from now, he said, was "a frightening question." The students, he said, will need "to do as much maintenance as possible."

(Screenshot from DCMetblogger)

Says Moreira:

[OLPC] is a magnificent revolutionary project. I visited one of the schools that is testing OLPC in Brazil. It was a deep emotional experience to see the intimacy of these 400 children with their personal laptops — laptops that they can also bring home to introduce the parents and the rest of the family to this new world of technology. At this stage, the Brazilian government is struggling to find out how to implement this program across the whole country. It's not an easy task — Brazil is very big — but, once we achieve that, I am sure that MIT and Boston will be deeply imprinted in Brazilian history.

We can't just distribute computers. We have to build a backbone. Just making the technology accessible is not enough. Technology leads to language, to spiritual dimensions. It's the whole process that matters. It's not just one item, computers are not enough.