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A Computer is not a text book; the "purpose" of OLPC is irrelevant to this point. And while it can be convenient to have everything all inclusive ON a laptop does not remove standard paper media from the equation.

There is a growing number of available open source textbooks.

The OLPC can remove "standard paper media" from the equation, at least from the student side of it. It has to be used on the instructor side in some cases; however, at least in this country fair use allows you to provide copies of things for educational purposes, and I suspect some students in a grass hut on Africa don't really have to worry about the copyright police breaking down the door (what door?)

If you have even visited the wiki for olpc you would find, "Our goal is to provide children around the world with new opportunities to explore, experiment, and express themselves." Yeah, sounds like replacement to me.

It's funny you should mention the wiki because this page talks quite a bit about the issues surrounding textbooks. Guess you didn't look that close. Nice try, but you're not really interested in refuting my points - or maybe you're just not able to. Seems to me, though, like you're mostly interested in defending your willful ignorance.

A US$ 200,00 used laptop won't give you an OLPC laptop. (Much less a used desktop PC.) It will give you something else. Which one is better will vary immensely as one perceives one's own needs.

I for one value the OLPC's display (e.g. High-resolution, reflective monochrome mode) and wireless capabilities. From the OLPC Wiki's main page:

We have reached an important milestone: the dual-mode display works in prototype! We have been counting on Mary Lou Jepsen's new approach to LCD displays to help us achieve our price and power consumption targets and enable our expected models of indoor and outdoor use, while also rapidly achieving mass production. We now have a display that can readily be mass produced in standard LCD factories, with no process changes. Our display has higher resolution than 95% of the laptop displays on the market today; approximately 1/7th the power consumption; 1/3rd the price; sunlight readability; and room-light readability with the backlight off.

I find such developments quite exciting and promising. Notwithstanding, the OLPC laptop certainly is plenty technologically innovative in it's other features, such as power management. By the way, it includes a "10 to 25 V, -23 to -10 V, 2-pin DC-input".

It's size ("tiny") can well be considered a coveted feature, instead of a demeaning factor.

Last but not least, the OLPC project does not aim to "solve third world problems". Some would think this is pretty obvious. From the OLPC Wiki's main page:

The mission of this non-profit association is to develop a low-cost laptop--the "$100 Laptop"--a technology that could revolutionize how we educate the world's children. Our goal is to provide children around the world with new opportunities to explore, experiment, and express themselves.
Why do children in developing nations need laptops? Laptops are both a window and a tool: a window into the world and a tool with which to think. They are a wonderful way for all children to learn learning through independent interaction and exploration.

And not all developing country children's problems are about "teachers who won't get shot, kids who won't go hungry, parents who won't die from AIDS, and/or textbooks that won't be burned for fuel". (And I live in a developing country.)

These certainly are grave problems which should demand extremely serious attention and immediate adequate action by all countries (developed, developing etc). But these problems go beyond the OLPC project's specific aims and capabilities. (Although they may be indericetlly targeted.) As other slashdotters have allready posted, the project is doing what it can do best to improve the life of many children, which is both exciting and extremely laudable. That's why I and many others not only support the project, but (A) hope others (governments, organizations, common people) will too, and (B) are willing to subsidize the project by sponsoring one or two laptops in exchange for having the opportunity of owning one.

By the way, I am very curious about the new and innovative ways that I'm sure the millions of children would put their laptops to use, meaning that I'm also looking forward to learn new ways in which such technology can serve us.

A US$ 200,00 used laptop won't give you an OLPC laptop. (Much less a used desktop PC.) It will give you something else. Which one is better will vary immensely as one perceives one's own needs.

I for one value the OLPC's display (e.g. High-resolution, reflective monochrome mode) and wireless capabilities. From the OLPC Wiki's main page:

We have reached an important milestone: the dual-mode display works in prototype! We have been counting on Mary Lou Jepsen's new approach to LCD displays to help us achieve our price and power consumption targets and enable our expected models of indoor and outdoor use, while also rapidly achieving mass production. We now have a display that can readily be mass produced in standard LCD factories, with no process changes. Our display has higher resolution than 95% of the laptop displays on the market today; approximately 1/7th the power consumption; 1/3rd the price; sunlight readability; and room-light readability with the backlight off.

I find such developments quite exciting and promising. Notwithstanding, the OLPC laptop certainly is plenty technologically innovative in it's other features, such as power management. By the way, it includes a "10 to 25 V, -23 to -10 V, 2-pin DC-input".

It's size ("tiny") can well be considered a coveted feature, instead of a demeaning factor.

Last but not least, the OLPC project does not aim to "solve third world problems". Some would think this is pretty obvious. From the OLPC Wiki's main page:

The mission of this non-profit association is to develop a low-cost laptop--the "$100 Laptop"--a technology that could revolutionize how we educate the world's children. Our goal is to provide children around the world with new opportunities to explore, experiment, and express themselves.
Why do children in developing nations need laptops? Laptops are both a window and a tool: a window into the world and a tool with which to think. They are a wonderful way for all children to learn learning through independent interaction and exploration.

And not all developing country children's problems are about "teachers who won't get shot, kids who won't go hungry, parents who won't die from AIDS, and/or textbooks that won't be burned for fuel". (And I live in a developing country.)

These certainly are grave problems which should demand extremely serious attention and immediate adequate action by all countries (developed, developing etc). But these problems go beyond the OLPC project's specific aims and capabilities. (Although they may be indericetlly targeted.) As other slashdotters have allready posted, the project is doing what it can do best to improve the life of many children, which is both exciting and extremely laudable. That's why I and many others not only support the project, but (A) hope others (governments, organizations, common people) will too, and (B) are willing to subsidize the project by sponsoring one or two laptops in exchange for having the opportunity of owning one.

By the way, I am very curious about the new and innovative ways that I'm sure the millions of children would put their laptops to use, meaning that I'm also looking forward to learn new ways in which such technology can serve us.

A US$ 200,00 used laptop won't give you an OLPC laptop. (Much less a used desktop PC.) It will give you something else. Which one is better will vary immensely as one perceives one's own needs.

I for one value the OLPC's display (e.g. High-resolution, reflective monochrome mode) and wireless capabilities. From the OLPC Wiki's main page:

We have reached an important milestone: the dual-mode display works in prototype! We have been counting on Mary Lou Jepsen's new approach to LCD displays to help us achieve our price and power consumption targets and enable our expected models of indoor and outdoor use, while also rapidly achieving mass production. We now have a display that can readily be mass produced in standard LCD factories, with no process changes. Our display has higher resolution than 95% of the laptop displays on the market today; approximately 1/7th the power consumption; 1/3rd the price; sunlight readability; and room-light readability with the backlight off.

I find such developments quite exciting and promising. Notwithstanding, the OLPC laptop certainly is plenty technologically innovative in it's other features, such as power management. By the way, it includes a "10 to 25 V, -23 to -10 V, 2-pin DC-input".

It's size ("tiny") can well be considered a coveted feature, instead of a demeaning factor.

Last but not least, the OLPC project does not aim to "solve third world problems". Some would think this is pretty obvious. From the OLPC Wiki's main page:

The mission of this non-profit association is to develop a low-cost laptop--the "$100 Laptop"--a technology that could revolutionize how we educate the world's children. Our goal is to provide children around the world with new opportunities to explore, experiment, and express themselves.
Why do children in developing nations need laptops? Laptops are both a window and a tool: a window into the world and a tool with which to think. They are a wonderful way for all children to learn learning through independent interaction and exploration.

And not all developing country children's problems are about "teachers who won't get shot, kids who won't go hungry, parents who won't die from AIDS, and/or textbooks that won't be burned for fuel". (And I live in a developing country.)

These certainly are grave problems which should demand extremely serious attention and immediate adequate action by all countries (developed, developing etc). But these problems go beyond the OLPC project's specific aims and capabilities. (Although they may be indericetlly targeted.) As other slashdotters have allready posted, the project is doing what it can do best to improve the life of many children, which is both exciting and extremely laudable. That's why I and many others not only support the project, but (A) hope others (governments, organizations, common people) will too, and (B) are willing to subsidize the project by sponsoring one or two laptops in exchange for having the opportunity of owning one.

By the way, I am very curious about the new and innovative ways that I'm sure the millions of children would put their laptops to use, meaning that I'm also looking forward to learn new ways in which such technology can serve us.

This system specs seem more like an updated version of the old HP Jornada 820 I've used for the last 6 years. A tough little Laptop with no Spinning Harddrive, I've added a CF WI-FI and a 4 GB PCcard Flash drive card. Only thing I had to replace was the battery a couple years back.
HP Jornada 820 Specs
OLPC Ver 1

It DOESN'T HAVE A FUCKING CRANK.

See OLPC hardware. The crank was one suggestion long ago; and it would only have been a backup when there wasn't any mains power.

Think of another excuse.

Actually, yes. But, along with East Timor, only in the post-launch phase.

Here is the answer

Does your computer have an open source BIOS ?

Mine doesn't, but some other computers run LinuxBIOS, including the laptop computers that will be distributed to children in developing countries.

Wondering how comes that Logfs from Jorn Engel didn't come up in the discussion yet.

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Logfs

There's been off and on talk about a "server" / central node in some places that would provide a more reliable gateway to the Internet, storage space, and so on, see http://wiki.laptop.org/go/System_Software#Distribu ted_Filesystem.3F , for example. I'm out of the loop, so this may've been a pipe dream that wandered off.

Sorry, but I actually know something about this... My job this summer revolved around this issue, and seeing how much of Wikipedia we could cram into about 10 MB. (Hint: OLPC is using a subset of Wikipedia as its primary out-of-the-box reference material.)

The images on Wikipedia as of this January are about 76 GB in size. Now, assume we can switch to low-quality JPEGs and cut the size down to 5% of its current - about the size you'd get from switching all the images to black-and-white, in fact. Making that jump is a big assumption, but even that only gets you down to about 4 GB.

Text-wise, the Wikipedia database containing all current article info (no discussion pages, no history, etc.) is 1.7 GB - compressed. It's significantly larger when uncompressed.

There - 6 GB total. And that's an achievement...

I do think they should sell the laptops commercially for $200-$300 though so that people who might want to help the project could purchase one for that price and in doing so pay for 2 free laptops for poor children.

I also think that if they ever start mass producing them, they shouldn't be limited to just the poor nations.

My only question is why is Gnome used as the desktop? Gnome is a great desktop environment, but it seems like these machines, having only 128 MB of ram and no way to do swap partions (it would ruin a flash drive to use it for swap) it seems like fluxbox, XFce, or blackbox might be better. I realize the gnome is modified, but still.

I do think they should sell the laptops commercially for $200-$300 though so that people who might want to help the project could purchase one for that price and in doing so pay for 2 free laptops for poor children.

I also think that if they ever start mass producing them, they shouldn't be limited to just the poor nations.

My only question is why is Gnome used as the desktop? Gnome is a great desktop environment, but it seems like these machines, having only 128 MB of ram and no way to do swap partions (it would ruin a flash drive to use it for swap) it seems like fluxbox, XFce, or blackbox might be better. I realize the gnome is modified, but still.

Why not a desktop computer, or even better a recycled desktop machine? ... Kids in the developing world need the newest technology, especially really rugged hardware and innovative software.

Finally, regarding recycled machines: if we estimate 100 million available used desktops, and each one requires only one hour of human attention to refurbish, reload, and handle, that is forty-five thousand work years. Thus, while we definitely encourage the recycling of used computers, it is not the solution for One Laptop per Child.

Why not a desktop computer, or even better a recycled desktop machine? ... Kids in the developing world need the newest technology, especially really rugged hardware and innovative software.

Finally, regarding recycled machines: if we estimate 100 million available used desktops, and each one requires only one hour of human attention to refurbish, reload, and handle, that is forty-five thousand work years. Thus, while we definitely encourage the recycling of used computers, it is not the solution for One Laptop per Child.

Virtualizing the applications is essentially the approach; this is what the article refers to as the "walled garden". That said, of course I'm not using Xen -- it's way too heavy for our hardware. The security spec should be public in about 3-4 weeks, so you'll have a chance to see what's being done; if this interests you, join the security list. I'll make an announcement when the spec is available.

-- Ivan Krstic

Some Red Hat varient, they do have a nice website. Their wiki has lots of information.

In fact, yes they are designed to be sandproof. Spend some time looking around the OLPC wiki at http://wiki.laptop.org/ and you will see that they have put a lot of effort into making these units unbreakable and long-lived. This is not just some cheap toy, it is an innovative laptop which has features that you can find nowhere else in commercial models.

Unfortunately, this probably means there will soon be a black market in stolen OLPCs because they are easily worth $300 to $500 to people who want their unique features.

Now, with proper formatting!

The website for the One Laptop Per Child project is http://laptop.media.mit.edu/

And the Wiki: http://wiki.laptop.org/wiki/One_Laptop_per_Child

RedHat is developing the OS for it, and the first prototype has been released last may.
First generations of the laptop will actually be more expensive, around $156, the $100 pricetag will be ... off memory, somewhere in 2008.

Speccs:
Core electronics: * CPU: AMD Geode GX2-500@1.0W(datasheet)
* CPU clock speed: 366 Mhz
* Compatibility: X86/X87-compatible
* Chipset: AMD CS5536 South Bridge (datasheet)
* Graphics controller: Integrated with Geode CPU; unified memory architecture
* Embedded controller (for production), ENE KB3700: Image:KB3700-ds-01.pdf
* DRAM memory: 128MB dynamic RAM
* Data rate: Dual - DDR266 - 133 Mhz
* BIOS: 1024KB SPI-interface flash ROM; LinuxBIOS open-source BIOS
* Mass storage: 512MB SLC NAND flash, high speed flash controller
* Drives: No rotating media Display:
* Liquid-crystal display:
7.5" Dual-mode TFT display
* Viewing area: 151.6 mm × 113.4 mm
* Resolution: 1200 (H) × 900 (V) resolution (200 dpi)

(sorry about parent)

(Replying to myself...)

...it seems the OLPC site still mentions it ... when you hover the mouse over the FAQ. However it's not mentioned in the actual FAQ and this page http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_myths puts things straight.

Glad that's sorted.

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Hardware_specification -> What makes this system unique?

Wireless mesh: Child-child sharing! OLPC Laptops are full-time wireless routers. Mesh networking reduces the need for dedicated infrastructure (e.g. access points and/or cabling), and extends greatly the areas in which machines may be connected to each other and/or to the internet.

OMG! P2P, RIAA sue these freeloaders now!

The hand crank was there in early prototypes but the actual shipping units will use an off-board human-power system, connected to the power brick. Candidates include a foot-pedal charger similar to the Freecharge portable charger.

The website for the One Laptop Per Child project is http://laptop.media.mit.edu/ And the Wiki: http://wiki.laptop.org/wiki/One_Laptop_per_Child RedHat is developing the OS for it, and the first prototype has been released last may. First generations of the laptop will actually be more expensive, around $156, the $100 pricetag will be ... off memory, somewhere in 2008. Speccs: Core electronics: * CPU: AMD Geode GX2-500@1.0W(datasheet) * CPU clock speed: 366 Mhz * Compatibility: X86/X87-compatible * Chipset: AMD CS5536 South Bridge (datasheet) * Graphics controller: Integrated with Geode CPU; unified memory architecture * Embedded controller (for production), ENE KB3700: Image:KB3700-ds-01.pdf * DRAM memory: 128MB dynamic RAM * Data rate: Dual - DDR266 - 133 Mhz * BIOS: 1024KB SPI-interface flash ROM; LinuxBIOS open-source BIOS * Mass storage: 512MB SLC NAND flash, high speed flash controller * Drives: No rotating media Display: * Liquid-crystal display: 7.5" Dual-mode TFT display * Viewing area: 151.6 mm × 113.4 mm * Resolution: 1200 (H) × 900 (V) resolution (200 dpi)

Don't forget: not everything proprietary is evil. If WindowsCE would provide much better and cheaper solution, OLPC would use it without thinking twice about it. Windows CE in fact *was* considered briefly at a point.

Also, the laptop is not a loss leader. It is not an attempt to set up a market that can later be leveraged. It is not a coercive tool. It does not shift any kind of intellectual power to the first world away from the communities where it used. Proprietary software may not be provided with these kind of commercial intentions, but it's impossible to prove that, and there will always be question about the intentions of the entire project as a result.

..and have used the "sin of ommission" debate 101 gambit to try and make a point which is in truth erroneous. ONE of the goals is to put a laptop into the hands of kids everywhere, ANOTHER goal is to insure they can tinker with said laptop at all levels, using all open source software. They even say it clearly "children must be allowed to play", which means at any level, as their knowledge expands, they should be able to continue to use the laptop as they see fit.. Open source is a primary goal, and it is political, and it is practical, and is a driving force in these descisions. That's why the use of the words open, free, libre, etc.

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_on_open_source_soft ware

With that said, reading the debate in TFA, it looks like they *are* really trying hard to achieve that goal 100%, but are stuck at the high 90s or something. It looks like if some other hardware company wants to jump in and potentially sell x-millions of wireless chips, they would have a real decent slam dunk chance if it did what the marvell chip did with the instant meshing at low power and not using the CPU much and had all open firmware. Opportunity is knocking quite loudly there for some hardware devs...

"Between propriatary or nothing at all, its understandable why the project picked propriatary."

It didn't pick propriatary, the project picked a Linux-based laptop. All the hardware manufacturers have to do is provide the source code. NDA's and firmware that cannot be freely redistributed are a clear breech of the GPL. It appears that Marvell were unable to provide the firmware due to the use of a third party's embedded OS. Richard Stallmann and Theo de Raadt are correct in this instance as to allow this to happpen unopposed would set a very dangerous precident. Rest of ad hominem, offtopic abuse filtered out by bayesian FudAssassin .. :)

was Given the choice (Score:5, Interesting)

X-Fud-Flag: YES
X-Fud-Checker-Version: FudAssassin 3.0.4 (2006-10-10) on slashdot.org
X-Fud-Level: *****************
X-Fud-Status: Yes, score=17.8 required=4.5 tests=KNOWN.KEY.WORDS
X-Fud-Report: triggered on fanboys, spewing , IDEOLOGY ..

I also am susprised at the opinion that OLPC is targeted at OSS community. It has never been isn't and won't be. The goal is efficient, capable product using efficient solutions to solve a concrete proplem, of children having laptops with network connectivity for education, discussions, information exchange, communication and so on.

If it's not, than why aren't they using OS X?

According to their manifesto, they are indeed targetting OSS. Maybe not the OSS community, but that community's ideals.

The OLPC should say what? Their website ( http://laptop.org/ ) doesnt actually tout Open Source all that much so I dont see how you get the impression they are piggy-tailing on any percieved value - its a means to an end, and that end is to put a cheap laptop into as many childrens hands as possible.

RMS and Theo are trying to use this project as a soapbox to further their own political views, and that disgusts me.

Why don't you just give them these?

I mean, come on! Be realistic. This is /. We only want to exercise for our hands (think wrist action).

Oh yes! I went there! I'm not ashamed.

Moderators, in every OLPC story there's someone who's posting a question such as this and it has been refuted hundreds of times. It's even in the freaking OLPC FAQ. I'm beginning to suspect that people are deliberately trolling here, but still parent post is modded +3.

You can ask questions to the people behind OLPC here. I've skimmed over the page and I think there is no similar question there.

Look at the $100 laptop they are touting for the 3rd world. Sure, its pretty basic, but do you honestly think that there wouldn't be people who would be perfectly happy with a basic machine that lets them view webpages and check their email and cost that little? I think they would sell like hotcakes, but the manufacturers would make ~$2.00 profit per sale and thus have no interest.

Actually, one of the (secondary) goals of the One Laptop per Child project is to bring these laptops in a commercial version to other markets. People have talked about selling them for $300 in developed countries.

In the press release (warning, PDF) announcing Quanta Computer Inc. will be the manufacturer of the $100 Laptop, they state "A commercial version of the machine will be explored in parallel." Quanta is the world's largest manufacturer of laptop PCs, they work for Dell, HP and IBM.

I had no idea that OLPC was so useful.

I do not disagree with you at all. My point was that doing so would be difficult to the point of being unlikely. I do not think that anyone would undertake such without a profitable business model, and you are absolutely correct that at that point you have just another encyclopedia company.

Your point that Wikipedia's value is that it is not like the professional encyclopedia companies is correct. You and I may differ in our opinions of what its "unique value" is. I personally use it frequently for personal reference. For that use, informal reference, it is exceedingly valuable as long as the reader is at least somewhat skilled in reading critically. If I read in an entry that South Africa is populated entirely by leprechauns, I am capable of discerning that I am most likely looking at a vandalized page, and would look at the revision history. A third grader, perhaps, might not. If I read the article on leptons and read "There are three known flavors of lepton: the electron, the muon and the gluon." I would not know that a vandal had replaced "tau" with "gluon". I know just enough about particle physics to know the word "gluon" but not enough to know that it is wrong in this case.

Another poster pointed out that you could cite a revision number with Wikipedia, so I stand corrected on that point. Last time I wrote a research paper, citing online references was not an option because there were very few of them and almost no one had access to them. I have to smile at how quaint microfilm and microfiche seem now... If I remember correctly general encyclopedias were allowed as sources in elementary school. I could be wrong since it has been a very, very long time since I wrote a research paper myself and my children are not yet old enough to have been required to write one. My point here is that if we agree that certainly ONLY elementary students might be able to use it as a reference, it would be a dubious source since they have probably not learned enough critical thinking skills to weed out the bad information. Of course there is no better way to learn critical thinking skills than a string of "F" papers with increasingly harsh rephrasings of "This is obviously a vandalized entry, moron" written on them in blood-red ink...

One last thought, and I'll move along quietly... I have been watching with interest the One Laptop Per Child project. The gist is $100 laptops to go to developing countries for each school child TO REPLACE TEXTBOOKS among other things. One of the highly touted ideas is to include a copy of the Wikipedia so the students have access to a wealth of information. Think about that for a second. Imagine that the Wikipedia is quite possibly YOUR ONLY SOURCE OF INFO about practically everything in the world. You could literally have a generation of children in Thailand who grow up convinced that South Africa is populated by leprechauns. Yikes. That is an extreme example that would probably be caught by the teachers, but what about my lepton example? Not that specific case, but imagine how many SUBTLY vandalized pages or politically spun pages would exist in any copy of the Wikipedia that might serve as a whole nation of children's only source of info. Scary.

I think we agree that the Wikipedia is an incredibly useful tool when taken for what it is. You just have to understand its nature and use it appropriately.

A better idea would be to take some of those $100 laptops and put a really good locally tailored learn-to-read program on them and give them to very poor rural villages. This is assuming the $100 laptop has good enough sound to handle the task.

It does; see the hardware specification. Might need headphones if you're doing something full-duplex (like VOIP) but otherwise excellent audio. It even has S/PDIF out.

Engish or Special English is at least a more plausible solution to this sort of problem than Esperanto

*sigh* Another armchair International Development specialist whose only experience of hardship was when the ice in the local 7/11's Slurpee machine melted last July. Sorry if what follows sounds a little harsh, but....

"Yeah, just what the 3rd world needs - computers. Not non-corrupt governments and basic infrastructure... yeah, computers, that's the ticket!"

And just how the fuck do you think corruption comes about, except through the cynical exploitation of an under-educated and ill-informed populace[*]? Improved access to education, information and communications are explicitly aimed at improving governance in developing countries.

By the way, did it ever occur to you that much of the corruption afflicting developing countries is encouraged and often instigated by the same sanctimonious pricks who occasionally deign to drop a few pennies in the international development pot? OLPC is largely self-funding, which means that governments would be stealing from themselves if they subverted this one. In fairness, that's hardly unheard of, but it provides a stronger incentive to actually do the right thing with the laptops.

And infrastructure... these computers are designed to supplement local infrastructure. If you had any clue whatsoever about the logistics of building infrastructure in most developing countries, you'd know why this ad hoc, opportunistic approach is the only viable approach right now.

"On the other hand, maybe they will only go to semi-desparate places that do have some modicum of rule of law, etc. In which case, never mind."

Oh FFS, did you even read the website? You know, the one where they say exactly that?

Look, seriously: Please go educate yourself before I start to think that these bovine comments are just part of some astroturf campaign to discredit the work of the OLPC project, which is - Heavens to Betsy - actually based on insight and experience. Volunteer for Peace Corps, VSO, CUSO or GeekCorps. Work overseas for a while and then see what you think about your facile 'analysis'.

[*] Sounds a bit like some developed countries we know, doesn't it?

working link
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Hardware_specification

and poor storage (512MB is insufficient, even for this computers purposes), and yet it has a camera (How do you store the pictures?)

How about a little effort before you start bitching?

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Hardware_specification/
Expansion: 3 Type-A USB-2.0 connectors

* Must include source code and allow modification so that our developers, the governments that are our customers and the children who use the laptop can look under the hood to change the software to fit an inconceivable and inconceivably diverse set of needs. Our software must also provide a self-hosting development platform.

* Must allow distribution of modified copies of software under the same license so that the freedoms that our developers depend upon for success remain available to the users and developers who define the next generation of the software. Our users and customers must be able to localize software into their language, fix the software to remove bugs, and repurpose the software to fit their needs.

* Must allow redistribution without permission -- either alone or as part of an aggregate distribution -- because we can not know and should not control how the tools we create will be re-purposed in the future. Our children outgrow our platform, our software should be able to grow with them.

* Must not require royalty payments or any other fee for redistribution or modification for obvious reasons of economy and pragmatism in the context of our project.

* Must not discriminate against persons, groups or against fields of endeavor. Our software's power will come through its ability to grow and change with the children and in a variety of contexts.

* Must not place restrictions on other software that may be distributed along side it. Software licenses must not bar either proprietary, or "copyleft" software from being distributed on the platform. A world of great software will be used to make this project succeed - both open and closed. We need to be able to choose from all of it.

* Must allow these rights to be passed on along with the software. This means that we must not provide a license specific to the $100 Laptop project or organization or its customers. While we are the developers of this platform today, the users of this platform are the developers of tomorrow and it is through them that the platform will succeed, be transformed, and be passed on. They need the same rights as we do.

* Must not be otherwise encumbered by software patents which restrict modification or use in the ways described above. All patents practiced by software should be sublicenseable and allow our users to make use or sell derivative versions that practice the patent in question.

* Must support and promote open and patent unencumbered data interchange and file formats.

* Must be able to be built using unencumbered tools (e.g., compilers) whose output is unencumbered and free to examine and reverse engineer.

Again, I say that Steve Job's is far too an intelligent man to not understand OLPC's goals, so I can only imagine publicity (waaaaaaaaah! Google and Redhat are looking like nicer companies than Apple!) prompted his 'offer'.

So we could have had a $100--er, $140--MacBook.

Incorrect. You are not a c

I would like to call Slashdot's attention to several design elements of this laptop which most coverage has overlooked:

1. The laptop will carry Esperanto teaching utilities .
2. The laptop will include an Office Assistant sort of creature which was, quote, "inspired by the Tamagotchi toys, and its purpose is to allow kids to interact with the control of the computer in a simple and fun way". The assistant is named "Amiko" because that is Esperanto for "friend".
3. The laptop will have its own UI, unlike any UI which has ever been used on a real (non-toy) laptop, which for me at least recalls bad memories of Microsoft Bob .

There does not seem to be any page on the website for people to discuss how the laptop actually ought to work, or if these ideas are at all sane.

Is it just me, or when reading these software details, doesn't the whole thing seem just a little less plausible to you?

I would like to call Slashdot's attention to several design elements of this laptop which most coverage has overlooked:

1. The laptop will carry Esperanto teaching utilities .
2. The laptop will include an Office Assistant sort of creature which was, quote, "inspired by the Tamagotchi toys, and its purpose is to allow kids to interact with the control of the computer in a simple and fun way". The assistant is named "Amiko" because that is Esperanto for "friend".
3. The laptop will have its own UI, unlike any UI which has ever been used on a real (non-toy) laptop, which for me at least recalls bad memories of Microsoft Bob .

There does not seem to be any page on the website for people to discuss how the laptop actually ought to work, or if these ideas are at all sane.

Is it just me, or when reading these software details, doesn't the whole thing seem just a little less plausible to you?

I would like to call Slashdot's attention to several design elements of this laptop which most coverage has overlooked:

1. The laptop will carry Esperanto teaching utilities .
2. The laptop will include an Office Assistant sort of creature which was, quote, "inspired by the Tamagotchi toys, and its purpose is to allow kids to interact with the control of the computer in a simple and fun way". The assistant is named "Amiko" because that is Esperanto for "friend".
3. The laptop will have its own UI, unlike any UI which has ever been used on a real (non-toy) laptop, which for me at least recalls bad memories of Microsoft Bob .

There does not seem to be any page on the website for people to discuss how the laptop actually ought to work, or if these ideas are at all sane.

Is it just me, or when reading these software details, doesn't the whole thing seem just a little less plausible to you?

I will have to take back my previous comments about there being no official talk about selling the machines commercially. The OLPCWiki discusses it here. Apparently, commercial sales as a subsidy are being considered, at around 3x the cost of the laptop (so around $400 to $500, probably).

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Image:Green_and_white_ma chine.jpg

Who's providing the free textbooks?

Wikibooks, among other things

But surely you wouldn't have called someone ignorant without doing a little research

The "STFU" was in response to the DRM bit as well. Or, in fact, it was almost entirely in response to the DRM bit, because the only way someone could possibly think this project would even consider using DRM is if they were entirely ignorant about it. FYI, the people designing the thing are huge advocates of Free Software, Creative Commons, etc. There's no way in Hell they'd consider putting DRM in the thing -- they even rejected all non-Free software!

The only other possibility -- that he did know the background of the project and said what he said anyway -- means that he would have been intentionally spreading FUD.

what did they end up using for these laptops in Thailand?

Not built-in hand cranks!

(In other words, I don't know -- but I'm not going to pretend that I do, unlike the guy I replied to.)

according to this site; http://www.laptop.org/index.en_US.html you won't be able to buy one, although I had previously heard that you could buy them for $300 as a way of donating 2 to children in the 2nd/3rd world

* Must include source code and allow modification so that our developers, the governments that are our customers and the children who use the laptop can look under the hood to change the software to fit an inconceivable and inconceivably diverse set of needs. Our software must also provide a self-hosting development platform.

* Must allow distribution of modified copies of software under the same license so that the freedoms that our developers depend upon for success remain available to the users and developers who define the next generation of the software. Our users and customers must be able to localize software into their language, fix the software to remove bugs, and repurpose the software to fit their needs.

* Must allow redistribution without permission -- either alone or as part of an aggregate distribution -- because we can not know and should not control how the tools we create will be re-purposed in the future. Our children outgrow our platform, our software should be able to grow with them.

* Must not require royalty payments or any other fee for redistribution or modification for obvious reasons of economy and pragmatism in the context of our project.

* Must not discriminate against persons, groups or against fields of endeavor. Our software's power will come through its ability to grow and change with the children and in a variety of contexts.

* Must not place restrictions on other software that may be distributed along side it. Software licenses must not bar either proprietary, or "copyleft" software from being distributed on the platform. A world of great software will be used to make this project succeed - both open and closed. We need to be able to choose from all of it.

* Must allow these rights to be passed on along with the software. This means that we must not provide a license specific to the $100 Laptop project or organization or its customers. While we are the developers of this platform today, the users of this platform are the developers of tomorrow and it is through them that the platform will succeed, be transformed, and be passed on. They need the same rights as we do.

* Must not be otherwise encumbered by software patents which restrict modification or use in the ways described above. All patents practiced by software should be sublicenseable and allow our users to make use or sell derivative versions that practice the patent in question.

* Must support and promote open and patent unencumbered data interchange and file formats.

* Must be able to be built using unencumbered tools (e.g., compilers) whose output is unencumbered and free to examine and reverse engineer.

A recent article in DesktopLinux reported that four countries have each committed to buy 1 million laptops. The OLPC spokesperson was misquoted: no agreement had been signed. We continue to cooperate with Thailand, Brasil, Argentina, and Nigeria, but no one has committed to purchase laptops nor has OLPC asked anyone to sign a purchase agreement yet. We apologize for any confusion.