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What happened to OLPC? The $99 laptop

OLPC still exists, but is now irrelevant. The project is almost dead.

First, they failed to hit their $100 target. The laptop cost roughly double that.

Second, their program focused on the wrong strategy. They tried to make the perfect device but didn't focus enough on volume. They should have made a laptop that they would cheerfully sell to anyone for $100, and shipped hundreds of millions of devices. Instead they made a somewhat boutique device that cost $200 and they wouldn't sell it to you unless you paid $400 for it. (Under their "give 1/get 1" program, you would pay double for a laptop and OLPC would then give a laptop to a student somewhere.) The boutique strategy didn't work out.

Then they spent time trying to design some new devices that never went anywhere. (XO-2 XO-3)

We now live in a world where you can get an off-the-shelf Android tablet for $40. Therefore you can get roughly four tablets plus four USB keyboards for a similar cost of a single OLPC device.

I respect the OLPC project's ambitious design goals. A laptop that is rugged, can work outdoors, is repairable, and has mesh networking features, running nothing but free software! Neat! But compromising on some of these details could have lowered the price and the project might not be irrelevant now. I'd like to see some statistics on how often the mesh networking is actually used, how often schools actually repair these devices.

Around 2012, the OLPC project tried releasing a special OLPC Android tablet for $150. I can't find any information on how many they sold, but I don't think that really worked out either.

At this point I think the best strategy would be to just write educational software to run on Android tablets, and assume the market will take care of making the tablets.

P.S. I personally paid $400 for the original OLPC laptop. I found the thing to be frustratingly slow and hard to use. (In fairness I routinely use computers that cost way more than $200, but even so...) The worst part was the touchpad; I found it wildly inaccurate so using it was frustrating.

Also, I was looking forward to hacking the thing; I wanted to hit that "Show Source" code keyboard button, see some Python code, and make some sort of improvement. I found that most of the time when I hit the "Show Source" button it didn't do anything and my urge to contribute died.

In the end, I donated my OLPC to a church group, to send to a school in a very poor part of India.

I used to use a Palm Pilot to read books and run various programs including games. The display wasn't great but performance was great (you never had to wait for the thing to respond to a click) and the battery lasted a very long time. (If I remember correctly I got about two weeks of life from a pair of AA cells. I switched to using rechargeable NiMH AA cells, and still got days of use before needing to recharge.)

IMHO the OLPC project could have made a tablet device similar to a Palm Pilot, but with a much larger and higher-resolution monochrome screen... and hit their $100 price point. Such a device would be useful for running educational software and very usable as an ebook reader. In particular the long battery life would have been a huge win compared to the actual OLPC hardware. Such a device shipped in the hundreds of millions of units would have had a much higher chance of changing the world. It could have been offered both as a stand-alone device, and in a nylon case bundled with a USB keyboard (kind of like the Apple Newton case). In t

The micro:bit designed to try and keep the Raspberry Pi out of UK schools. See also how Microsoft acted to sabatage the OLPC initiative. ref .. brand new millennium, same old MICROS~1 :)

An Inside Look at how Microsoft got XP on the XO

"Remember that a key part of our strategy is to create a situation where even if Nick rejects us for philosophical reasons there is a long as visible history of our attempts to work with them and then we have to ask to get a license for the "open source hardware" and we will make our own offering on the commercial side." ref

“Geez, get a decent computer where you can actually read the text and you’re not sitting there cranking the thing while you’re trying to type.” ref

'Halt the NC from making any noise in FY98 .. We are executing on a PR plan to expose the NC as "dead"' ref

'They kept the NC specification around despite saying they would not .. There is some failure in communication.'

An Inside Look at how Microsoft got XP on the XO

"Remember that a key part of our strategy is to create a situation where even if Nick rejects us for philosophical reasons there is a long as visible history of our attempts to work with them and then we have to ask to get a license for the "open source hardware" and we will make our own offering on the commercial side." ref

“Geez, get a decent computer where you can actually read the text and you’re not sitting there cranking the thing while you’re trying to type.” ref

'Halt the NC from making any noise in FY98 .. We are executing on a PR plan to expose the NC as "dead"' ref

'They kept the NC specification around despite saying they would not .. There is some failure in communication.'

Good catch! OLPC lost a lot of developer mindshare IMHO when they started cosying up to Microsoft and changing their hardware to run Windows. Example:
http://www.olpcnews.com/softwa...
"For me, that paragraph represents the end of a dream. I say that XP on the XO is the end of One Laptop Per Child as an educational project. With a Microsoft operating system, an XO becomes a "$200 laptop", a cheap Toshiba replacement, not an educational learning tool for children. With the Sugar User Interface, OLPC can claim to have a Constructionist learning methodology, it can claim to be promoting exploration and learning, it can even hope to activate the view source key. But once you put on XP, no matter how much it may be customized to leverage the XO hardware, children will not be taught to "learn learning" as Negroponte promised. They will be taught "ICT skills", a phrase Negroponte himself railed against. Ministries of Education will be tempted to lock down XO's in computer labs and revert the whole one laptop per child idea back to one to many, effectively negating the goal of this grand dream. Yes, for me XP on the XO is the end of OLPC, no matter who is the CEO."

Hope Raspberry Pi does not suffer the same fate -- especially as I recently bought two B+ versions, :-) not knowing about either of these forthcoming changes (better hardware or Windows).

The last week or so, I've been watching for the new Beagleboard-X15, which is both open source hardware (Raspberry Pi design is not quite open hardware it seems) and will answer a lot of performance and memory issues at least compared to the Raspberry Pi B+ or the Beaglebone Black.
http://elinux.org/Beagleboard:...
http://beagleboard.org/project...
"The BeagleBoard-X15 is the newest member of the BeagleBoard family. Measuring 4" x 4.2", it is based on a Dual Core A15 processor running at 1.5GHZ and features 2GB of DDR3L Memory. It is in the beta phase. ... Guidance is that it is certainly over $100 ..."

So, that board is a lot pricier than this newer (or older) Raspberry Pi though. Not too much for a typical home office server use as an example (like to run NodeJS locally for testing on a separate non-VM box), but still 3X to 4X more for the board. However, when you add a case, extra media like a hard disk or big USB flash drive, and a power supply, and a wireless dongle, and so on, I doubt the overall cost is probably that much more than 2X for an entire system with the Beagleboard-X15.

If your project is led by somebody who believes that the way forward is to drop OLPC laptops out of helicopters into villages and completely bypass locally respected educators, because of the belief that outsiders giving people technology will educate them, what hope have you got?

If the project doesn't seem to respect local teachers, then claims that the reason the project has failed is because of the teachers, well I am suspicious of the findings, or maybe at least suspect a bias.

Is the project too technology led rather than built on sound pedagogical frameworks to support children's education?

Providing teacher training to enable teachers to better employ the technology in their teaching practice (what The Economist article suggests) before dropping all the laptops into classrooms would have been less media friendly but perhaps a more successful strategy.

It does feel like the old story of rusting high tech white elephants in developing countries: well meaning, lots of money spent, not much time understanding local grassroots needs, working with the local educators on the ground. Stuff just gets dropped in with no support and surprise surprise doesn't get used well or technically maintained.

The technology is the easy bit. Engaging with local communities to understand their needs is time consuming and more difficult.

Oops! That link was meant to be http://www.olpcnews.com/laptops/xo1/olpc_xo_greenest_laptop_made.html

How about the XKCD Pet Netbook Robot? :) It's finally been turned into a reality using a One Laptop Per Child XO-1 + and an Arduino microcontroller via Project Butia!

"I like the proposal [of] giving away the back-up strategy if XP is rejected,"

`We should see how we can "target" the funds for the specific research .. a way to position this around MSFT willing to possiblt give MORE if they research on stuff that is mutually interesting'

`I think we should name our new open source license and romance its creation. "Education Open Source" or something like that'

`Remember that a key part of our strategy is to create a situatuion where even if Nick rejects us for philosophical reasons there is a long and visable history of our attempts to work with them and then we have to ask to get a license for the "open source hardware" and we will make our own offering on the commercial side' Craig Mundie Oct 2005 link

"The OLPC News website in the past months has build up a reputation for sharply criticizing the $100 laptop .. It turns out that one of the site's authors works on an Intel project that is competing with the OLPC. Oops"

Why Microsoft Must Control One Laptop Per Child

Steve Jobs at one point offered to donate MacOSX licenses for every OLPC

I'd love to get a reliable source on that. I always imagine Apple as being evil as sin (ha!); it would do a lot for my impression of the company to believe that they were willing to work on something for nothing (OS X + PostScript GUI on a 433mhz Geode?).

Nearest source I could find was here (which, in turn, cites this, but I can't find the quote on Reuters, so whatever.):

Negroponte said in the interview the foundation is "open to" running Apple Inc.'s OS X Macintosh operating system on the XO laptop. An Apple spokesperson declined comment on its plans for the device.

... which sounds more like the Apple we all know and love.

Thanks in advance

The 1.5 hardware rev initially debuted last September. The design was filed with the FCC this past February, and they started distributing models through their contributors program a few weeks later. Unfortunately, you still can't get a full machine, or even a motherboard, through the G1G1 program... yet, anyway.

The 1.5 hardware rev initially debuted last September. The design was filed with the FCC this past February, and they started distributing models through their contributors program a few weeks later. Unfortunately, you still can't get a full machine, or even a motherboard, through the G1G1 program... yet, anyway.

The 1.5 hardware rev initially debuted last September. The design was filed with the FCC this past February, and they started distributing models through their contributors program a few weeks later. Unfortunately, you still can't get a full machine, or even a motherboard, through the G1G1 program... yet, anyway.

The 1.5 hardware rev initially debuted last September. The design was filed with the FCC this past February, and they started distributing models through their contributors program a few weeks later. Unfortunately, you still can't get a full machine, or even a motherboard, through the G1G1 program... yet, anyway.

Some of those reasons were valid; most of them were just good, old-fashioned vested-interest conservatism in the face of change.

Something like 9 of 10 XO laptops are to be found in Columbia, Uraquay, and Peru.

Three common denominators: Western Hemisphere. Spanish speaking. Latin American culture. That can't be coincidence.

These countries are, of course, far from being the poorest of the poor:

My contacts in Rwanda say that MINEDUC has released the purchase order and 20% advance payment to get the XO shipments going.
What I still wonder about is the rest of the financials for this project. An order of 100,000 XO laptops means a minimum cost of $20,000,000, or 18% of Rwanda's $109 million education budget for 2008.
If, as OLPC News calculates, the 5 year Total Cost of Ownership for an XO laptop is $1000, then the total cost for Rwanda will be $100 million, or 25% of the total educational budget over the next 5 years. Not a small sum for a country that relies on international aid for 70% of the government's budget. 120,000 XO Laptops Headed to OLPC Rwanda [May 2009]

But I think it remains fair to ask what anchorage OLPC had in non-western cultures.

XP and Windows can suggest more of a focus on marketable skills.

On the transition to academic or vocational paths beyond the elementary grades.

Apparently (according to this http://www.olpcnews.com/laptops/xo-3/new_xo-3_announced_just_a_marv.html posting), the XO-3 will be a re-branded Marvel Moby tablet. So much for rugged designed-for-kids. Several articles have appeared today on OLPC News about the deal.

It seems likely that they will use the Pixel Qi display. See this story: "Breaking News: OLPC & Pixel Qi to Share XO Laptop Screen Patents AND All Current & Future Display IP" , http://www.olpcnews.com/hardware/screen/breaking_news_olpc_pixel_qi_to.html

Well, I see a slew of problems with using Toughbooks from 2001, but I think the point that's easiest to make without writing a whole college length essay on the matter is that it'd be hard to collect 50,000 (the number of OLPCs sold to Mexico) Toughbooks, let alone the 260,000 sold to Peru (soruce). Even if they did have Toshiba or some other company make brand new machines, doing so at the $100 that they were originally shooting for would be impossible as no such machine existed at that price point when OLPC started.

The only real snag seems to be unreliable connections to WPA-protected wireless networks. Several methods and WIFI managers are mentioned in the various wikis and blogs covering XFCE on the XO, but there seems to be no really good, reliable solution.

I've been using teapot's Ubuntu Intrepid for XO since January. It uses XFCE and handles WPA just fine; both my WPA2 PSK at home and the WPA Enterprise at campus are working perfectly.

Negropontes' biggest mistake was getting into bed with Wintel. We don't really have any idea of the machinations that went on in the background to sabatage the OLPC. But his road to Damascus conversion must be one of the most unexpected since Scott McNealys.

"AMD is our partner, which means Intel is pissing on me. Bill Gates is not pleased either, but if I am annoying Microsoft and Intel then I figure I am doing something right,", 2006

'Negroponte says that a Windows operating system is in the process of being fine-tuned on the XO as we speak. "Microsoft and OLPC are in discussion on how to release it', 2008

'Intel .. is promoting its Classmate PC (CMPC) in Nigeria to various organisations as well as government'

'The organization is in negotiations with Microsoft to load Windows on dual-boot versions of the XO laptop', May 2008

It's a shame for everyone who read deeper into this, because the whole pretext of this story is based on an over approximation.

Negroponte said this:

[T]he biggest mistake was not having Sugar run as an application

He in no shape or form said Sugar was a mistake! He is talking about the implementation, you fools! It is like saying the automobile was a mistake, when the inventor just said he should have used a cleaner engine.

The person disagreeing with the words they put in Negroponte's mouth says:

Sugar was not a mistake, it is one of the defining aspects of the XO laptop, and saved it from even more unfavorable comparisons to traditional laptops and accusations of being underpowered.

Right. So in what way are you disagreeing with the claim that Sugar should have been more modular, the system architecture should have been simpler, and that Sugar could have been more interpolatable with other systems?

OMG, can you imagine a billion children getting their first taste of computing with Windows XP running on an OLPC XO? Microsoft has apparently paid for 7,000 dual-boot XOs (Linux + Sugar in main flash, XP on an extra flash card) to be used in trials in Uruguay.

http://www.olpcnews.com/countries/uruguay/uruguay_windows_xo_ms_office.html

The only good thing I can say about this is, "Woot!" Microsoft is actually paying to have trials of Linux + Sugar vs. XP plus educational shovelware, on the same hardware, conducted by a multitude of teachers and schoolchildren, none of them on the M$ payroll. Oh, frabjous day! Calloo! Callay!

The best bit is that Uruguay has just started an educational blog, where teachers and students have started posting. Story at http://www.olpcnews.com/countries/uruguay/update_on_xo_laptops.html, more (in Spanish) at http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Blog_educativo

OMG, can you imagine a billion children getting their first taste of computing with Windows XP running on an OLPC XO? Microsoft has apparently paid for 7,000 dual-boot XOs (Linux + Sugar in main flash, XP on an extra flash card) to be used in trials in Uruguay.

http://www.olpcnews.com/countries/uruguay/uruguay_windows_xo_ms_office.html

The only good thing I can say about this is, "Woot!" Microsoft is actually paying to have trials of Linux + Sugar vs. XP plus educational shovelware, on the same hardware, conducted by a multitude of teachers and schoolchildren, none of them on the M$ payroll. Oh, frabjous day! Calloo! Callay!

The best bit is that Uruguay has just started an educational blog, where teachers and students have started posting. Story at http://www.olpcnews.com/countries/uruguay/update_on_xo_laptops.html, more (in Spanish) at http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Blog_educativo

"Howdy, I do IT work for a fairly rural school district in SC. There are so many problems with this idea I don't know where to start"

Countries in the developing world such as the African nation of Rwanda don't seem to have any such problems. As neither does Brazil.

"it doesn't make much sense that a network closet that 20 computers run back to has 10 brand new switches in it while the school can't afford to retain its current teaching staff"

Retraining FUD ..

"All the sudden the room that really only needed power to a TV and maybe 4-5 computers now needs to have the power capabilities to also handle 20-30 laptops as well. This is not to be underestimated"

I thought laptops ran off of batteries :)

"How about network connectivity? Are we going to install network jacks in these classrooms for these laptops or put in WAPs? Who is going to pay for this new equipment/cabling?"

The laptops utilize mesh networking so they can still provide functionality even without a central gateway.

"How about all of the volume licensing agreements? Agreements for OSes, anti-virus clients, patch management systems, etc. are all done by volume. Who is going to pay for the additional licenses for these systems?"

There are no 'volume licensing agreements', the XO isn't susceptible to such things as viruses

"I'm a FOSS advocate, run nix at home, etc"

You sure sound like it :)

http://www.olpcnews.com/forum/index.php?topic=4053.0

I maintain that port -- it's unofficial, so I don't have any connection to OLPC project or Canonical, however the port is intended to be an adaptation of the current Ubuntu release with minimal changes that allow it to work on XO hardware and support XO-specific features (screen, power management, etc.) It uses Ubuntu repositories for packages installation and updates.

The latest firmware can boot XP

http://www.olpcnews.com/sales_talk/microsoft/how_to_run_windows_xo.html

I am based in the UK but ordered an XO in the initial G1G1 programme and had it delivered to a friend in the US who then sent it on to me here in London. All I can say is that the experience was an absolute debacle. If you check the forums of OLPC News you can see just how bad it was - repeated broken promises as to delivery dates, support staff who couldn't provide any answers and an end product less than what was initially promised (e.g. no separate power generating devices).

I was and still am a supporter of the OLPC; whilst the product itself is not aimed at me, even still I think it is a great computer and a lot of fun to use. I give them full credit as well for creating the "netbook" market from nothing. However, the G1G1 experience turned a lot of people off the OLPC organisation. It is hard to have confidence that they can execute their mission when they couldn't even get the logistics right for a first world country. I just hope we don't have a repeat of that this time around.

I (teapot) happen to be the maintainer of Ubuntu on XO.

At least people on OLPC News forum recognize my self-proclaimed status as such.

No one from OLPC project, Peru, or any organization involved in "Give One Get One" program ever contacted me about Ubuntu customization for XO in general, G1G1 donors or any deployment. Crappy adaptation of XP for XO that barely works, has no educational value, and seem to be nothing but Microsoft's own initiative, gets all the coverage. Far superior system that provides the same "general-purpose" functionality, far superior performance, reliability and security is completely ignored. Slashdot users make comments assuming Ubuntu for XO to be some kind of hypothetical possibility despite the fact that it existed since the beginning of this year, and my adaptation remains the current version since May (when it was built based on then-released Hardy).

Believe it or not, these laptops aren't made for you, they are made for developing countries. So while you may sarcastically think that it's unnecessary to swap out parts from one laptop and put them in another, especially when you can take it to a repair shop or send it back to the manufacturer, I hope you realize that for the intended markets of these computers, that isn't possible. (as an aside, I'm writing this from an XO-1 that I replaced the screen in, I'd like to see you do that to your own laptop)
And as for the other AC claiming that fans can be good... I guarantee you the XO does not overheat. They have tested them at 68 C, far hotter than it would get in the real world http://www.olpcnews.com/hardware/screen/olpc_job_breaking_xo-1.html and considering the laptop is completely sealed, dust and sand are completely non-threatening, as is rain.
The classmate has a lot to live up to if it wants to replace the XO.

Didn't we go through this all once before?

That's one reason it gets such good battery life. It uses the magic of diffraction gratings...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the diffraction grating 'helps' by replacing the color filter. The color filter absorbs a portion of light, so when there is no color filter, then there is less light lost. Less light lost translates into less light you have to generate, and a power savings.

I believe the OLPC screen has 2 modes. Mode 1 is for backlit color like a normal screen, and mode 2 is for reflective black and white for use on a sunny day.

When Ubuntu Hardy was being released in April, I have posted installation instructions for it on XO. This is still probably the best way to install a "mainstream" Linux distribution on that laptop -- XO has rather unusual screen pixels layout with 1200x900 "visible" resolution, so Xubuntu desktop with a GTK theme made to accommodate XO's unusual screen behavior is better suited for it than a desktop made for plain low resolution and mostly touchscreen input that XO does not have.

I have posted videos of this version of Ubuntu in action on Youtube, and photos of the installation procedure (still with old GTK theme) on my Livejorunal.

on reflection I can cite myself here where I said inaccurately that it was based on an AMD processor (it is a VIA I think) and I said it was based on Debian, which is half true, it is Xandros which is in turn based on Debian.

well, nothing that couldn't have been written on March 1st at any rate. In fact I did write an article about the Elonex One, and the OLPC XO and the EeePC on March 1st, I don't know if it is a better article, I am of course not a professional journalist, but I did at least make an effort to check the facts and actually did have a unit to look at. The ITWire article is just poorly regurgitating some publicly available specifications.

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

su

yum install xfdesktop xfce-utils xfce-mcs-plugins xfce4-session

yum install xfce4-mixer system-config-date xfce4-genmon-plugin xfce4-systemload-plugin

yum install wifi-radar

(Edit /usr/sbin/wifi-radar and change default eth1 to eth0)

Once that's done, you'll have a much more useful XO.

Sugar is nice, but it just isn't ready yet.

That method is easier than putting Ubunut on the XO.

http://olpcnews.com/forum/index.php?topic=1435.0
and
http://olpcnews.com/forum/index.php?topic=1436.0

Should help you with the Ubuntu install.

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

su

yum install xfdesktop xfce-utils xfce-mcs-plugins xfce4-session

yum install xfce4-mixer system-config-date xfce4-genmon-plugin xfce4-systemload-plugin

yum install wifi-radar

(Edit /usr/sbin/wifi-radar and change default eth1 to eth0)

Once that's done, you'll have a much more useful XO.

Sugar is nice, but it just isn't ready yet.

That method is easier than putting Ubunut on the XO.

http://olpcnews.com/forum/index.php?topic=1435.0
and
http://olpcnews.com/forum/index.php?topic=1436.0

Should help you with the Ubuntu install.

"trying to run a program and XP must totally suck on that little thing."

The video shows a not so slow experience:
http://www.olpcnews.com/software/windows/windows_xp_on_the_xo_video.html

Alex Belits has the first explanation of the sudden desire for Windows on these devices that makes any sense to me.

Partial Summary: commercial laptop manufacturers see declining sales for their new low-end laptop lines, and hope that switching to Windows will make those lines profitable again. OLPC sees too few developers and hopes that switching to Windows will attract enough new developers to form a critical mass. Both are going to be disappointed ...

For details, Read The Whole Thing. Highly recommended.

http://olpcnews.com/forum/index.php?topic=2730.msg21987#msg21987

If I missed anything, correcftions are welcome.

My configuration is a reimplementation of what moocapiean did in a bit more controlled environment, and updated to work with Hardy packages. I have posted the current version at here -- it includes my UI updates and various scripts previously posted on the same forum, configured to work in a consistent manner. It still lacks nice installer and debian packaging, however once installed it acts like a regular Ubuntu setup, customized for XO. Power management is still missing (conflicts with SD), so under heavy use laptop battery lasts about 3 hours.

moocapiean has had detailed instructions on how to do this for a few months now. That's what I used to put Xubuntu on my XO. He also recently walked us through a kernel upgrade (p. 17 of that thread).

The way to easily switch between OSes is by altering the olpc.fth file in /boot.

Upgrading anything, however, is not automatic, i.e. effortless via an upgrade manager, and it would be great if you, freelikegnu, moocapiean, and any other geniuses out there (beleive me, to me, you're geniuses!) pooled resources so this could happen faster!

I'm looking forward to trying out your way of doing it Alex. Hardy Heron is a nice step up, and I want it on my XO.

moocapiean has had detailed instructions on how to do this for a few months now. That's what I used to put Xubuntu on my XO. He also recently walked us through a kernel upgrade (p. 17 of that thread).

The way to easily switch between OSes is by altering the olpc.fth file in /boot.

Upgrading anything, however, is not automatic, i.e. effortless via an upgrade manager, and it would be great if you, freelikegnu, moocapiean, and any other geniuses out there (beleive me, to me, you're geniuses!) pooled resources so this could happen faster!

I'm looking forward to trying out your way of doing it Alex. Hardy Heron is a nice step up, and I want it on my XO.

Yeah, couldn't get that to work. And then there were the "issues" with WPA protected networks. Ugh.

I was going to write "I wish I could install a Linux distro like Xubuntu on it", but apparently you can. I might give it a shot.

True; and Walter Bender (whose recent departure and the hubub around it caused this Negroponte email in the first place) said that most of the failings of the Gnash implementation were due media codec licenses, not failings of gnash itself.

That being said, if you really need flash, install it! It works! It's even listed in the laptop.org wiki, as well as multiple threads and howtos at OLPCNews' forums; including a good tip on improving flash video performance: http://olpcnews.com/forum/index.php?topic=845.0

(sidenote: I just got back from a trip and used a custom mplayer build to watch movies for the whole flight - woot)