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_If_ the notebook was really $100 then maybe I wouldn't be so cynical.

The only way to get one of these in the US is to participate in the Give One Get One program, where you buy 2 and give one away to help a child that would otherwise not receive an XO. It's a noble cause, but now you've upped the price for one (to the general public) from $100 to $400. We're still very far away from the realization of a $100 notebook, in my opinion.

See one of these XO notebooks next to a common Dell laptop. They are extremely smaller in size:

http://flickr.com/photos/barl0w/1101266148/

Here's one way. Not cheap, but you're doing good. http://www.xogiving.org/

You can buy two for $400 starting november 12th. One for you, one is donated to a 3rd world kid.

It will be for sale in the US for a limited time.
Here is a better URL:

http://www.xogiving.org/

Yet another person who completely missed the point. The point of the OLPC is to provide education in areas that have hundreds of children per teacher, and the classrooms are horribly lacking in the standard teaching tools we take for granted.

American children already have well funded, well equipped, and well staffed (all relative to third world countries, mind you) school systems. Thus, the purpose of a computer in an American school is often less for the purpose of education in general than for education of the specifics of the computer. As in, learn how to write a Word document, use a spreadsheet, do research online, etc.

The OLPC project on the other hand, is not about giving a child a laptop, its about giving a child a real education.

Even so, the OLPC is going to be offered in the US, in a plan much like what you described. I, for one, am going to order one the first moment I can.

Then go to http://www.xogiving.org/ and order up a couple of XO laptops so the poor kids in Burma have a shot (pardon the expression) at a real future. If you like, you can sign up to buy a pair of XO laptops, one for a poor kid in some third-world country and one for your own kid or a neighbor or even for yourself. You'll pay less for those two XOs than Microsoft gets for a retail copy of Windows, and they'll do a lot more good (and, um, work a lot better ...)

Then go to http://www.xogiving.org/ and order up a couple of XO laptops so the poor kids in Burma have a shot (pardon the expression) at a real future. If you like, you can sign up to buy a pair of XO laptops, one for a poor kid in some third-world country and one for your own kid or a neighbor or even for yourself. You'll pay less for those two XOs than Microsoft gets for a retail copy of Windows, and they'll do a lot more good (and, um, work a lot better ...)

Here's a thought: an OLPC laptop. Decent (if low-end) specs, supports charity, and durable.

As was brought up recently, you can buy one starting Nov. 11 if you live in the U.S.

From http://www.xogiving.org/faq.html

"How come these laptops are going to kids in developing nations when we have needy children in the U.S.?

In the U.S., the average expenditure for education is $10,000 dollars per child. In developing countries, the average expenditure is typically less than $300 dollars per child. One Laptop Per Child is initially focused on where the need is most urgent. A number of U.S. states have approached One Laptop Per Child and expressed interest in the program, and in the long run, One Laptop Per Child hopes to work with those states and help children everywhere."

In other words, every US American child could have a laptop supplied by their school. You'll have to go ask your school board why they do not.

Read the FAQ: http://www.xogiving.org/faq.html

Your school board is already spending thousands of dollars a year on your nephews education. They can easily buy new laptops for every kid in your area. And load Sugar, the XO laptops software, on all of them. http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Software_components

The "$100 laptop" costs currently $188 USD (http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/15/0332225). And according to the XO Giving FAQ (http://www.xogiving.org/faq.html) "$200 dollars is the bundled price to donate an XO laptop computer. This price includes the shipping cost."