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OLPC Available to the Public Early 2008

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the but-is-it-a-tax-writeoff dept.

Zoxed writes "The BBC is reporting that the OLPC will be available to the public early next year on a buy-2-get-1 basis through eBay. With its cheap price, fully open spec. and full/open hardware support for Linux, expandability, 2W rating and LinuxBIOS booting it sounds like an embedded-Linux hackers favorite new toy."

2 of 192 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Is this a deal? by rhartness · · Score: 5, Informative

    RTFA! It states that it's a buy-2, get-1, send-1-into-the-third-world policy.

  2. Summary is rather hyperbolic by DragonWriter · · Score: 4, Informative
    The BBC is reporting that the OLPC will be available to the public early next year on a buy-2-get-1 basis through eBay.


    Er, no, the BBC is not reporting that. From TFA (emphasis added):

    The backers of the One Laptop Per Child project are looking at the possibility of selling the machine to the public. One idea would be for customers to have to buy two laptops at once - with the second going to the developing world.
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    Michalis Bletsas, chief connectivity officer for the project, said eBay could be a partner to sell the laptop.
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    Nicholas Negroponte, chairman and founder of the OLPC group, emphasised that the launch to the poorest parts of the world was the organisation's main task.

    Of plans to sell the machine, he said: "Many commercial schemes have been considered and proposed that may surface in 2008 or beyond, one of which is 'buy 2 and get 1'."


    So, rewriting the first sentence of the summary to be accurate: "The BBC is reporting that the OLPC might be available to the public, either next year or later, and if so that it might be on a buy-2-get-1 basis, and eBay might be involved in some way."