OLPC Available to the Public Early 2008

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."

Comments

OLPC?

[User 956]

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 ... it sounds like an embedded-Linux hackers favorite new toy.

Between the Gates foundation, guys like mark cuban, the google billionaires, and this type of thing, I love how philanthropy in this millennium is poised to be dominated by nerds.

Re:OLPC?

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't. I'd rather philanthropy be dominated by professionals who understand how to fix the problems, or even what those problems are to begin with. OLPC is questionable here, where things like clean water and vaccines can often provide a much bigger bang for buck. Providing jars of peanut butter can do more to raise IQ than giving every child in the world a laptop. Ironically enough, this is one of the areas where Bill Gates actually has it right.

The OLPC project is still a great idea; nobody said philanthropy has to be all about fulfilling basic human needs like water and shelter. I'm not one of those guys who says we have to solve world hunger first zomg. But I'd hate to see philanthropy become dominated by the pet projects of nerds; pet projects of even smart computer industry geeks are still pet projects, and generally have little correlation with what's needed in reality. It's their money, but it's still a kind of benevolent despotism, where the lower classes are showered with money from the wealthy. Many times, charitable giving is focused on what the donor wants to give, not what the beneficiaries actually want.

To counter that, there should be a diversity of giving. It takes all kinds, from experts in sanitation to experts in economics. The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded last year to an economist who invented microcredit finance. Who woulda thunk it? We don't need philanthropy dominated by any one mindset, even if it's geeks. Rich geeks today are just the robber barons of the 20th century, and now they're doing the same thing those 19th century robber barons did, giving away their money to make themselves feel better.

Re:OLPC?

[drinkypoo]

OLPC is questionable here, where things like clean water and vaccines can often provide a much bigger bang for buck.

Absolutely not. Now, giving water treatment facilities and facilities to produce vaccines, THAT is helpful. But simply giving the people the things makes them dependent on you, which is what a lot of these organizations really want. "We want to save you - and only we know how!"

Re:OLPC?

[jabuzz]

There are billions of people outside the indusrialised western world who have all their basic needs (shelter, water and food) satisfied that are looking to move to the next level. This is for these people. When did you last hear of starving children in Lybia for example?

Yes if you are have more basic needs it won't help, but not everyone in Africa is starving in a mud hut.

Re:OLPC?

[onion2k]

Yet another person who doesn't get it. Let me explain for the hard of thinking:

OLPC laptops are for children in developing and developed countries whose governments are interested in moving their education system forward. They are not, and never have been, something that a government should spend money on if there are higher priority needs such as sanitation, food, shelter or an energy network. They are targetted very specifically at countries who have a working sanitation and drinking water system, who have a viable food market, who have a working power infrastructure. Don't be thinking that the countries who are signing up to this are populated by starving Africans who have no electricity and drink from a muddy river. That is not the case. Most of the countries who have joined in are actually not in Africa, and all of them have the necessary basics in place already. Hell, one of the countries on board is the USA (well, a state in the USA, but hey..).

The OLPC project seeks to improve the IT education of children in countries who are providing the basics but cannot (or will not) afford IT equipment. That is a problem, and it's one that is being solved in an innovative and exciting way. There really isn't any downside.

If you feel your money will work better donated to a different cause then spend it elsewhere. You have that choice. I'm glad you're thinking of others. That's more than a lot of people manage. Personally, I'll buy a couple of these computers if it means a couple of kids in Tunisia get a chance to hack some Python. Who knows, they might be the ones who create 2020's version of Google.

Re:OLPC?

[ajs318]

If you give people clean water and vaccines, then they become dependent on you.

If you give people the technology to purify their own water and manufacture their own vaccines, then they are no longer dependent on you.

Now, it's an improbably large leap from giving kids to computers to expecting them to become white-coated boffins who are going to save the world, and I would certainly expect anyone who made such a statement to back it up with a long argument. But something good is bound to happen as a result of this. Give the right creative materials to enough kids, and some of them will come up with something amazing. Bear in mind also that while we might consider it primitive by the standards we've come to expect of a computer, a lot of these kids literally won't have seen anything like it before. It's a real hands-on learning tool. The main storage is a bit on the meagre side, but it ought to hold enough reading matter to last between opportunities to download some more. It's programmable in Python, which isn't exactly the hardest language in the world; and it's got a sensor input which allows for all sorts of experiments. I'm not suggesting that it's the first easily-programmed computer with the ability to attach weird and wonderful things to it; the BBC Model B had a nice fast structured BASIC and even more versatile user I/O, but you were lucky to have one beeb per classroom.

With this thing, there's bound to be some kid smart enough to figure out something amazingly useful to do with it and who isn't put off by the thought that this computer is a bit limited. They probably won't invent a cheap, pocket-sized device that supplies unlimited free energy, purifies raw sewage into drinkable water and turns deserts into fertile fields; at least, not straight away. But what I can see happening is clean, safe, modern factories being built to churn these things out in the numbers in which they will be needed, where they are needed, and revitalising economies by creating good jobs. And I can see small but significant improvements to things like crop yields and medical treatment in less built-up areas, thanks just to better communication and information-sharing abilities. How much food is lost because a crop starts to bolt, and nobody else finds out in enough time to get theirs safely gathered in? Or how often do people harvest needlessly early, for fear that that will happen? How many lives could be saved by early intervention, if people only knew a bit of basic first aid and could recognise the symptoms of easily-cured diseases? How much other damage is being done by superstitions clung to out of ignorance? I honestly don't know. But when you've got whole maths classes analysing local data, and readily-available newspapers and textbooks on all subjects, this sort of thing really can't not happen.

And these kids are never going to know anything other than the Open Source way of doing things. They won't have preconceived ideas about sharing vs. stealing. That ought to put the frighteners on the Closed Source software vendors.

Re:OLPC?

[Dutchmang]

See this is where I disagree. There are lots of good things you could do, and one does not preclude another. Books and libraries, for example, are terrific. But giving kids access to technology makes them think in a technological way. Since technology is a key tool to raising productivity, and a technology-savvy workforce is needed to exploit (not just tolerate) the tools, putting these things into kids' hands is all goodness. Education is good no matter how you view it.

Also, this particular tool is an opportunity for kids to see what exists beyond their immediate social situation. Don't discount the power of your frame of reference to drag you down or lift you up. As someone raised dirt poor (yes in America -- Massachusetts even), it wasn't until I managed to get into college that my horizons expanded -- through peers, primarily -- to places that included stability, productivity, self-reliance etc. You're essentially giving these kids a window into a different world. Some will take advantage of it and some won't... but there'll be more than you would've had otherwise. You need people like that to raise a society's standards.

Good present for grandparents as well?

[Marxist Hacker 42]

Hmm- anybody know if the cutdown version will still run OpenOffice? If so, it'd make a damn good present for the retired person as well- a machine that will do e-mail, basic word processing, and web surfing, all in a handy little package that includes three USB ports and an SD slot.

Re:Good present for grandparents as well?

[nuzak]

It's designed to look that way to cut down on black market reselling -- not all possible cases, but those where where the product was diverted from its intended purpose. Basically if a bunch of OLPC's "fall off the truck" on the way to the schools, it's easier to go looking for lime green laptops.

Re:Good present for grandparents as well?

[ACMENEWSLLC]

This project will be surpassed by cell phones.

My cell phone is $150 at t-Mobile with a 2 yr contract, or $200 with a 1 year. On e-bay, unlocked, it is $165.

It runs Windows Mobile 5.0, has WIFI, uses very little power thus could be charged off cheap solar power. It has 200MHz processor at over 2GB of disk space, 64MB RAM.

I have Opera, Skype, VNC, and other applications on it. For $20 I have added 2GB of disk space from the base 64. It has bluetooth and I can hook a bluetooth mouse/keyboard to it.

Sure, this ain't no laptop. It's "not there" yet. However, a friend has Mobile 5.0 release 2 and has Terminal Services client and office viewers. We are close.

The new iPhone runs OSx. Some new cell phones are on UMPC platform and run Windows XP tablet edition, starting at around $900 up to $2000.

I venture to say that in 5 years, our cell phones will do everything an office PC does. As long as you are not a gamer cad cam or video guy, you could do all your work off your cell phone. Having a docking station at home/work.

Given the mass market of cell phones, and the willingness of people to fork over cash for them, I'd say we will get a device that can do all the basic computer functions soon. And through the second hand market we could provide these to 3rd world countries at about the same price.

I may be wrong, but I don't think so :)

Re:Good present for grandparents as well?

[Marxist Hacker 42]

I tend to agree, except for one small problem- the lack of a fullsize keyboard and screen. While this is a good platform (notice in another reply I mentioned Windows Mobile "sublaptops"), the lack of a fullsize screen is a huge detriment, especially to eyes that need at least a 12pt onscreen font for reading. Likewise the lack of a full size keyboard makes it hard to type on.

But beyond that, you're quite correct- my T-Mobile MDA which I purchased when it was *much* more expensive ($495 with a 2-year contract) is exactly the type of platform I'd like to give to cutomers, except for the aforementioned problem of keyboard and screen (lack of USB type A host connector is also a problem, but I'm working on that one- Windows Mobile 5.0 supports USB OTG, and all that is required is a special cable with a separate power source).

Will it be the _exact_ same laptop?

[ziggamon2.0]

Cause if it is the exact same, and they have now created a $200 value for the laptops, they can now easily be sold to collect the money, instead of the intended educational value...

Re:Will it be the _exact_ same laptop?

[Qzukk]

Cause if it is the exact same, and they have now created a $200 value for the laptops, they can now easily be sold to collect the money, instead of the intended educational value...

Yep. Exactly like how PBS telethons have encouraged the mugging of ladies carrying bags or men sipping coffee by setting the value of cloth bags and mugs at $120.

Better than a donation

[walterwalter]

Well this form of "donation" sounds better than the previously reported on where you did not get anything for your money. I would buy "one" of these. I wonder if there will be any form of choice as to which country gets your laptop.

Re:Is this a deal?

[rhartness]

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

Couple Thoughts: Case Color and Good Idea..

[nweaver]

a: Its about time. Everyone has been clamoring for this, because there are some real interesting industrial & cool uses this could be used for. Between the daylight screen and highly rugged design, this has the potential to be very interesting. I'd be tempted to pick one up for $300 to play with myself...

b: You can stop the reselling problem (one worry is always that by selling them you'd create an adult market and therefore encourage theft) by a simple expedient: a different color case. Make purchased OLPCs black, and kid ones in cheerful old-school iMac colors, and now they are vastly different products from a retail viewpoint.

Re:Couple Thoughts: Case Color and Good Idea..

[SoCalChris]

I'd be tempted to pick one up for $300 to play with myself... Hey, you can play with yourself without a $300 laptop. Kids everywhere have been doing that for free, for thousands of years.

Re:I would buy one.

[spiritraveller]

The entire thing is already open source, all the way down to the BIOS.

That's more open than anything you'll find in an American store.

The hardware needs to be durable and sealed tight (to keep out dust), so I think encouraging hardware hacks may work against the goals of giving poor children a long-lasting device. But that's not to say you couldn't take a hacksaw to it and explore... no doubt, many people will do just that once it's put on the market..

OLPC and it's cultural implications

[jeffmeden]

Has anyone backing this project considered how these laptops will become nothing more then a symbol of America and 'Westernization'? What happens when it is taken as a political message that these are being distributed to certain regions, and groups who oppose the symbolism move to suppress it? I know this is outside the scope of the current discussion but I am genuinely interested in what has been considered, especially before I think about writing a check...

Re:Then you can buy it for $300

[WED Fan]

Judging from all the email I get asking me to help move millions of dollars out of Africa, I think Africans have enough computers. I think they need more financial advisors to help them move that money.

Put them everywhere, 1st world & 3rd...

[gwn]

I provide volunteer IT support in a school and I would love to see the over priced, over engineered, fragile, feature rich, but utility poor machines we currently put in schools replaced by machines along these lines.

Look at what the computers really get used for in our kids classrooms and you start wondering who is really benefiting from them being in there... hint, not the students, think big business.

If I could convince a parent, teacher, principal, or school board to buy OLPC computers with the added benefit of outfitting a student, class, school, or school board in the developing world at the same time... FANTASTIC! Partners in a global community. Where do I sign up?

Re:cool

[God'sDuck]

I caught it, but was too busy trying to figure out how he installed Ubuntu on his two-year-old to respond.

Summary is rather hyperbolic

[DragonWriter]

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."