OLPC Announces Buy-2-Get-1 XO Laptop Sale

theodp writes "Starting November 12, The One Laptop Per Child Project will sell its affordable XO laptop to Americans for a brief period of time, but there's a slight catch: U.S. buyers must purchase two computers — one for their own child and one for a child in the developing world — for a total cost of $399. 'Staff members of the laptop project were concerned that American children might try the pared-down machines and find them lacking compared to their Apple, Hewlett-Packard or Dell laptops. Then, in this era of immediate global communications, they might post their criticisms on Web sites and blogs read around the world, damaging the reputation of the XO Laptop, the project staff worried. So the laptop project sponsored focus-group research with American children, ages 7 to 11, at the end of August. The results were reassuringly positive.'"

Comments

Re:Very dissapointed.

[torpor]

Look at it this way. You're buying one for your kid. And also for some strangers kid. Its a selfless act.

IMO, Americans could do with far more such selflessness these days.

What would be really great in my opinion is if the two laptops were somehow registered such that the kids can get to know each other .. this would be an astoundingly peaceful action. What modern child wouldn't want to communicate with another kid around the world using their new laptops?

Re:I like the XO, but I am tired of the fleecing .

[djfake]

Okay, I'm playing devil's advocate here. If in fact what you say is true - that programming can't be taught in high school, then how do we have programmers over the age of forty? I graduated from high school in 1981; there were _zero_ pc computers in most high schools back then.

Why do children need to code anyway? And why do they need to use a computer? Isn't it better to teach them to think, and other basics such as reading, writing, and maths?