David Pogue Reviews the XO Laptop

Maximum Prophet writes "David Pogue, technology reviewer at the New York Times, has taken a first-hand look at the XO laptop, also known as the 'One Laptop Per Child' project, or the '$100 Laptop'. His reaction is very favorable, having tested it out via several criteria. And ultimately, he writes, the laptop is about more than just technology for the people. 'The biggest obstacle to the XO's success is not technology -- it's already a wonder -- but fear. Overseas ministers of education fear that changing the status quo might risk their jobs. Big-name computer makers fear that the XO will steal away an overlooked two-billion-person market. Critics fear that the poorest countries need food, malaria protection and clean water far more than computers. But the XO deserves to overcome those fears. Despite all the obstacles and doubters, O.L.P.C. has come up with a laptop that's tough and simple enough for hot, humid, dusty locales; cool enough to keep young minds engaged, both at school and at home; and open, flexible and collaborative enough to support a million different teaching and learning styles.'"

I for one...

...welcome our new laptop using child hacker overlords.

Don't assume they'll be just be used for good

What these well-meaning folks never seem to consider is that not all these kids are going to use their laptops for education and nice stuff like that. A third-world kid, given the internet might well decide to use it for things like scams [cnn.com] (especially when he is exposed to the vast wealth of the first-world) and, of course, porn [reuters.com].

Re:Don't assume they'll be just be used for good

What critics like you never seem to consider is that perhaps they _have_ considered the possibility and concluded that the benefit it will bring these countries and children outweighs the harm that some individuals might do?

Or are you advocating that we should just cut them loose entirely? embargo the entire continent until they've managed to pull themselves up to the first world standard, just in case any aid we give them backfires on us? (yes, I am well aware that I am exaggerating for the sake of dramatics).

Re:Don't assume they'll be just be used for good

Yet the spread of the internet in South Africa is fuelling the spread of lies and misinformation about the fatal disease, its aetiology and possible treatments

It could be worse. They could be using MySpace.

Yo, Editors:

"Pogue" is the spelling.

Of course there's fear.

If you take a path no-one has taken before, you're basically risking your reputation (and I guess in the countries in question your life as well) on something that isn't proven to work. Or, in the case of Windows, isn't proven to sort of work.

The real question becomes, then, how afraid are you? Innovation always involves fear. But it involves ridiculous rewards when you're right.

When you consider that the course of action in question involves the betterment of an entire generation of children, and quite possibly their children as well, you can't be faulted for at least trying something new. Even something untested, because face it, your old and busted way isn't working very well.

Re: Of course there's fear.

If it were merely education in a classroom setting, I could see it as a distraction, a detriment of some kind. But the XO is about a different kind of education entirely, one not driven (necessarily) by classroom learning. It's about enabling a generation to become familiar with computers, with computing metaphors, and even better, UNIX.

It could be like a quantum leap for an entire generation of kids. They might take it to the next level. Punch it up a notch. Fly high. Other metaphors and similes.

Eh?

Big-name computer makers fear that the XO will steal away an overlooked two-billion-person market.

Why should anyone care what they think? If they're not going to produce a similar product that that two billion person market can afford, to heck with them. Of course they'll loose the sale if no one can afford their product.

THEY WILL LOOSE THE SALE...

...and let lose the dogs of war!

Can I flash the thing

I'd possibly buy one for $400 but I wouldn't want the software that comes with it. I hope Bitfrost is disabled and you can flash an alternative OS onto it. Otherwise it's the Asus Eee PC for me. To be honest I really need something like these PCs. A normal laptop is too heavy, too expensive, too fragile to take on short breaks or travelling. These things fit the bill perfectly. I can see an enormous market for them.

Maybe they should even sell a proper commercial OLPC (in black perhaps) to consumers expressly for this purpose. Use the profits to subsidize the educational version.

Re:Can I flash the thing

Bad comparison. Is you Compaq designed to take all sorts of abuse, and be able to withstand water and dust and such? How long does your Compaq run on battery? Does it have no moving parts other than the keyboard? Or is it rather fragile.

This is not designed to compete in the regular laptop market, but if they upped the keyboard to adult size it would probably work for 90+% of US citizen's real needs.

Re:Can I flash the thing

The XO weighs over 3 pounds and is worse in every techinical respect (processor, memory, hard disk space, drives, etc).

RTA!

• 6-24 hours(!!!) of run-time
• The XO's battery is good for 2000 charges and costs $10
• The XO has a 200 DPI daylight visible screen(!!!)
• It can run on a 1' square, $12 solar panel
• Spill-proof keyboard

Just like the article says, this laptop has many significant advantages - not just over your $350 Compaq, but over my $3000 Thinkpad. I would really like to get one of these for my 9 year old - and I have no doubt my wife and probably myself would be stealing it often!

Photoshop?

The Linux operating system doesnt run Microsoft Office, Photoshop or any other standard Mac or Windows programs.

Wait--I got ripped off. My computer came with windows, but it didn't come standard with Microsoft Office or Photoshop!

In all seriousness, though, the OLPC comes with OpenOffice and Gimp, which seem like fine alternatives to me for a bunch of African kids getting the laptop for free.

If OLPC was so good, it would be sold in US

After all, children do not stop needing cool, rugged laptops just because they have clean water and no malaria. Many US families are by no means reach and those pedal/crank/cord charging schemes would come very handy on scout trips. It's a bonus that the laptops will not run most viruses or "mature" 3D games. A modest market at somewhat higher price in US will lower costs through mass production as well as directly subsidize free - not even $100 - laptops for truly poor countries.

The fact that the OLPCs are not offered in US toy stores even before pushing them abroad makes me suspect that they are seriously underpowered machines without much available software and are not as fun and cool as the project leaders would have us think.

Re:If OLPC was so good, it would be sold in US

That's flat out moronic. It's an amazing machine.

So why not sell them in the US?

• "It don't fit my hands?"
• "Where do I put the CD?"
• "Where is the start menu?"
• "Why can't my kids play XBox on it?"

These are ingenious little machines. It would be very smart to sell them to US consumers, but frankly I think the US computer market (something that includes me) tends to be... on average... far too ignorant to be able to buy these effectively. They will consider them all broken because they aren't "normal" computers.

All this is ignoring the fact the whole point of this project is to help 3rd world people, not give Americans another way to IM their friends.

They aren't underpowered, they have plenty of power. You don't NEED a dual CPU 2.x GHz laptop with 2 gigs of RAM to compute. This think would kick my Mac LC II around the block so bad it wouldn't be funny.

Sell them as

'1st start' computer for 100 bucks. Make them bright black, yellow, pink, or purple.

Once the kids friends realize how much power they will have, they all will want one. By the time the parents realize what's up it will be to late.

Re:If OLPC was so good, it would be sold in US

The fact that the OLPCs are not offered in US toy stores even before pushing them abroad makes me suspect that they are seriously underpowered machines without much available software and are not as fun and cool as the project leaders would have us think.

They aren't designed as toys. They are designed as educational tools to be used in an environment where they interact with others with similar hardware, school servers, etc., and to support centralized distribution of software and content by the agency purchasing them.

I also don't think you understand the marketing costs and risk associated with a mass retail marketing effort, particular of a product which is designed for the specific needs of a very different one than you are trying to market it to at retail.

A child?? I must have turn the logo the wrong way

FTFA: "The laptop is now called the XO, because if you turn the logo 90 degrees, it looks like a child."

90 degrees in which direction? If you turn it the other way it looks like a skull and crossbones.

tradeoffs

Despite some of my reservations (some of them in common with Pogue) I really hope that this "little laptop that could" becomes widely adopted. If it is, it will be game changing on so many levels. It is so much more than a teaching tool. Not only will it redefine who gets to participate in the market of ideas, it will change the pricing for laptop prices across the board. Perhaps even quicken the convergence between cell phones, PDAs, laptops, and other media centers. The little device is just wicked cool.

However, there are some darker sides to it. Online addiction [bbc.co.uk] is epidemic in China. Also, if the OLPC is actually successful, some suggest that their owners would man a CAPTCHA solving army [olpcnews.com].

In the end, I think these risks are worth the benefits. And wide adoption is the least of the project's worries. It seems as if adoption is taking off a little too slowly.

It's called the "Web", guys

Critics fear that the poorest countries need food, malaria protection and clean water far more than computers.

'Cause there's no way that you could possibly use one of these things to learn about sustainable agriculture [wikipedia.org], malaria prevention [cdc.gov], or safe drinking water [who.int], right?

I'll be Buying and USING the XO

I'll be picking up at least one of these machines -- well, two, since if I buy one for $400, they send another one to a kid somewhere who needs it.

I hope the distribution isn't limited to third-world countries; there are some poor areas right here in the U.S. that could use these machines. Certain Indian reservations come to mind...

I need a computer with decent outdoor screen and great battery life, one that's cheap enough I can afford to let it sink into a swamp without diving in and fighting the alligators and leeches for it (I do wildlife research in Florida). This machine may be just the ticket.

Re:first tits!

Yes, in fact an ideal "change the world" computer should come with a complete schematics. Local tech industry can then get off the ground by manufacturing clones costing way less than $100 and eventually making more powerful versions for adults and even businesses.

Re:first tits!

How is any local tech industry going to manufacture clones for less? As Negroponte has pointed out, assembly costs for the XO are only ~$1 per machine. They'd need to import all the individual components, anyway.

Re:first tits!

"There are also three programming environments of different degrees of sophistication. Incredibly, one keystroke reveals the underlying code of almost any XO program or any Web page. Students can not only study how their favorite programs have been written, but even experiment by making changes. (If they make a mess of things, they can restore the original.)" OK, you were asking for open hardware, but still I think that is pretty amazing.

Re:What "need" does this fulfill?

I won't perpetuate the popular stereotype of straw huts and rampant starvation and disease, but I don't buy into this assumption that African progress is being hindered by a lack of cheap computers, of all things.

I believe it was Duke Ellington who, when asked what Jazz is, famously said, "Man, if you gotta ask, you ain't never gonna know."

(And while we're at it: You are aware that the majority of the developing world is not in Africa, I hope?)

If you don't get why improved access to information is a fundamental prerequisite for development, then the XO will always look like wings on a fish. If, however, you can accept the premise that inadequate communications is one of the biggest stumbling blocks we face when trying to perform any kind of development work, then you will quickly see why people are so excited about this project.

I met a young doctor yesterday whose initial reaction was almost exactly the same as yours. She's dedicated to health education in the developing world, and she's very good at what she does. When she first read about the work we've been doing in the South Pacific, she immediately scoffed and insisted that we should try getting a steady supply of antibiotics and anti-malarials first. But just last week as she was conducting a walking tour of one of the poorest areas in the country, she realised what she could achieve if most or all of the children there had these laptops. She's since signed on to our national OLPC project as a content developer.

Solving communications is a necessary - but not sufficient - element of development. The XO doesn't remove the need for vast amounts of material aid, but it makes it so much easier for development projects to actually succeed.