OLPC Mass Production Begins

chris_mahan writes to tell us that mass production of the $100 laptop is finally being ramped up. "Hardware suppliers have been given the green light to ramp-up production of all of the components needed to build millions of the low-cost machines. Previously, the organization behind the scheme said that it required orders for 3m laptops to make production viable. The first machines should be ready to put into the hands of children in developing countries in October 2007. "There's still some software to write, but this is a big step for us," Walter Bender, head of software development at One Laptop per Child (OLPC), told the BBC News website."

Re:So, can we buy civvie models yet?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hmm, me too... BTW the BBC also has a good feature guide [bbc.co.uk] (at least by the standards of the mainstream media)

Re:When's the "commercial" version coming?

[charlieo88]

Nope. Scroll down to pledgebank.

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Retail [laptop.org]

Re:Mod parent up

[WindBourne]

Sadly, it will. The countries with the lowest education levels are those closest to the equator. And it will get MUCH worse if even a partial of the global warming models come true. As it is, darfur is a glimpse at what we are going to see (new comers wanders over owners lands that is currently suffering due to drought). The best (and probably only) way out of all this is via education. Funny thing, is that education helped to create EU, America, and Russia. Now, it is helping to lift China and India out of the abyss. Education IS the key. And yet, you have so many who fight not just moving to LOW cost computers, but the very education that will help. Considering that AC is likely a fellow countryman of mine, it is sad. I guess many ppl prefer a case of "let them eat cake".

Re:Blah

[DragonWriter]

Most of these people would probably better off getting $100 which is like 5 years wages where they live.

In what is, IIRC, the largest launch country, Brazil, median income for black women (the worst off racial/gender mix) is $156/month. (source [reuters.com])

Heck, even Rwanda (which is one of the poorest nations that may get it early, through Libya purchasing it for them) has an average per capita annual income of $206 (source [state.gov]), over an order of magnitude higher than you suggested for "most" OLPC recipients.

Re:So in a year or so...

[orasio]

Throwing laptops at kids in shithole countries may sound like a great idea, but that's making a LOT of assumptions (that they'll only use them for good, that the officials in their countries will actually distribute them rather than sell them, etc.).

I don't think my country is a shithole country. It's a beautiful place to live, but a somewhat bad place to try and make a living.
I don't know where you live, but unless you live in _some_ countries in Europe, your country probably falls better under the standard definition of what is a shithole, than my country.
Aside from that, we don't have enough money to give equal education to all our kids.
We have too few teachers for them, and giving the kids access to better forms of communication, and all the reading material they need, I thing we are taking a big step towards making education in Uruguay more fair than it is right now.

Re:So in a year or so...

[Stanistani]

He's trying (he might yet fail) to give people the means to more easily educate themselves; to change the dynamics of the educational system in some countries; to enable collaboration between children in said systems through an innovation in applied technology; and give educators a useful tool.

Not precisely what you said.