David Pogue Reviews the XO Laptop 303
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.'"
Of course there's fear. (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Eh? (Score:5, Insightful)
Can I flash the thing (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Steal away an overlooked two-billion-person market (Score:2, Insightful)
It sounds like they may be defining a new marketspace that others will be free to join and compete in.
Re:Don't assume they'll be just be used for good (Score:5, Insightful)
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).
Less is More? (Score:3, Insightful)
More and more, after years of Windows, then a Mac, then dabbling with various Linux distros, I find myself questioning just how much of the junk on my computers is essential or even useful.
Less moving parts, simpler and fewer applications, and limited capabilities, all sound like positives, not negatives, if only because it could slow the endless stream of updates and fixes, each of which seems to introduce other problems.
I can see an OLPC machine as really good daily machine for e-mail, browsing, and some everyday tasks like word processing, at least with a bigger hard drive. With the option of maintaining a desktop PC, even a generation older, to handle the heavy lifting of Adobe and similar tools, I could probably get by nicely with this little unit.
It's called the "Web", guys (Score:5, Insightful)
'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?
Re:If OLPC was so good, it would be sold in US (Score:5, Insightful)
That's flat out moronic. It's an amazing machine.
So why not sell them in the US?
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.
Re:Can I flash the thing (Score:5, Insightful)
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:Don't assume they'll be just be used for good (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't think you've thought your cunning plan all the way through...
(I think I'll just bite my tongue on the porn issue for the moment)
Re: Of course there's fear. (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Don't assume they'll be just be used for good (Score:3, Insightful)
I love it when people take initiative to do what they think is the right thing, and then the people sitting on the sidelines are like, "Oh, you're doing it all wrong, you should do absolutely nothing like me." It really makes life entertaining for me.
Re:Don't assume they'll be just be used for good (Score:2, Insightful)
If those kids become socially, technically, and linguistically educated enough to run the scam, I'd say the laptop is a success. The kids will have learned english gooder...
It's jaded and crappy, but how is that not a success still?
And Porn? Well, you could make a case that porn, put in the hands of a kid that doesn't understand that the context, could warp normal sexual relationships. I think the rampant religion has already done that though, so no worries.... Remember, sex is BAD kids! The dinosours died because you touch yourself at night.
Give 1, Get 1 - Great but Dangerous (Score:3, Insightful)
There will be plenty of takers for the foreseeable future. The program caters to peoples vanity, allowing the giver to flaunt their generosity. Nothing appeals more to the western world than gadgets and vanity, and if our obsessions can fuel third world education, then that would be the best thing since sliced bread.
Governments could also benefits from a relatively low-cost rugged PC. Try to get a reasonably equipped, rugged piece of hardware for $400. You can't.
However, the laptops for sale should be of a different colour, for instance red. This would alleviate one of the biggest concerns of the program --- that stolen green laptops became a major source of revenue to corrupt government officials, or to parents who found a few dollars more tempting than their child's education. The goods will eventually end up in the hand of westerners who act like Santa Claus but are actually stealing from the kids --- a disturbing thought.
Selling the standard green laptop is a gigantic mistake. By all means keep the production line the same, but please change (at least) the colour of the enclosure for the resale variant. Help keep the green XO in the hands of its intended users.
That mesh network thing is too cool. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Don't assume they'll be just be used for good (Score:3, Insightful)
And most of the people in these countries would prefer that rich white people stopped poisoning their environment.
Re:ridiculous technocentric exuberance (Score:2, Insightful)
No need to flame, just listen to an explanation - what if those laptops came with a tiny version of wikipedia? Math, physics, engineering, agriculture texts and some instructional videos. Maybe some chemistry and biology. Perhaps they even start some knowledge oriented communities. Using that they can get to know about their surroundings and after some time even innovate. They could use our tech to set up their environment for a more comfortable and pro-intellectual atmosphere.
Who knows, maybe somebody out there gets to start a herbal-oriented medicine wiki and we get some use of it. If that's the case, it's worth it. Who knows what _WE_ are missing by not doing this ten years ago. Cure for cancer, cure for baldness (ha, got your attention there, have I?
Re:If OLPC was so good, it would be sold in US (Score:2, Insightful)
The XO is not a toy, it's an educational tool. I don't see math textbooks in U.S. toy stores.
Re:If OLPC was so good, it would be sold in US (Score:3, Insightful)
I'ld like to add that they need to produce millions of near identical computers to get the economy of scale to produce it at $150-200 cost.
I'll add that it would help if the laptops were produced in the country if not the region that buys them. One nation mentioned as buying or having an interest in buying the XO is Brazil. If OLPC were to open a factory in Brazil to build them n ot only would it benefit education in Brazil but it would create jobs there too. They might not last long but the skills gained by the workers can be used somewhere else, a group of workers could start a business building computers and selling them. Others can write software.
FalconRe:Eh? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Surfing Pr0n (Score:3, Insightful)
Prudishness is an american problem. And here viewing pr0n can be argued to have educational value more important than math.