Big Delays, Small Laptops: OLPC XO Recipients Mad

PCWMike writes to tell us about the growing concern over the failure of OLPC to deliver laptops to some of its customers. PC World editor-in-chief Harry McCracken notes that record-keeping was poor for some of the people who paid via PayPal. A report on LinuxJournal also suggests that customer information was lost due to errors in the database software used by OLPC. Quoting PC World: "OLPC spokesperson Jackie Lustig acknowledges problems with the ordering and the fulfillment process, but says the biggest challenges are a short supply of XO laptops and the organization's ability to meet consumer demand for the XO laptop. Some also wonder whether chronic delivery problems for Give One, Get One donors may bode poorly for the 15 countries slated to receive nearly 500,000 XO notebooks. Lustig says delivering in bulk to just over a dozen countries is infinitely simpler than processing and delivering 80,000 individual laptops."

Money transferred but no accountability?

[Malevolent Tester]

They're really getting the hang of foreign aid. I applaud OLPC for their quick adaption.

Database Software Problem?

[Anonymous Coward]

But but but....The database sotfware is open source...It couldn't have screwed up since there are so many eyeballs looking at the code.

Re:Money transferred but no accountability?

[Rogerborg]

Also, they've unashamedly fucking over their early adopters and strongest advocates. Have they been acquired by Apple?

Re:Patience and Hope

[legoman666]

So if I hand random hungry person #341652 an OLPC, he will suddenly have his hunger satisfied?

Of course, silly me, he looked up fishing on wikipedia!