What is Digg?198 Comments
- nick9000, on 05/22/2008, -7/+83I really can't make up my mind about the OLPC project. Would the money be better spent on teachers and basic school equipment, or will a laptop be a better investment in the end? It will be interesting to re-visit the children who have got these machines in ten years time to see how well they have fared.
- carpespasm, on 05/22/2008, -6/+78Holy crap you guys, look at that thing. A peice of technology in the hands of a child that puts the entire world's processing power of a few decades ago to shame. AND it's going to be used to teach the children of the world and help bring people closer together.... I'd say we're in the future now, but I still can't go buy an electric car on the lot.
- yetAnotherCroc, on 05/22/2008, -8/+61Man that book design looks fantastic. I want one. And at 75 rock bottom dollars it shouldn't even be a question. Hope they do a G1G1 deal on this one as well.
- thewump, on 05/22/2008, -4/+49I'm confused - so the $100 laptop, is stated to be $75 - but usually comes out at $299. I think they need some marketing help.
- argylesocks, on 05/22/2008, -5/+44Considering it costs as much as 2 or 3 textbooks I say the laptop. In addition the laptop can carry limitless free and open textbooks as well as internet access for virtually unlimited resources... so its win win.
- santaliqueur, on 05/22/2008, -4/+43If you knew ANYTHING about this laptop, you'd realize your post was unnecessary.
- euro22, on 12/17/2008, -6/+40You're an idiot.
- richashby, on 05/22/2008, -1/+31The OS is irrelevant in this context. What's more important is people have access to computers. If you want to be sniffy about Windows when you live in a developed country that's your choice, but I'm sure a kid from Africa isn't really that bothered about the fact it's not running Ubuntu. They just need a machine.
- fraul, on 05/22/2008, -1/+30Wow, wait a second ... they expected to sell 100 million of these by the end of 2008 ? And what they did sell is 600,000 ? ... talk about business optimism !!
- solidus636, on 05/22/2008, -19/+47Only liking Linux doesn't make you cool.
- WoollyMittens, on 05/22/2008, -0/+19I'm glad they stepped away from the Fisherprice design.
- Shrubber, on 05/22/2008, -1/+18Charity-related articles get an automatic digg from me, but I still want to see the tech specs on this new model, and I'll wait and see if it actually releases at $100, let alone $75.
- GawtMilk, on 05/22/2008, -3/+18I don't think it's such a great project. Who are we to live our technology-centered middle-class lives and look at people significantly poorer than us and think that the thing they need most is a laptop?
Textbooks in third-world countries do not cost $75. Our textbooks cost $75 because we can afford them, and the textbook companies know that is a price they can charge and still get away with. An organization like Books For Africa will ship 35,000 books for under $10,000. They do rely on donations and sponsorships for the books themselves though.
FTFA : "Currently developing nations such as China and Brazil are spending $19 per student per year on books," he said.
The $75 spent on a laptop could better be spent on safe well water, proper housing, etc. While education is paramount to better living conditions in the future, giving a class of twenty $100 laptops isn't as good of a learning tool as hiring a teacher for $2,000 a year.
It's great that the laptops can be built this cheaply, and for a project that costs the kids nothing and is done out of the charitable nature of humans at no profit towards a single company, it's great. However, who are we to say "these Moroccans need laptops", when education itself is not their utmost priority [after violence, water, food, housing, etc] and the laptop isn't the best or cheapest method of education? - santaliqueur, on 05/22/2008, -3/+18Funny, which OS powers most of the websites you've ever used? Hint: the answer is not Windows.
- screwy3333, on 05/22/2008, -2/+15no worries as long as it still boots Ubuntu flawlessly
- wittylama, on 05/22/2008, -5/+18It's unfortunate it runs Windows but this is the requirement that has been placed on the OLPC team by many countries e.g. Egypt.
The OS for the OLPC is definitely kid-centric and Windows is definitely not. So, though the Windows compatibility might be the feature that gets the governments to sign-on and actually buy them it will be the native OS that actually gets used.
They're working on the same principle as Mac OS now being able to dual boot. It lowers the barrier to entry. - TheWindBlows, on 05/22/2008, -2/+14"It has taken a year to make XP compatible with the XO"
Chances are the new design are going to be more native to a customized linux. - RedPhalanx, on 05/22/2008, -6/+18"The laptops which originally had a target price of $100 now cost $188 each."
What happened to $75? - GregFD3S, on 05/22/2008, -4/+16Why did they stop using Linux?
- brianpeiris, on 05/22/2008, -0/+10It should have read:
"The XO-1 laptops which originally had a target price of $100 now cost $188 each."
The target price for the XO-2 laptop is $75 - Lionhart, on 05/22/2008, -0/+10Low income countries have much cheaper textbooks. in fact most College textbooks have "international versions" which are usually 25% or less the cost of a US version. They are also illegal to sell in the US since they are the same books but a lot cheaper.
- isaactwito, on 05/22/2008, -0/+9don't forget solar and wind!
- thomasprebble, on 05/22/2008, -1/+10The OLPC initiative a.k.a Microsoft's equivalent to tobacco's "hook em while they're young".
- BlueSkyfish, on 05/22/2008, -0/+9Hey, if you want to keep spending $4 a gallon on gasoline from foreign countries on your car that gets 30mpg, that's fine. But the rest of us would rather spend less than a dollar per 100 mile charge from electricity produced locally from coal, nuclear, and hydroelectric power plants.
- MiddleOfNowhere, on 05/22/2008, -0/+8A laptop can't replace clean water, food, or a living teacher. And no-one claims it does.
But this the largest ever attempt to put super-affordable informaion technology in the hands of the poor, and it starts where it should: With kids that are young and need to learn as much as they can to shape their own future.
If the success of Western societies is built on information and using it effectively, giving children in developing countries a chance to enter the information age is the best you can do for them once basic needs are met. These machines can network, they allow self-education when no teacher is around, and they encourage competition in the subnotebook market, which is good for everyone. Even Microsoft is on board. - foofightrs777, on 05/22/2008, -1/+9I don't understand why these countries require XP on a laptop for school children. Last time I checked TCP/IP, word processing, and multimedia were not Windows exclusive. Sounds like MS filled a bunch of hapless bureaucrats heads with propaganda.
- Shabow, on 05/22/2008, -14/+22I'll believe it when I see it with a $100 price tag.
Until then, *****. - 1aPowerDigger, on 05/22/2008, -3/+11The goal of the project is great. The problem is that they (for some wacky reason) have decided that all historic design and interface decisions should be called into question and tossed out the window in favor of "new" international and "easy to understand" interface options.
I've played with an OLPC laptop. I was lost! I found it to be extremely difficult to use, and had to wonder: if the goal is to teach kids how to use computers -- WHY NOT TEACH THEM HOW TO USE A STANDARD OS? The question is further compounded by the fact that they include Firefox as their browser of choice, which of course uses a 'standard' menu interface. (So why run in fear of standard interfaces for your OS, but embrace them for applications?)
Sure, make linux "lite" -- that's a great idea.... but don't change the fundamental rules of GUI operating systems because kids around the world are supposedly "different".
I haven't played with the new design, but touchscreen keyboards? No. No that's just dumb. - dinostabOMG, on 05/22/2008, -1/+8Linux itself? It has always been "given away." The hardware is not free, however. That much should be obvious. $100 apiece can be a lot of money depending on who you're asking.
- pjsk8, on 05/22/2008, -0/+7...Because PAYING for a crappy OS is definitely a much smarter choice?
- rohan1234, on 05/22/2008, -0/+72-3? Not in poor countries. There you could get at least 20 books for that price.
- inactive, on 05/22/2008, -1/+8That's some serious nitpicking considering these children are so poor they die of starvation.
I don't think we need to worry about their ability to use Windows should they ever make it to the US, get enough money for a new computer, and buy one with Vista on it. That's so astronomically low on their list of problems/priorities that the fact that you even spent that much time talking about it is absurd. - dinostabOMG, on 05/22/2008, -1/+8They're talking about dual booting because some governments have demanded it. It still runs linux.
- 1aPowerDigger, on 05/22/2008, -0/+7Couldn't disagree more... have you tried OLPC's flavor of Linux? It looks like it was designed by Aliens. As a devout Linux user, who grew up with Windows I was utterly lost on OLPC linux.
Foreign governments aren't just being Windows-centric -- they're thumbing their noses at the semi-retarded OS-design decisions made by the OLPC team. - moschops, on 05/22/2008, -3/+9Yeah, with another LCD I think there is no way that they can avoid $75 becoming $150 or much more given that those panels now have to be touch sensitive. I know they have durability problems with the current keyboard but is another LCD panel used as a touch keyboard really going to be that durable? And what about power consumption from doubling the amount of LCD... never mind the loss of tactile response by using a touch screen for keyboard input - maybe they just think keyboard input isn't that important any more?
With this design "revamp" and the switch to supporting Windows perhaps this is the death knell for the OLPC project? Why not just give them all an iPhone :-) - oxdeltaxo, on 05/22/2008, -3/+9Proprietary software will only give these children the wrong message in the end.
- foofightrs777, on 05/22/2008, -2/+8You know that you can install a different OS than the one a machine ships with, right? But this appears to be different than a traditional PC experience so I'd imagine it'd have a custom OS.
- ninja0, on 05/22/2008, -3/+9Looks nice, I think.
- evil-doer, on 05/22/2008, -0/+6wtf are you talking about? pdf isnt a fixed size like a jpeg. its scalable and renders to whatever size.
- Nevotraz, on 05/22/2008, -0/+6I've messed around with it too, and while I certainly wouldn't choose it for myself, I think the interface is just fine.
We have to remember that we're comfortable with the 'standard interface' because it's all we've ever used. Windows and Linux seem fairly intuitive to us, but if you throw something that daunting in front of a kid who's never even used a cellphone before, it might be a bit much. Some of these kids aren't inexperienced with digital technology the way your parents are, they're inexperienced with digital technology in the way that people 100 years ago were. - AgentVladimir, on 05/22/2008, -0/+6"If the success of Western societies is built on information and using it effectively, giving children in developing countries a chance to enter the information age is the best you can do for them once basic needs are met."
Definitely. Dugg. - budser, on 05/22/2008, -0/+6As the article says, flat panel screens are the most expensive laptop component. So when your $100 OLPC is selling for $188, clearly the problem is...not enough screens. This has got to be a bad sign for the project.
- 9bpm9, on 05/22/2008, -4/+10The idea is for several children to use the device at once,
Yeah, that's not gonna work. - SealandRes1, on 05/22/2008, -2/+7Man, those screens better be high-res, or else you'd have to scroll like mad to read standard page sized PDF files or eBooks.
- Verytastycheese, on 05/22/2008, -0/+4I could see 2 people collaborating on it across from each other with the 2 screens... or both reading from it. It could work, just needs a custom OS / software
- zonovo, on 05/22/2008, -0/+4Pure, light and clean.
- argylesocks, on 05/22/2008, -4/+8I agree that the use of Windows kills the spirit of this project.
- Cryoniq, on 05/22/2008, -0/+4Because idiots were put in charge...
- MiddleOfNowhere, on 05/22/2008, -0/+3It's the other way round.
-
Show 51 - 100 of 200 discussions
Browsing Digg on your phone just got easier with our enhancements to the 
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is