OLPC’s $100 laptop gets a fresh look at ambition and failure

One Laptop Per Child promised to put a rugged $100 computer into the hands of children around the world. Two decades later, The Verge's Version History is revisiting the XO-1 and asking whether it should be remembered as innovative hardware or an overconfident idea that never stood a chance.

The evidence supports both halves. Nicholas Negroponte unveiled the first green prototype in 2005 with a hand crank, mesh networking, an open Linux system and a price meant to undercut conventional laptops by an order of magnitude. The crank disappeared almost immediately because it stressed the machine and demanded too much effort. The promised $100 price also proved unreachable; The Verge's original history says production pricing rose to roughly $180.

Real engineering inside the hype

The finished XO-1 was not vaporware. Its custom 7.5-inch screen could switch between color and low-power black-and-white modes, making it readable outdoors while using far less electricity than a conventional display. Its antennas doubled as port covers, its rubber keyboard could be localized and its screen rotated into a tablet-like configuration. The Sugar interface was built around making and exploring rather than reproducing a standard desktop.