Fwd: [wplug] One Laptop Per Child

[Patrick Wagstrom]

Mackenzie Morgan wrote:
>     Elementary school, probably.  The keyboard is just too tiny for
>     anyone over the age of 12.
> 
> 
>     On Dec 17, 2007 2:45 PM, Sam Al-Droubi < saldroubi at yahoo.com
>     <mailto:saldroubi at yahoo.com>> wrote:
> 
>         Thank you for this reminder about the XO laptop.  It is a great
>         project.  I am wondering what is suggested child age range for
>         this laptop?  I could not find this information anywhere.  Does
>         anyone know? 

Having played with them, it's a little more complicated than that.  The
OLPC definitely is not going to replace your current laptop, but it does
have some rather nice advantages.  First, it's basically sealed and
incredibly rugged.  I wouldn't use this thing in a rain storm, but a little
water isn't going to kill it.  It's also go no moving parts which helps out
there.  But the big cool thing is the display.  It's really very sweet.
It's a transflective rotates like a tablet and goes in to black and white
mode when rotated, so it's like a little ebook reader.  Pretty good
visibility during daylight there.

However, the OS is definitely kiddy.  If you're looking for a real computer
for yourself, checkout the Asus EEEpc.  It's the same price (yeah, I know,
some kid in Africa doesn't get one when you buy one), and has roughly the
same specs, but is designed to run regular operating systems.  It's also
more expandable.  The high end ($399) models can be maxed out to a gig or
two memory, and enterprising hackers have found easy ways to add internal
bluetooth and another 16GB of flash to the device.

--Patrick