I want one. It's cute... but $400 to get one and donate one is ridiculous.

dcartist

Between the XO's color scheme and Negroponte's potent quotables, it's like buying the first Muppet Show PC from Kermit himself. You can sing about the lovers and the dreamers all you'd like, but you've got to ship after the end credits.

That said, I bought one. It's the type of idea that succeeds after its progenitor has come and gone; this device will lead to the $20-30 computing device in ten years that busts through the last walls of forced ignorance.

If the XO fails, it's a failure of hubris, sure. It's also a failure to follow the money, which being locked in the Media Lab during its funding heydey surely didn't help. Most of all, though, it'll be a failure caused by a naive desire to do Good on a grand scale. I can accept tossing my cash down that pit. Go get 'em, Nicky.

Tuffy

Kudos to Negroponte. I'm sure he'd prefer his machine to be the winner but he can take a lot of credit for any of these kids having a laptop to work on.

shaka999

Well, at least he isn't being a dick about it.

uclabruin2

yeah right, he's full of shit.

lastpulse

Here's the problem. What does this do? How does it solve problems? What problem is it the solution to?

For all the yaya about Negroponte being a OpenSource prophet, he fell victim to classical liberal hubris, namely that he had the answers to those questions, and it was in the best interest of the people he was trying to "help" to dictate exactly how they would be helped.

That misses the point, badly. Putting laptops in children's hands in great, possible paradigm shifting if the next generation of programmers comes almost exclusively from the developing world. The core problem is it misses the 'food shelter and clothing in the intervening decade before I can be gainfully employed' part of the equation. It also misses the 'there's a de facto platform for business class apps and it's called Windows' operator. Could computers help those situations? Sure, but not a goverment controlled, proprietary OS system. Systems that succeed are systems that empower, that give ownership and responsibility. If what you need right now is a loaf of bread, the ideal system says, 'sure, if that's what you're most in need of, it's your laptop, trade it for a loaf of bread.' See the Multimachine project: [groups.yahoo.com]

junyo

@Tuffy:
"Between the XO's color scheme and Negroponte's potent quotables, it's like buying the first Muppet Show PC from Kermit himself."

BEST QUOTE EVER !

aec007

@MagnoliaBoy: LOL!

@Penchum: Yes, please explain...I understand that free-market competition and "the bottom line" ultimately win out when it comes to cost and a country's purchasing decision, but the OLPC was also designed to be survivable in less than ideal environments. While other manufacturers have won the price point battle, I think it is important to remember that their devices weren't designed with child users in the 3rd world in mind (what kid, in any country, takes care of their gizmo the way adults do?). I don't think the eee or other smaller machines were designed to resist dirt, moisture, etc...let's see the failure rates of the eee PCs vs. the OLPCs in a year. As far as I know its power requirements are lower than the competitions and yes, although some countries have frowned on open-source, it really is/was important to include an open-source OS on these machines. Why spread the gospel of M$ further, let the kids grow up hacking open-source and maybe when they are my age they can give Microsoft a run for its money with their own solutions...and further benefit the world by creating pressure for innovation.

I loved the OLPC concept and while there are others who seem to match the laptop for price point, none of them were designed to do what OLPC does. It truly is an amazing device.

Great job, Nick! I think he has accepted competition with grace, and if he has pushed the market into competing with his OLPC, then the real winners are the children. And that's what matters most, right?

honozooloo

Is it possible for this hardware to even run another OS? If the real reason folks are buying inferior hardware (the OLPC has features that $2000 laptops do not have) is so they can run Windows, the question is -- could the OLPC run Windows? Maybe it could be a variation of the design? Heck, for that matter, have three models - an open source OS, an OS X version and a Windows XP one. Let the market decide what OS they want, and let the hardware speak for itself.

I am going to bet, however, that the low power consumption and comparably weak hardware specs would negate running Windows or OS X on the device.

Monty

With a name like Negroponte, it's Got to be Good!

MagnoliaBoy

@Tommo_UK:

it needed to be free, open source, and (and this is something of an important feature) run on the f***ing machine. I didnt know that Jobs had made that offer, and thats cool of him, but he didnt meet the other requirements which were just as critical as the "being free" part (if you want to get into the paranoia/conspiracy parts of it...you might argue that steve jobs knew that it would get turned down, and so he made the offer in order to make himself look good).

@Penchum:
its not obvious to me why the olpc project was "detined to fail"...explain.

jrghoull

That is why I'm setting up the "One_Gaming_Rig_per_teenager" program. Providing SLI gaming rigs for under $100 for all the worlds teenagers.

*waits for the free market to 'out do me'*

NZRUSS

Agree or not with the concept, it is one ugly notebook. Compare it to the ASUS EeePC 4G notebook for $349 or less and it becomes obvious why it will fail.

Penchum

Steve Jobs offered to give this project OS X for free, but Negroponte turned it down, opting instead for some obscure home-brewed OS which sucked up development time and costs unnecessarily.

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Tommo_UK

I believe in this program even if he got mugged by the free markets. Good for him for doing this. At the end of the day he is not in this for the money. If you read the article, it is clear that he is running a non-profit that is funded for at least a few more years. This is exactly the kind of paradigm changing idea that is supposed to come out fo places like MIT's media labs.

Shervyn

Its the free market, which Negroponte of course supports. He sparked the competition with the creation of the OLPC, and the market did what it does best; provided alternative products that were better and cheaper than the original.

Atelier

@CruJones: Great point. That is indeed a key differentiator that needs to be widely broadcast. It seems to me the Classmate will be limited to urban markets in developing countries which do have access to the power grid and the educational needs of their rural kids are not at all addressed by any of the OLPC competitors.

Vagabum

The OLPC needs to do some world-wide focus/usability tests and show just how inaccessible a Windows PC is for a youth audience with zero technical experience. Then they need to spend 50% of their income to advertise the results. On top of that they should offer the Windows/Office install option for those potential customers who will never get past that (although that would probably require a new OS storage solution), while still promoting the open source interface.

Vagabum

I thought the big selling point of the OLPC was that it could be powered by a hand crank and was built for really bad conditions. I know the AsusEEE doesn't have these features, does the Classmate?

CruJones

The money spent on OLPC = the amount necessary to call the bluff of the PC industry. Before OLPC, they likely all said it couldn't be done.

Once someone actually did it, they of course 'found a way' to join in.

This is the classic 'business good vs. social good' dance done on many other fronts - just like sustainability. "It will ruin our business and cost jobs!" But once the parameters are locked down, they suddenly get innovative - and that's really what we want: innovation.

Sometimes the market isn't enough.

leMel

On my deahtbed, I'd rather know that I helped change the world and enrich education in third world countries than make a few extra bucks. but that's just me.

MrBlahBlah

I don't see how this is a failure, in terms of overall goals. By seeing the hardware aspect of OLPC through to this point, Negraponte has forced companies with a true financial stake in laptop sales to offer their own low-end low-cost offerings. He may not have achieved his goal directly, but through his actions the market reacted in a way that will further his goals in a much more systemic fashion than direct sales of OLPC could ever have, and there's still the OLPC sales themselves anyway.

Promethean

By the way, you can still get better deals in the sub-$400 @ Amazon.com

Start at $283 with used or refurbished ► [www.amazon.com]

aec007

@Ednonymous: Their countries have no problems handing out $2500 AK Assault Rifles because America sold it to them for $200 a piece.

BA-ZING!

Klappstuhl

Most of these countries balking at $200 OLPCs have no problem at all giving their children $2500 AK assault rifles... I would not be surprised if most units donated never make it to their intended recipients and wind up on the black market to fund more weapons. Negroponte may have his heart in the right place, but I don't believe that the people he is dealing with have one.

Ednonymous

@Vagabum: Or, they could look at Dr Sugata Mitra's "Hole in the wall" experiment (showing that even illiterate kids with no training could figure out a Windows PC on their own) realize that blind MS hatred is a terrible thing, and save themselves a ton of money/time.

junyo

i hope the competing products include a hand crank back-up for power. kids without electricity at home may often be the ones who spend entire nights programming.

there will be a new sound in the night. amidst the chatter of insects and animals there will be the intermittent whirring sound of countless OLPC's being cranked!

the crank was tedious but very important.

Terranova

Negroponte's next move should be to declare that he will sell 250 million cars priced at $100 each that get 100 miles to the gallon to underprivileged kids in third world countries. A year later the price will creep up to $200, but by then GM, Toyota and maybe even Ferrari will have developed their own 100 mile-to-the-gallon $200 car and put him out of business.

Then, he should declare that he will sell 250 million corporate jets priced at $100 each to underprivileged kids in third world countries. A year later, the price will creep up to $200 a pop, but by then the major aircraft manufacturers will have come out with competitive models of their own.

Then, he should declare that he will sell 250 million chocolate bars to underprivileged kids in third world countries that, when consumed (the chocolate, not the kids) will cure all diseases. Eat two, and you're immortal. Hershey's will come out with their own version a year later.

The possibilities are endless....

frigg

i think this has been pointed out before, but it looks like someone needs to say it again: the OLPC program is designed for countries that are on the way up. it's not for countries where people are starving and living in mud huts. it's for kids in up and coming third-world countries where, in general, basic needs are already being met.

feeding the hungry and housing the homeless in countries that lack infrastructure is an important mission. but we can't all have the same missions. OLPC's raison d'etre is to give kids an edge in poor but rapidly developing nation's.

budding artists can paint with any writing implement or pigment. future actors can practice anywhere. but budding programmers and software architects can't learn their craft with just coconut shells and palm fronds. they need capable computers with various forms of connectivity, an OS they can look at under the hood, etc. thus the OLPC project. :-)

Terranova

Although I've been a supporter of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project, I was frustrated and annoyed when I read this (and other) accounts of how Nicholas Negroponte is negotiating with potential markets for the laptop, dismissing and denying requests for pilot studies and assessment.

The international development community has been fighting an uphill but worthwhile battle to instill a culture of assessment and evidence-based public policy in developing nations. It was refreshing in the WSJ article to hear Macedonia, which by the way has done an exemplary job of building its internet access and infrastructure, request pilot test comparisons of different computer options was refreshing and encouraging. To hear Negroponte refuse and dismiss the request was disheartening, at best.

dcjohn

I think the OLPC simply needs to adjust their business strategy. It's a non-profit for goodness sake, and they're not particularly well-suited to the free market as a rule.

So their first model of selling these to third-world countries is taking a beating in the market -- so what? The flipside is that they sold 45,000 of these things to Americans in 9 days, and they get to give away another 45,000 of them to kids too poor to ever get a computer any other way. How freaking cool is that?

They should make that their new model -- offer the give one/get one program as an ongoing deal, and add a new program to offer a program where people can just donate one period. Can you imagine how many of the things they could give away in a couple of years? Probably millions if they could get some decent-sized block donations.

Rounding up donations is what non-profits are good at. I think the market is clearly underlining the statement that that's the business they ought to be in. I know I would give them money.

strangeweather

@junyo: Thanks for the tip. I see that his work is very interesting.

It is no surprise that Negraponte is also a supporter of the Hole-in-the-wall project.

I do actually use PCs 99% of the time. I also have more than a decade of professional experience in entertainment software interface design and in running accessibility and usability studies to understand frustration-producing roadblocks to consumer adoption and enjoyment. It is through that experience that I firmly believe interface complexity needs to be reduced significantly before world-wide acceptance is possible at all levels. For an example I need look no farther than consumer gaming. The recent runaway success of the Nintendo Wii game system has redefined gaming with ultimate interface simplicity that appeals to new users at an unprecedented rate, while Sony and Microsoft continue to appeal to a large but limited market of experienced and hard core gamer.

Vagabum

@arrgh406: I think Negraponte's point is that there's more in common between a OLPC XO Laptop and another computer than between a OLPC XO Laptop and milking a goat.

frigg

a major problem with the OLPC is the lack of usefulness and benefit it gives to people in developing countries. What do they have to gain from this laptop? its not using an OS that anyone else uses, so ank skills learned for programming that will not transfer to the real world.

arrgh406

@Ednonymous: Actually AK's are pretty cheap. In the US a semiauto WASR AK clone can be had for around $400, but most of that is regulatory burden. In the developing world they can be bought in quantity for around $10. They can be locally made out of relatively low cost materials, and are utterly dependable. Make a ruggedized PC design that can be locally manufactured for around $10, and I'm sure it would move like hotcakes.

@Vagabum: The problem is striking a balance between ease of use and utility. The Wii is a great design, but the Wii can have the simple interface it does because the Wii performs a narrow handful of functions. Once you leave off gaming the experiance degrades; viewing webpages is tolerable but not optimum, and I wouldn't want to think about typing a document own it. For productivity, it would be useless. Somewhere on the spectrum between a simple intuitive OS (say the eee's Xandros distro or BeOS) and a rock stable, resource optimized, infinitely powerful and secure OS (say OpenBSD) there's a balance point that represents the optimum point of ease, stability, and performance. I think not enough people give Windows credit for the balance it strikes.

junyo

C'mon people, I know we're all geeks here, but can't we remember for a second that using computers for learning isn't necessarily about learning to use computers. One flash drive can store a library of books, but it does no good if there are no computers to access that data. Writing material is needed to practice skills, which the XO can provide in perpetual supply. That is powerful and vital, particularly in places that have neither rooms to spare for libraries nor paper to throw away.

sumocat

@arrgh406: God what a stupid comment. But to answer it anyway...

The OLPC software provides children various activities like writing, music playing, reading, making videos, geometry, measurement, etc. It provides the Etoys environment for constructivist learning and authoring (I'm still unclear what that is), plus the Pippy activity for Python script programming (much of the UI code is written in Python).

Secondly, it provides a Web browser and an eBook reader for viewing tons and tons of educational material and courseware, going beyond kid education to health guides and farming best practices.

So it's a fun and educational computer and a textbook replacement for kids in developing nations. Mission accomplished. Furthermore, a small fraction of the children will learn the guts of Python, C, GTK, and Linux O.S. programming from the source code provided; those are all popular standards. The "real world" where that programming experience is not useful exists in Steve Ballmer's fantasy mind, and apparently yours.

skierpage

His goal was to get laptops in everyones hands, the problem being XP's excessive price. He did better than getting his laptop into the world, he got M$ to practically donate windows out of fear! He stood up to them and they blinked, Mission Accomplished.

My question is how does M$ still get people to pay hundreds for software they'll sell elsewhere for $3??? I've heard of the grey market but this is ridiculous.

stwf

@arrgh406:
A GUI OS is a GUI OS is a GUI OS. They are all about the same. The point of this device is to facilitate learning. While computer literacy is important- that isn't the end goal of this product. The purpose of this device is literacy, math, science, etc... Aside from being able to provide students with a variety of tools, a number of studies have shown that having computers available to students in "developing" nations improves attendance.

DeadWriter

I downloaded the latest OLPC build and am running it on Windows XP using the QEmu emulator; it's come a long way. There's local content in the browser, chat, music composer, etc. I downloaded a picture guide to biology from the E.O. Wilson foundation. Everything you do or download is stored in the Journal instead of a conventional file system of folders. There are even a bunch of (real?) people in the Neighborhood view (I think normally it would be the other kids on the school mesh network).

This project is way cool and different.

skierpage

@junyo: "Or, they could look at Dr Sugata Mitra's "Hole in the wall" experiment (showing that even illiterate kids with no training could figure out a Windows PC on their own) realize that blind MS hatred is a terrible thing, and save themselves a ton of money/time."

[www.pbs.org]

According to the description of the experiment, it sounds like even computer-illiterate kids with no training could figure out how to operate a web browser on their own, not that they grabbed a mouse one morning, printed out their MCSEs by noon and travelled India performing diagnostics on Windows installations before dinner.

someToast

Most of the countries that can fork out $200 per each student's laptop don't have those students sitting in the dirt.
OLPC should add some GPS and try marketing its laptop to third world armies and militias, that's where its ruggedness, off-grid operation, and mesh wireless networking will really come handy.

begemot

Was it really necessary to swear in your post of this story? If you are trying to emphasize, or impress, you did not.

Stacky Botrus

I think the government bought some of those and are already testing them out here in Brazil.
Also, few days ago some people involved in the project went on a late night talk show to say some things about that.

It was horrible. The woman wouldn't stop talking... worse than telemarketers trying desperatly to sell something.

Lucky for her no questions about cheaper and better laptops were raised.

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

ok Bottom line, Microsoft AGAIN is killing competition.....

Aberracus

10 years from now some of those kids will be making viruses so good (or bad) that microsoft will have to go out of business :))

borjo

@Aberracus:

No, the dependance of Microsoft is killing competition again. Sadly, MS has nothing to do with it anymore.

When people want a new OS, they will move to a new OS.....Till then, IT's a Ma Bell world...

Mixiboi

@junyo: I am not suggesting the Wii be used as a computer. I am merely suggesting that the design goal of interface simplicity is the golden formula that is now attracting new and inexperienced gamers at an unprecedented rate and interface simplicity is a strategy which will benefit new computer adoption beyond the current market. It might be that there is no magic formula to please the current initiated computer market (many who value power and features) and everyone else (who require simplicity), but until simplicity is addressed I believe the current market is limited (of course 'limited' to being big, just not gigantic). The XO computer is but one simplified solution and I applaud the OLPC motives and aspirations.

Actually I do think Windows meets the basic needs of the current computer-literate market. I give Microsoft credit for meeting the expectations and needs of computer-literate consumers and especially for convincing them that mediocrity in security, efficiency and stability is perfectly normal and acceptable.

Vagabum

Did someone honestly post that $400 was too much to buy a laptop and give one away for free?? If that's the case then please pick up an extra shift at Starbuck's so your weekly income will rise above $300. If you've ever spent anytime in a 3rd world country then you'll know that 1st world electronics fail quickly. These computers were designed from the ground up for 3rd world conditions. Comparing them to a Wintel laptop you can buy refurbished from Amazon for $300 is stupid.

stanfrombrooklyn

@Aberracus: How so? The notion that there are not viable open-source alternatives to just about anything a windows machine can do is a myth, just the kind of thing a bureaucrat from a 3rd world country would buy into...

Many fairly high-tech countries have adopted open-source software in their infrastructures, most notably Brazil, which got a lot of attention for it a few years back.

Microsoft offering cheap licenses for XP and supporting a competing platform is their attempt to regain control of a market they saw themselves losing a grip on (if they ever had a grip on it).

MS may be marketing itself effectively and leveraging the strengths its business (namely, its vast resources and ability to throw tons of money at a problem) has but to say that it "won" by sheer virtue of excellence...well thats just ignorant. This has more to do with bottom line than OS.

honozooloo

@Vagabum:
"I give Microsoft credit for meeting the expectations and needs of computer-literate consumers and especially for convincing them that mediocrity in security, efficiency and stability is perfectly normal and acceptable"

Let me guess... you use a fruity, overpriced, underpowered, overhyped with a minimal world % market share. Right?

aec007

@aec007: Yes, I use Windows - the fruitiest of Operating Systems (not that there's anything wrong with that). Let me guess, you are blinded into believing that market dominance = superior quality. To each his/her own, I guess.

Vagabum

Unbelievable.

The old saying is true: "No good deed goes unpunished!"

What is wrong with you people criticizing a non-profit organization for trying to educate the young? Negroponte is from Earth, not Heaven. If you are perfect and can do better, let's see it.

The whole project is to educate the young, not sell laptops. If price/OS is your hangup, then go buy some reburbished windows pc's off of ebay and donate those to the children.

If my measly $400 donation can bring education and happiness to some poor mothers child, I'm grately to Negroponte for dedicating himself to do this. This world needs more of him.

drokmed

i think we're talking about a bunch of different people who could use a "low cost" pc. children below a certain age who wouldn't mind the fisher-price look of the OLPC; who live in rural areas without "modern developing country" infrastructure. the AK-47 analogy is apt since the durability/reliability of such weapons is kinda what OLPC was trying to do with a PC. those who want their "own PC" as an alternative to urban internet cafe PCs (think asia), may prefer the non-OLPC offerings. first-world school districts are still looking for an OLPC-like price point so they can expand their students' computing options --> they may choose OLPC or probably something more like intel classmate. you can't ignore the MS-piracy angle, but its not what a government wants as a sustainable program. the feet on the ground who have to make these programs work in the third world like being able to get MS for $3, less implementation problems for them.

buwanpi