XLAB Tech

Last year, also in November, the “Give one, Get one” charity action by One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organization allowed people to donate one laptop to a child in a developing country, while getting at the same time one OLPC laptop.

This year the initiative expands also to Europe. Amazon UK will be letting people from the countries of the European Community and Switzerland, Turkey and Russia to participate of the OLPC campaign. Since Monday 17 of November, and for around 400 US$ (say, 350€) plus shipping costs, the OLPC laptop with English/International keyboard will be available at Amazon UK website

OK, so you are not that excited about getting a laptop with a cramped keyboard that looks like a cheap toy and  the slowlest microporcessor you can get in a new laptop nowadays? Maybe you are just not seen the whole point.

It’s a 200 US$ laptop

People tend to forget they are giving a laptop for charity during this campaign, and that the laptop you get doesn’t cost 400 US$, but merely 200US$, what makes it the cheapest laptop you can get (new at least).
Consider that you are donating 200 US$ for a kid to get a chance to break the poverty vicious circle: poor parents, poor education, poor children. For been such a good Samaritan, OLPC rewards you with the chance to get an otherwise unavailable-for-buying laptop for yourself or your children.
So think of it as a 200 US$ machine, plus a 200 US$ lightest conscience.

For that money I can get a real laptop

Really? A high endurance, ia great high-density passive screen, eReader, low consume, wireless enabled, camera integrated, 6hs+ battery life, browser enabled, internal SD card reader device? Not for 200 US$ nor 400 US$.

In spite of its slow processor, there are a lot of things you can do with it.
You can flip the OLPC’s screen and use it as an electronic reader with very low consume (under 1w) that is perfectly readable under direct sun light, with convenient cursor keys available on the side to change pages.
You can watch (low resolution) video from the SD card or a USB memory key (not included).
You can edit documents (also MS Word) with installed AbiWord, and if you find yourself at home in Linux, install applications you would otherwise miss like Pidgin (or Finch), xmms or even Skype.
You can browse the net with the existing Mozila based browser, or install more powerful FireFox or Opera browsers. You can also install Flash player, though the performance is sluggish.
You might feel like throwing away the child-oriented Sugar interface and install the Linux distribution of your choice (XUbuntu and Debian already successfully installed, but I would love to see Puppy Linux there), but…

Child computer

… I would first suggest you to get an OLPC not for you, but for a child.
The OLPC will resist hits, spills, dust, and child mistreatment better than any other laptop you can buy [for less than a grand]. It has the perfect dimensions for small hands, it has an interface designed for children, and educational software. It is powerful enough to browse Wikipedia, read a blog, view some pics, check your mail and do the homework.
In short, it makes for a great first computer for your kid, ages 3 to 12.

If you were thinking about getting a computer for your nephew, grandson or just any kid, and at the time  would like to contribute to a good cause, this is a no-brainier; I highly recommend it.

Perhaps if you need a shock-proof, splash-resistant, heavy-duty, good-battery-life gadget to do very simple non-processor demanding tasks, this might also be a good investment; the eBook mode seam to be really good, it can handle quick notes and basic browsing, and the screen is really state of the art material; you are not getting that pixel density and quality in any other netbook.

On the other hand, if you are looking for a cheap netbook [and have a cold heart], you might be better off with an Asus EEE, MSI Wind, Acer One, or any other of the options already in the market.

More info:

• OLPC news
• OLPC official wiki
• Fedora Sugar live CD (Test the Sugar interface in your computer!)
• OX-1 at Wikipedia

Update: The black and white screen resolution is 1200×900 pixels, thought the effective colour resolution is 984×738

Update: G1G1 details at Amazon UK already available

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 12th, 2008 at 22:05 and is filed under hardware. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.