$100 laptop per child project still at least 6 months away

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Wednesday, 03 January 2007 18:10

Your IT - Entertainment

Last heard ‘launching’ two months ago in November, the US $100 laptop per child project, claimed by some to currently cost over US $200 per unit, ‘could’ start reaching children in third world countries in July, say online reports. Let’s hope the wait is worth it!

Nicholas Negroponte is sick of hearing people say that the ‘XO’ machine, his name for the one laptop per child (OLPC) computer, is underpowered, and vows to start using one himself in preference to a standard Windows machine, according to a report by the BBC.

With the operating system a cut-down version of Linux, the interface is radically different from the standard ‘desktop, files and folders’ that users of Windows, Linux and Mac OS X are accustomed to.

Said to sport a more ‘electronic journal’ design, the interface is designed to be not only an ongoing record of what the child has done with and learned on the computer, it also features a word processor, a web browser and an RSS reader, among other features. It also features an AMD processor running at 366Mhz, built-in Wi-Fi, 512mb of flash memory and two USB ports to allow more storage.

Negroponte is unhappy that children in first world schools are being taught to use Word, Excel and Powerpoint. In the BBC interview, he says that: “"In fact, one of the saddest but most common conditions in elementary school computer labs (when they exist in the developing world), is the children are being trained to use Word, Excel and PowerPoint”.

Negronponte continues: "I consider that criminal, because children should be making things, communicating, exploring, sharing, not running office automation tools."

Which is a bit silly, when you think about it, because Word and Powerpoint are creation tools that people use to write, communicate and share. Of course, Excel is a creative tool, too, but only number crunchers really appreciate the joy and wonders of creating spreadsheets. Of course, those ‘office automation tools’ are what the students will be using when in business, and are the programs that most other free or paid ‘clone’ office suites are measured against.

The US $100 laptop project, which is currently said to cost double that figure, still has a long way to go to prove itself. In the meantime, ‘real’ Windows XP laptops keep on coming down in price, which, with the cost of Windows XP removed, would be cheaper still, if they are sold in that configuration, with a version of Linux loaded instead.

The key factors will be a real price of US $100, rugged reliability, ease of use, and true utility. Access to an Internet connection somewhere along the chain will be needed as well if the web browser is to be used to browse the Web, and not just a local network.

As someone that lives in the first world with access to powerful computers and operating systems, the XO laptop leaves me feeling a bit underwhelmed, despite its numerous potential advantages.

Maybe when they finally release them onto the world, they can reserve 90 of them to send to bloggers. Better make that 91, and add me to the list, as I’d love to see if they’re really any good, or not. But until they truly launch and we get the first real reports of in field use direct from the students themselves (and their teachers), I’ll reserve judgement.