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Review: OLPC XO Laptop

OLPC now famously stands for One Laptop Per Child. And while anyone can purchase the device, rest assured the emphasis is firmly on child. The iconic green-and-white machine is unlike any computer you’ve ever used, and it represents a first – if rocky – step toward a new vision for youth and technology. OLPC XO […]
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Rating:

10/10

WIRED
Insanely rugged. OLPC can operate in extreme temperatures and even while sitting in standing water. Battery withstands 2000 discharge cycles, and a five-watt solar panel can provide enough juice to run it. Loaded with kid-friendly apps, including numerous, novel musicmaking apps. Display can be used outdoors and swivels into tablet mode. Kids will dig a computer with green ears.
TIRED
Can often be baffling: OLPC president Walter Bender was working on a FAQ on how to open the lid when I spoke to him. Would be killer at the hoped-for $100 price point. No WPA Wi-Fi support. Keys are far too tiny for regular use. Touchpad is wildly touchy.

OLPC now famously stands for One Laptop Per Child. And while anyone can purchase the device, rest assured the emphasis is firmly on child. The iconic green-and-white machine is unlike any computer you've ever used, and it represents a first - if rocky - step toward a new vision for youth and technology.

For adults, however, the experience is something different. Everything about the OLPC XO is designed with students in mind: The keyboard, wrapped in a rubberized membrane, is built for tiny, food-encrusted fingers. Touch typing? Don't even dream of it. And once you open the device you'll immediately find yourself faced with over a dozen unfamiliar buttons which you'll largely have to figure out through trial and error. The heavily-modded Fedora Linux core offers an entirely new way of doing things, deep-sixing any notions you might have about desktops, icons, and even file management. Again, kids in a classroom setting will probably grok this quickly, but grown-ups will wrestle with OLPC's software as much as they do its hardware.

OLPC's mission is as noble as they come, but the post-puberty set is more likely to find it more a novel toy that becomes tiresome quickly. But all you grown-ups out there ought to be using a real computer anyway.