Bill Clementson's Blog

Why you should buy an OLPC XO Laptop

Monday, November 12, 2007

The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) XO-1 laptop becomes available today for purchase in North America (for "logistical reasons" the program is only being offered in the USA & Canada although there are ways that people from other countries can purchase one too) through the Give 1 Get 1 (G1G1) program. This program lasts for only 2 weeks. For $400 ($200 of which is a tax-deductible donation), a person will be paying for 1 laptop to go to a child in a developing nation and will receive 1 laptop for themself. Although/because/despite (depending on your perspective on how things work in real life!) these laptops are designed for children in the developing world, they include a lot of features that are either not found in other commercial laptops or which cost a lot more (there are a couple of good technical video presentations that cover these features in some detail here and here).


Although the aforementioned videos provide a better technical summary of the machine, here are a few highlights of some of the technical features found in the OLPC XO laptop:

• The laptop hardware is really impresive. This laptop is really small - dimensions are 242mm × 228mm × 32mm (9.5" x 9" x 1.25") and weight is about 1.5KG (3.3 lbs). There is a 7.5" 200dpi high resolution display capable of displaying 1200x900 pixels in grayscale (usable in direct sunlight!) or 800x600 in colour. The processor is relatively low-powered, but probably fine for the types of things most people will use this laptop for. There is no hard drive (storage is 1GB of flash which you could increase with USB drives or memory sticks or an SD card if you needed to), a rubber membrane water resistent keyboard, gamepad, touchpad, audio, built-in camera, integrated wireless (both 802.11b/g and 802.11s "mesh" networking support), a long-life battery (I've heard different stories, but it sounds like battery life will go into the double digits!), rechargeable with AC/DC power, solar or hand/foot generator, etc. On top of all this, the laptop is the most energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly laptop ever made! (see here for more details on the hardware)



• The software that comes with the laptop is equally impressive. First of all, ALL of the software is free and open source. In addition, it is designed with a highly optimized, simplified software stack "that can repair itself" (Note: since all source for the laptop will be available literally "at the press of a button" [There is a "view source" button on the laptop's keyboard that will let you view/edit the source code for any program on the machine!], users will be able to view and modify virtually any software on the computer, so there needed to be a way to easily restore standard software. The "view source" feature is really neat as I don't think any machine since the original LispM's has had the ability to easily view the source of ANY code on the machine!). The OS is a paired-down version of Fedora Linux with a custom Sugar graphical user interface and Bitfrost security platform. There are programs for internet browsing, chat, wikis, word processing, and most other "standard" things you would need to do on a laptop (as well as "non-standard" utilities for things like music synthesis/composition, drawing, games, etc). The standard programming environment consists of Python, Javascript, Etoys (Squeak/Smalltalk), Csound, LOGO, and others. (see here for more details on the software).


• There are a wide range of peripheral products that are being planned for the OLPC XO laptop that promise to make the XO the focal point for many innovative educational projects.

1. You will be helping the OLPC program:
   
   Education is the key to helping people succeed in the developing world. Certainly, there are places where food aid is more critical and no one has suggested that laptops should replace food; however, for many people in developing countries, education is the only way that they can hope to improve their quality of life. The OLPC program isn't a laptop program (although the laptop is a key "enabler" for the program), it's an education program (see this video for a very good summary of the OLPC program and it's goals). When buying through the G1G1 program, you are directly supporting the education of a child in another country. If you want to contribute more (or in different ways), you can do so either financially, or by contributing to the development of software for the laptops, or by volunteering in one of the overseas OLPC programs.




2. You will be getting a laptop that would be ideal for any number of purposes:


• An educational laptop for a child: If you have a young child in the house and want to be able to take advantage of the huge number of educational programs that are being developed for the XO, then this machine provides you with the "reference platform" that the software is being designed for. In addition, the superb networking capabilities make the XO a good choice for people interested in setting up a remote-learning classroom in rural/remote areas of North America.


• A good machine for internet browsing, chat, email, ebook reading, or when you're on the road: Why carry around a "desktop replacement" laptop weighing more than twice as much as the XO when you get terrific wireless capabilities, fantastic battery life, and a much smaller form factor with the XO? When I went to OOPSLA this past month, I saw several OLPC developers there with XO laptops. Since I was hauling around my 17" PowerBook (which weighed about 7 lbs [3.1KG], had a battery that only lasted ~2 hours, cost over $3k and which I carefully protected in a padded bag), I was very envious of the guys I saw carrying around the little XO's (weighing half as much as my PowerBook, with a battery that lasted the entire day and [since the XO is a ruggedized light-weight $200 laptop], they didn't even use a carrying bag!). Sure, there are alternatives; however, the XO is a geek's wet dream, combining a minimalist (in the Zen sense) hardware/software approach with innovative functionality. ;-)


• A cheap "ruggedized" laptop solution: Many people would like to take a laptop with them when on a boat or in the wilderness or at the beach. However, most commercial offerings are either too heavy or not really suitable for use in adverse conditions. Although the XO is not a real "ruggedized" laptop, it will put up with an awful lot more than most laptops will. It also has a much greater wireless reception range than most other commercial laptops and you would be hard-pressed to find something even remotely equivalent for $200.


• A small Linux laptop: Some people will like the hardware but won't want the child-centric ui or software. It's easy enough to use the machine productively even with the standard software installed; however, it is possible to convert it to a basic Fedora box or upgrade to Debian (or, potentially, you could even "downgrade" to another OS) if you so choose. Which would make this a very nice small "conventional" Linux laptop indeed!


• An interesting and innovative development/educational platform: Aside from the pleasure of being able to hack on the XO at any level, it is rare to come across a product where innovation has been so strongly embraced. Even if you don't want to use the XO yourself, it would be interesting to have one just to explore some of the hardware and software innovations that are being built into this machine. For $200, that's no more than you would pay for a few specialist books and much less than the cost of a conference. After you're finished playing around with it, you can give it to a child.