San Francisco (CA) - After a couple bumps in the road, the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative has begun its path to helping children in impoverished nations.

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See the $100 laptop in detail (15 pictures) ...

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The OLPC foundation aims to put inexpensive laptop computers in the hands of children in third-world countries. It has received orders from multiple countries, some of which would need hundreds of thousands to make the plan viable.

Originally dubbed the "$100 laptop", the OLPC group said earlier this year it would need to up the price to around $170 per unit. The laptop has very basic software on it and comes in a green-and-white casing. It has been named the XO laptop.

Another obstacle was an opposition from Intel, which ran its own "Classmate PC" initiative to compete with OLPC. The chip manufacturer has since come to an agreent with OLPC and is helping with the production of the XO laptop.

The group said previously that it would need more than three million orders for the project to be possible. The current plan is to have the XO laptopss available by October of this year.

Still Low Priced

Jul 23, 2007 13:39     

Even at $170, it is still a very low price for a laptop. I think they should use ReactOS. http://www.reactos.org It is an open source clone of Win NT that runs Win software/programs. It is not bloatware like Windows. They should look into it. Perhaps even FreeDOS with their 'win3.1' type of gui. http://www.freedos.org
TomLeeM/BigWarpGuy report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

One spear per child project

Jul 23, 2007 16:58     

Maybe these kids will do better without a laptop. Why should we force our ideas on them? I know I know...so oneday they will be consumers. Capitalism is a great cancer, and is all consuming. Its days are numbered.
bushsucks report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Eat virtual food?

Jul 23, 2007 20:28     

So are kids in third-world country going to surf the net looking for food? Unless the laptops are made of gingerbread... yumm
1ni3shi report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Bring the poor kids into the information age

Jul 24, 2007 07:00     

The best chance people have to earn a living is with marketable skills. *Oops, I get I just advocated capitalism* If impoverished countries can buy a few of these for their schools, they might raise up a generation of engineers that can improve their standard of living. "there ain't no such thing as a free lunch"
Shaun report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

One Spear Per Child?

Jul 24, 2007 08:27     

Capitalism works. It is communism that does not work. If you look at the communist countries, they are slowly becoming capitalistic. Communism days are numbered. I do agree that third world people need other things - food, clothing, shelter - more than they need a low price laptop.
TomLeeM/BigWarpGuy report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

It's the education...

Jul 24, 2007 12:48     

More food, more direct aid, more money for poor people in poor countries. All of those do more to line the pockets of corrupt "leaders" then to help people with the real need. Education is one method for escaping a cycle of poverty. The cheap laptop is one attempt to make information more accessible and may be cheaper than printing a lot of textbooks. I have not looked into this enough to defend it as the best effort, but I want to point out giving food instead of laptops is short-sighted. Remember the proverb, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for today. Teach him to fish and you feed him for life." Education is a little like that, except that you feed more than one generation as it is passed along.

Darien report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Re: One spear...

Jul 24, 2007 14:12     

No, it runs linux. And that's the final word.
re:TomLeeM/BigWarpGuy report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

give a person a fish...

Jul 24, 2007 16:49     

anyone heard that saying? Give a person a fish, they eat for a day. Teach them how to fish, they eat for a lifetime. Ya, same thing here. Teach them how to make money and they'll have a better chance to end their cycle of poverty
devo report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

@TomLeeM/BigWarpGuy Capitalism doesn't work. It's ...

Jul 26, 2007 22:22     

@TomLeeM/BigWarpGuy Capitalism doesn't work. It's making a life more annoying than it was. I will go on killing spree with all the advertising around (including you, stop promoting those free OSes) @devo well you kinda need a computer nowdays to make money, soooo.... Socialism works well in a lot of European countries, people there do not have to worry about things like being able to afford health care for example.

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