14 DAY TRIAL // Everybody must have heard of the "$100 laptop" by now, as it made quite a spectacular splash both on the market and inside several computer manufacturers circles. Treated by some as a very good idea and by others as a mere gadget (Intel's chairman called it the "$100 gadget"), it seems that the tiny laptop is here to stay after all. And this is a very good thing as it may teach some of the current laptop makers something about simplicity in design and about the art of keeping a machine bloat free.
Even if the founder of the "One Laptop Per Child" program, Nicholas Negroponte, said about the "$100 laptop" that it is only the means towards an end and that OLPC is "an education project, not a laptop project", the first machine to hit mass production, named XO, is a pretty impressive one, both in terms of the technology employed in its fabrication, its design and capabilities, its price (hey, it's only $100 bucks) as in terms of what it represents. Simply put, the XO laptop was designed to provide the technological bridge for the children from developing countries that would normally have no access to modern day schooling facilities.
As I found on a web site, there is a great idea for the OLPC management: "Help provide third world children with the $100 laptop by offering the laptop to first world consumers for $1,000". This may seem a little too much to pay for a thing that you know is worth $100, but let me ask you how many times did you know the true worth (construction costs included) of a piece of computer hardware? Here is a list of several reasons why the OLPC is doing the right thing developing and promoting their laptop.
First of all, OLPC is probably using one of the most wanted Internet domain names ever: "www.laptop.org", domain name that most laptop producers will give just about anything to take over. A second good reason to support the OLPC initiative would be that the XO laptop uses only free and open source software, so if you are an open source fan then you came at the right place.
A perfect tool for out of the box computing, the XO's screen is able to use high definition when in black and white mode and the screen is perfect for working outside, in direct sunlight. Unlike most other laptops, that are portable only from one desk to another, the OLPC laptop is truly a master of mobility as it weights only 1.5 kilograms and has a built-in handle for easier carrying. Being covered with a hard plastic casing, it is as water and dust proof as possible, and while most laptops are fragile little things, this is not the case with XO as it has no traditional hard disk or optical drives. No moving parts inside the laptop means that it would be less prone to hardware failures due to shocks or mishandling.
Created in a world that seeks to come to peace with "mother nature", the XO is the greenest laptop ever, it uses so little power that its battery pack can be recharged using several non traditional implements like a foot pedal, hand crank, pull cord and solar cells. Maybe its most revolutionary piece of technology that is integrated in the OLPC laptop is the "mesh network" concept that lets several machines connect with each other instantly and if one of them gains Internet access, the other ones will connect through it.