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Comment by GnarfGnarf | Hacker News Reader

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GnarfGnarf·

I have an OLPC XO, and they are an amazing machine for children in under-developed countries:

- Built-in camera & microphone

- Oscilloscope app

- Special O/S that goes dormant and uses minimum power when idle, to maximize battery life

- Can be charged with primitive generators and manual labour

- Networked

Brilliant design. Too bad too many governments never understood this and thought a PC or Apple laptop were the same thing.

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You also had a concerted effort from Microsoft et al to muddy the water in a massive way.

I'd say it was Intel more than Microsoft; the Classmate PC was a shitty clone that they marketed like crazy to target the OLPC, which ran an AMD chipset. Running full-blown Windows, no screen visible in sunlight, no easy mesh networking, etc.

My brother got one of them as part of a subsidized program, and man, it sucked. Slow, barely any free disk space, it was a waste of money even at 50€.

I seem to recall that MS managed to "convince" whoever was in charge to offer a OLPC variant with Windows on it, effectively watering down the core concept.

Yep, I was part of the open-source dev community back in the day. The push by Microsoft and subsequent deal with Negroponte to have the XO laptops also run Windows really disappointed a lot of the open source developers. Back then it felt a little like the last nail in the coffin, for me at least.

You mean ... aren't interested in things that aren't luxury products for already-rich government officials and clients.

Same can be said for Unicef.

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