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Comment by krschultz | Hacker News Reader

Anytime someone tries to end a discussion by asserting "there is no more debate", you know they are on tenuous ground and frantically want to not be challenged.

I did the buy 2 get 1 OLPC deal and feel burned today by their changing positions.

I also don't buy that it is the best solution for kids, or even that PCs are necessary for education in all cases.

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Well, and my point has always been, just imagine if you were in a third world country. Imagine being the kid whose never had a computer before. One day this big truck pulls up and you're told you're getting a PC. Then you find that so-called PC either breaks (like yours did) or works but works like a $99 toy from radioshack. That's downright horrifying to imagine from my perspective.

(As I'm editing this someone has voted this down to 0. I wonder if that person even cares about the kids the OLPC was supposed to help and if they do why are they willing to forgive the rampant reports of flaws?)

I am in a third world country, in fact, I believe our country was the first to buy these laptops. I saw a couple of kids on television getting on Wikipedia with those $99 toys. Those $99 toys are $99 more expensive than any toy they ever had. If said toy breaks, they can take it to a repair center to fix the issues or call in for technical support.

I care about the OLPC helping the kids, and I think having these laptops is a vast improvement over (sadly, in some cases) having absolutely nothing. Would you like it better if they didn't get the laptops at all?

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