

Give a OLTP Laptop and Get One - luccastera
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/sep2007/tc20070923_960941.htm?campaign_id=rss_tech

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soundsop
I am considering buying one and donating one, but I still wonder if giving a
laptop to a poor child in the third world really helps them vs. doing
something else like improving their education or health care by $200, or maybe
giving $200 worth of microloans.

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chaostheory
yeah I was thinking the same thing. would it be better to put my money into
kiva.org or olpc?

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dpapathanasiou
Glad to see that the "Buy One for Yourself, Donate One" idea is back; I saw a
talk they gave in February where they said that idea was off the table
([http://blog.seeksift.com/2007/02/28/one-laptop-per-child-
hac...](http://blog.seeksift.com/2007/02/28/one-laptop-per-child-hackers-
wanted/)).

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gregwebs
That was before they were more desperate for money- apparently they have not
yet secured an order. They have to resort to selling in the US to raise money
and keep the volume up to keep production costs down.

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dpapathanasiou
It's not the worst way to raise funds; there's been enough curiosity raised
that they should get several takers on that offer (I know I'll participate
when I get the chance in November).

It's also interesting why they scrapped the "buy one / donate one" idea in the
first place; according to this NYT article
([http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/24/business/worldbusiness/24l...](http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/24/business/worldbusiness/24laptop.html)):

 _Staff members of the laptop project were concerned that American children
might try the pared-down machines and find them lacking compared to their
Apple, Hewlett-Packard or Dell laptops. Then, in this era of immediate global
communications, they might post their criticisms on Web sites and blogs read
around the world, damaging the reputation of the XO Laptop, the project staff
worried._

Strange, because so many of the initial reviews were overwhelmingly positive.

Also, it contradicts the official line given in February, which was "they want
to focus the production output to kids who need them".

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dfranke
On-Line Transaction Processing? They do that on laptops now? :-)

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dpapathanasiou
Just part of the latest outsourcing trend: kids in the 3rd world will make
sure your bank statements are up-to-date ;)

~~~
mhb
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=59195>

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savrajsingh
Does someone want to make a VM of the software? It would be cool to try out
(Not sure if it requires the OLPC firmware):
[http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Trial-2_Software_Release_Note...](http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Trial-2_Software_Release_Notes)

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gregwebs
I ran it on VMWare maybe 6 months ago. It was ridiculously slow.

<http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OS_images_for_emulation>

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dfranke
That tends to be a true statement regardless of the antecedent of "it".

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eusman
donate one? donate money to manufacturers?

