
I Miss the OLPC, a Little Laptop That Dreamed Bigger Than It Could Deliver - rbanffy
https://gizmodo.com/i-miss-the-olpc-a-little-laptop-that-dreamed-bigger-th-1839150623
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fragmede
Hopefully those directly involved with the project will chime in, as they did
last time, and correct me :)

The success of the buy one give one program really speaks to me that there was
a longer-term way of going about this - sell to rich (relative to developing
nations) Americans, using them to help develop curriculum as well. I must
admit some bias here - I'd love an updated OLPC simply for the sunlight
readable screen, and technology has a advance in the interim that the Python-
based everything is quite usable, especially if PyPy is thrown into the mix.
(If not, an updated processor and modern storage sizes may make compilation
feasible.) The rise of smartphones and Chromebooks also says that the window
manager, which seemed goofy at launch, is actually quite reasonable for
general consumption, even if it isn't a tiling WM. The project seemed to
really want to try and find super-smart auto-didactic kids in a developing
nation that just didn't have the chance to become the hacker the project
leaders themselves were, because they were in a developing nation.

I maybe conflating projects here but there was a TED talxtgoing around,
talking about leaving a computer in a poor village, and just letting the kids
go to town on the thing. And then coming back a month later and being amazed
at what the kids had done. Which is super cool, but not an in-classroom
curriculum. IMO, just as algebra is taught at different times in different
countries (it's taught in Russia _far_ earlier than in the US), some of the
more advanced computer science concepts could be taught to a younger crowd
with the right curriculum. (eg a college level Operating Systems classI have
no idea if that would actually help them succeed where they live, but if they
graduated with curriculum equivalent to a BS in CS, they'd be a leg up on
3-month learn to code bootcamp graduates.

However, once the projects direction had been announced, the unwillingness to
compromise the projects vision doomed it. Running Sugar on top of Windows, on
an Intel chipset, may have let the project get much further than it did.
Wintel's protestations that the project excluded them kinda sunk the project,
when really they could have been a huge source of funding and its loudest
proponents.

~~~
jonnydubowsky
[https://www.technologyreview.com/s/506466/given-tablets-
but-...](https://www.technologyreview.com/s/506466/given-tablets-but-no-
teachers-ethiopian-children-teach-themselves/) here's a link to the story that
you mention about the kids teaching themselves and hacking the computer. It's
an amazing story.

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getpost
I was inspired by the goals and design approach of OLPC. I participated in the
G1G1 program and received an XO-1. The machine worked well enough, but I was
shocked by the poor quality of the software. Even though I had no connection
to the product, except as a customer, it made me embarrassed to be a member of
the computer industry. Sorry, it was too long ago for me to remember
specifics. But in retrospect, it was a perfect example of MIT Media Lab
arrogance, wherein the demo is all that matters.

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jolmg
I'm looking for where to buy, but I'm not seeing it on Amazon and I don't see
any pointers to a store on their official website. The Wikipedia article says,
"as of 2015, OLPC reports 'more than 3 million laptops' have been shipped." So
this is still being sold, right?

