Hands On: The $100 Laptop
Last week at the Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco, my fellow Computational Media major friend John Swisshelm won a game design competition. For that, he was awarded one of the $100 laptops created as part of the One Laptop Per Child initiative. I was able to get my hands on the $100 laptop for a bit and took some pictures for you guys.
No, it’s not a transformer in disguise.
The $100 laptop is not available for public distribution and the model which I got to look at was the second beta. The first beta laptop as you might know, featured a hand-crank for charging. OLPC found that the crank was bulky and broke often so the current beta 2 version has a standard charger. However, the next release will feature a ripcord-type charging mechanism, similar to how you start a lawn mower.
The laptop was created with power consumption in mind and as such, it nominally consumes only 2 watts making it an ideal candidate for human-powered recharging. The CPU can even suspend itself while the computer is being used. There is some technology that allows the display to update without need for the CPU.
The first thing I noticed was the laptop’s tiny size. It’s built for kids and it’s small. Featuring a 7.5-inch LCD with an impressive resolution of 1200×900 (more than my MacBook!) and a small, rubberized keyboard the $100 laptop is probably 2/3 the size of the MacBook. It does however weigh a lot for its size, ~3.3 pounds. Also, the bright green color and “bunny ears” draw attention to the OLPC laptop. I was told it was made bright green not only because it is intended for children, but also because it was less likely to be purchased, rebadged and sold on the black market with such a vivid color. The “bunny ears” are 802.11b/g WiFi antennas and do double-duty by covering up miscellaneous ports when closed.
As for software, the $100 laptop runs a custom version of Red Hat’s Fedora Core 6 distribution of Linux. The desktop is rather simplistic with just a few icons but you can bring up a terminal if necessary. It comes preloaded with several basic applications such as a Mozilla-based web browser (not exactly Firefox), and a kids application that lets them make and record sounds and sound effects. The laptop utilizes a 366MHz AMD Geode processor that only consumes 1 watt. There is no hard drive, rather 512MB of flash RAM which is separate from the computer’s 128MB of DDR266 system RAM.
Applications will include a web browser built on Xulrunner, the run-time environment used by the Firefox browser; a simple document viewer based upon Evince; the AbiWord wordprocessor, an RSS reader, an email client, chat client, VOIP client; a journal, a wiki with WYSIWYG editing; a multimedia authoring and playback environment; a music composition toolkit, graphics toolkits, games, a shell and a debugger.
Source: OLPC
The $100 laptop is booting up - it took about a minute to get to the desktop screen.
Kids application makes sound effects and can record sounds.
Surprisingly, the $100 laptop even has a VGA resolution webcam.
The stick-figure icon in the middle of the screen is representative of the mesh network that these $100 laptops make when in the presence of other $100 laptops. When other $100 laptops are around you, they appear as other stick-figure icons and this enables peer to peer functionality.
An example of the mesh network in use.
The picture below shows the desktop of the OLPC laptop. Main applications are organized on the bottom left of the screen. Everything is displayed with icons, there was not too much text in the operating system - making it ideal for use in various cultures with different languages.
The rubberized keyboard is sealed off as the system was built to be moisture-resistant.
In the picture above you can see the massive trackpad that takes up most of the space below the keyboard. The trackpad can also be used with a stylus, which might come in handy in the sketching application.
The screen also rotates!
I was thoroughly impressed with how functional and how many features the laptop has for $100. Although, technically it cost around $148 but once OLPC finalizes development and ramps up production, it is expected that this will truly be a $100 laptop. I’m glad something like this exists, it’s going to revolutionize the way third world countries mature technologically and get online. What do you think?
This will be an excellent machine for use in Belieze where we go on our yearly church mission trip. The children there have no access to a computer and this would be an excellent fit. Good overview Paul.
Wow! Looks great, better than I thought it would.
I’m surprised at how well done it is. I’m excited to see what these are like when they finally ship. Great review!
That’s looks exactly like how a kids laptop should be.
I like that it’s running Fedora, but I guess I had thought it might have a bit more functionality. I suppose that it could always be updated with RPMs. Nonetheless, it’s great that children will be able to get the exposure to technology at an early age.
This is way cooler than I would have expected.
That looks great! I totally agree with Derek.
I don’t know why but I really want one!
It just looks like it’d be fun to use and I kinda think it’d be funky to play with. I can’t remember what the terms were of buying one though - is it something like you have to buy two, with one going to charity and one going to yourself? Or is it purely all for the charities?
And now back to wanting a new MacBook…
Indeed, economies of scale will kick in eventually and production price will drop.
This is wonderful and I love the idea of the whole thing. At first when I heard about it way back when, it sounded great, but didn’t think anyone would act on it. I was wrong and pleasantly surprised!
Thanks for the review. This totally rocks.
I sorta wish I could own one of these things. I wonder if some smart kid is going to figure out how to use eBay.
They are for sale to the general public- with the “you get one, a kid gets one” price. Not sure where I saw that, and if I wasn’t so lazy I’d look it up. :) But I’m sure that’s how it works.
For 100 bucks why not, I would love to get my hands on one of these.
Call me the skeptic out of the bunch, but there’s something that’s just not right about the whole thing to me.
For starters, if this is a kids machine, why is there an RSS reader application? For that matter, why is there Peer to Peer technology built-in? Kids know nothing of such things and furthermore have no use for them.
More importantly, where is the learning applications that should be installed for a kid? The type of stuff that kids say, 10 to 14 could understand and truly learn from. This laptop might’ve been built with a sparse GUI, but other than the color, there is nothing that screams out “This is for a child” when reading the various descriptions of the laptop.
@Frank - it’s got a word processor, a journal, wiki software, a document viewer (PDF reader, etc, I believe) and sketching software.
Peer to peer/mesh technology could bring a village together and provide their first real means of communication. If they’re going to build a cheap, efficient laptop, they might as well put as much technology in it as they can. I think you’re underestimating the youth. If something is there and they don’t know what it is, ie RSS reader, they’re going to learn about it, what it is and how to use it, no?
I’m sure they can come together and communicate just fine without a laptop as they have been doing for thousands of years. Do you actually mean gaming? or other such activities?
Another question I have is how hackable is it? You didn’t try to install Linux on it or did you?
@andre - it runs linux already =)
All of the applications that you described, I would call young adult and adult level applications. Other than the few games that are included with it, I really don’t see any applications on it that would fit a child’s level of comprehension. I’m quite sure that even in third world countries they have child prodigies that would have no trouble comprehending Peer to Peer/Mesh technology or RSS readers, Wiki software, etc. But the average 9 to 13 year old kid will have no understanding nor a need for such applications.
What they will need are applications that teach them how to read, in the language of their race, at that age level. They need applications that will help them to learn and understand Arithmetic. The sketching software sounds cool, but most of the kids will just be using it as a game (which I have no problem with). Again, it just seems to me that this laptop isn’t really fitting the bill for what it’s supposed to be intended for. In fact, with so many adult level applications pre-bundled, I think the whole Black market thing that they’re trying to avoid will definitely come to pass.
I love it!
@Frank
I don’t quite understand your concerns about how suitable this laptop is for children. A 5-year-old African might only use the sketching application, but your average “9 to 13 year old kid” will certainly use a lot of the features - I for one was 11 when I tried out programming in Turbo Pascal.
Perhaps the children in the “Third World” need some time to get used to the new technology, but I’m certain that they will understand the machine very quickly.
No black market, the HW can be blocked remotely (briked), i.e. when activated each week (month) the XO need to contact the server to renew the security certificates (IIRC). There was a white paper about XO security, you can probably find it on their wiki or searching at slashdot /digg.
No black market, the HW can be blocked remotely (bricked), i.e. when activated each week (month) the XO need to contact the server to renew the security certificates (IIRC). There was a white paper about XO security, you can probably find it on their wiki or searching at slashdot /digg.
Great job Paul ! Great pics, nice survey.
Funny, when I used the OLPC only the middle “part” of the trackpad was useable. The others on the sides were non functional.
Very very cool.
This is much better and for free: it helps poor children with an education.
See here
Frank said “I’m quite sure that even in third world countries they have child prodigies that would have no trouble comprehending Peer to Peer/Mesh technology or RSS readers, Wiki software, etc. But the average 9 to 13 year old kid will have no understanding nor a need for such applications.”
Have you ever met a child??? Children love to experiment and change things, and then show these things to their friends. If they’re given the tools that allow them to do these things, it’s amazing how much kids can find out about the tools and how to use them. Try sitting a 2-year-old on your lap in front of the computer with a kid’s drawing program, and watch as she learns how to use a mouse. That’s what the OLPC project is about, not about installing rote-learning applications that unlucky children are forced to work through in isolation.
See http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Learning_Vision for a starting point to some more detailed discussion of what these machines are about.
I like the big track pad, and I will be sorry if the black market takes advantage of this great opportunity for third-world kids.
this is really cool, I really hope they will improve the development of the countries using them.
lucky you!!!
Great to see some actual pictures of one!
It still think it looks like the old iBook!.
Excellent photos, thanks for sharing.
I wonder if Dennis (the first poster) sees the irony of using this technology to educate the children so they can independently access the global store of information, can liberate themselves from theologically-based aid, and no longer have to endure his ‘church missions’! LOL
The cynicism and something akin to 1st world paternalism exhibited here by some of these comments is astounding. I remember taking a summer computer class with Apple IIs that were networked. The teacher used the network just to keep tabs on our progress, but it would have been so cool if we could have used a mesh to collaborate on some other subjects.
AMD ftw!
@stochasticprocess i disagree while he may not have every alright with his religion etc as non truly do, i think u missed the point of helping people that shouldnt have anything to do with religion or faith or beliefs. and i think its a fantastic idea to help people, i would give your statment more weight if i heard of some of the things u were doing to help 3rd world kiddies
personally i haven’t done much not because i dont belive they need it or that i should i just havent realy found a way that my talents in such technological things could realy make a difference, so i think these are a great idea and a great way that my kind of ppl can help
I’d love to get one of these - I’d be prepared to buy two and donate one of them to a charity - I wonder if there could be a scheme set up to do this.
i would say there should be an effort and an investment in
poorest countries, which have a very large number of childrens.
They don’t have means to buy one laptop, even at the small price
of $100.
They don’t have the money, lots and lots of them didn’t send their childers
to learn.
Their governments should be convinced by the importance of this tools-toys.
This is one major factor that can addup true value to their efforts, to their future, but they should be convinced!
Furthermore think aboutit! Large IT and computer companies, having billions of dollars at their disposition were not able to even try to do something like this!…
I can compare this tool with the internet revolution, it can addup tremendously in the future!
WOW, this beats a LOT of laptops out there on the market. :-)
I hope they offer these in the U.S. for children in low-income families and orphans.
Very nice! -I’d like to have one too. I’d buy one for a child and one for myself. Not too sure if a laptop computer is as ‘needed’ as say, something to cook their food on (-could you just see a hand-crank electrical stove that heats a pot of rice or oatmeal being more of a necessity in a Third World Nation than a hand-crank/pull-cord recharging computer?). I’d have thought that a ‘hand-crank’ or ‘pull-cord recharging’ cellular phone would be a better thing. But it’s still a fantastic toy and and I’m 100% for it use and distribution.
great to hear we have a 100 dollar laptop project to bring these kids into the “global economy,” i’m sure business people dig the idea, maybe if the kids don’t starve to death first they can actually use the laptops, i mean come on, why are we trying to bring laptops to kids instead of more important things
@Paul
“Technology could bring a village together and provide their first real means of communication. ”
It really is how amazing this villages survived for thousands+ of years without a real means of communication. Paul I fear you’re hooked into the keyboard a little too much.
Looks really cool, great pics!
I’m really suprised at the number of features in here. A camera? Sweet. WiFi? Sweet. Linux? Sweet. Aside from the almost too kid like case this would be a great light computer to bring around if you needed to do a little hacking.
This is so much better than what I thought it would be.
Am I the only one who noticed the Playstation buttons and a rudimentary dpad?
What are those for, and how come sony isn’t all over them for stealing their propriatary Basic symbols ;)
I really wish you could get our hands on one. I’m wanting to adopt it as a our company charity and show people what we are raising money for. Maybe next year. Looks good anyway.
I always wondered what it actually looked like on, I’ve seen plenty of pictures of earlier versions but they were turned off, I dont know why they cannot create this for laptop users as well, not everyone needs a top quality laptop I hope that one day someone will create a cheap ($100) laptop that can run Windows and can be hand charged.
I think that this initiative is great but Im not sure whether it will succeed, I think people in Africa and other countries that this is aimed at would prefer food and water to a computer.
Honestly though.. wouldn’t third world countires benifit slighlty more from.. oh i duno… maybe food.. how many wireless hotspots are their in uganda?
Yeah. It’s good that it runs Linux because that way, third world children won’t have to be weened off of Windows.
Actually, third world countries are in a great position regarding wireless technologies. It’s a lot cheaper and easier for companies to put in cellphone networks and wifi technology than it is for the cabled infrastructure that we’re used to in the West. These countries are likely just to skip the whole ‘cabled’ type of infrastructure and use cellphones and also technology like WIMAX too.
Uganda actually has a growing telecom infrastructure too, http://www.utl.co.ug/
Also the usage of WIFI in the 100$ laptop is a cell, peer-to-peer network that just hooks up the users, so they can interact with one another.
My grandfather and his generation didnt growup with any type of computer or electrical learning device. They had to learn by life and I believe that life can teach alot more than some electronic toy, you all consider this laptop to be a “good idea.” I fear that it will teach them nothing and most of these laptops will be found in the third world along the side of the road. Be practical people these things will not make it. Dont get me wrong I do care about children in the third world countries and I think they should have every chance to learn new things. But giving them a laptop is not going to insure they learn. Dont forget some third world children that were in worse conditions, grew up and became IT professionals. I know I work with a few of them. A childs imagination is a thousand times better a tool than a simple laptop. You people forget we once had imagination ourselfs. There is no way of really knowing how this will effect those children and what it might teach them. BTW This is my opinion that doesnt make it right nor does that mean i know everything.
Warrendubz said:
My grandfather and his generation didnt growup with any type of computer or electrical learning device. They had to learn by life and I believe that life can teach alot more than some electronic toy, you all consider this laptop to be a “good idea. 
You’re right that we shouldn’t view this as a panacea (although I don’t think many people are guilty of that mistake), but your reservations echo those that have been voiced over the introduction of very many technologies in the past; the telephone, the television, heck, probably even the steam engine.
Computer are tools; there’s nothing inherently wrong with that. People can get obsessed by tools though, and end up almost serving them - that’s not so good, but there’s no obligation to go down that path here.
If we spent $100 on as many starving children, instead of this heap of shit.. wouldn’t it have done some good, this is just a dumb new thing to blog about.. you people are retarded.
Troy
Cool laptop.
Unfortunately, I skimmed through the comments and happened upon some of the dumbest crap I’ve ever read on the Internet.
Personally, I think this is a great idea. Food is good. But bringing technology to the world is a great thing as well.
It might be worthwhile for people to research the food supplies that they do get. Most are hijacked by the gov’t and then sold at obscene prices. And also its good to know that they are in the current situation because of us. Third world countries used to be some of the riches places of the world and many still are. But the riches have been and are plundered by the so called developed countries. They deserve much more than food from us. And hopefully this new resource will reach them and they can learn enough to survive in this technological world we now live in. This is definetely a great way to help prepare them.
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
this is sooo great! don’t listen to those
people who spread FUD that think mesh networking is impossible. those kids are
already using a mesh network, it’s called
talking! yes i know mesh is more difficult
than talking but it clould really be
helpful. think of those in darfour that
could use this as a warning that
“the bad people” are comming and
to hide!! as to the rest, it has linux, it has
networking, word processing and drawing
packages. i so want one to ensure another
child will get one! remember that those
kids are not dumb and could grow up
as capable as any of us if given a chance.
a chance they will never get if not
exposed to technology. it restores my
faith in humanity!
This is ridiculously impractical and naive.
This is a very narrow sighted way of someone with a lot of money trying to convince himself he can change the world. A laptop has no place in a country without electricity (even if it can be powered by alternate means). I’m sure there are better ways to improve living conditions in a third world country. Laptops would certainly be jumping the gun. There are more immediate concerns.
Wow, I’m rather impressed with the features..
Hello. As a child myself (13) I would be delighted to receive one of these feature-packed laptops (even though I already have a PC, so I will not). All of the features on it would probably be, well, child’s-play to use, even if you didn’t have any technological experience. I don’t know much about this project, but presumably the children receiving these computers would get some kind of training in it’s use.
I agree that perhaps the computers could do with more educational programs, but creating EVERY program with the language of EVERY country this laptop will be distributed in would be a momentous task
This project seems to have an excellent and achievable aim and I hope it goes well.
Xander
Nice !
I’ve been looking for a pic of this for a while.
Thanks for sharing !
I have got a hold on the OS. It is amazing. It is super simple, and I don’t see one thing that I child couldn’t use. It also allows you to take it into normal Linux (X) mode. That is good, so if the kid wants to, they can change it around.
I like the idea of this computer as a serious contribution from serious IT people. The social impact is yet to be discovered or revealed. The many bloggers here who comment about the importance of food, I suspect have never made a food contribution to Africa, and are just opportunistic armchair sociologists (bleeding heart intellectuals).
Those dedicated to technology will understandably offer technological solutions to the world’s problems. Those who concern themselves with food, nutrition and development will offer solutions couched in providing food, nutrition and means of self-development. While neither is a complete solution (and each by itself could bring disastrous side-outcomes), we need both approaches (and others) if we are seriously concerned.
So I applaud the makers of this device and recognize their intent. Some of you think that all that is relevant to Africans is to reach out and receive food, live and die in obscurity “over there” and keep their hungry faces off our Western TV screens. Well, like another writer said, each one of those hungry babes is born with the same intrinsic potential as any of us, and to watch them die un-realized is to be not just heartless and selfish, but is disrespecting the potential of ALL LIFE, for their sake AS WELL AS OURS.
This is a technological experiment, but more importantly a social experiment, the outcome of which I will watch with great interest.
Not sure if people are still wanting to buy one but on November 12 they will go on sale to the general public in a buy two get one system at http://www.xogiving.org/ They will be selling them for only like 2 weeks or something like that but you can sign up for a reminder e-mail (I did one for all three of my e-mail accounts)
You buy two of the computers one goes to a kid in a third world country or whatever and one goes to your child (or to a childish adult). The $100 laptop (currently $188) will cost you just under $400 dollars but you or someone you love will be extra cool with a laptop that nobody else on the block will have. And you will be helping educate the worlds youth (more kids need to learn Linux so Microsoft can be destroyed)
WHERE COULD I GET ONE.
hey, I wanted to ask, y aren’t we aloud to buy the green machine?
Yay linux! lol I think this is a really good idea. I was a little offended ‘caus I like how it looks =P I’d buy one.. anyways yeah I think it’s a good cheap laptop for 3rd world countries.
I don’t like the designe of it. It doesn’t looks so great. Lunix isn’t my favorite OS. I would perfer Windows or Mac. But the screen resilution, it’s a wowser. That’s more than my Dell Latitude D810. I wouldn’t really by that laptop though, even if it does have a screen that swivels. And what is up with the Play Station buttons on the sceen. Shouldn’t Sony sue the conpany who made this laptop?! The color is just ugly.