Since OLPC is not really a capitalistic endeavor in commerce, then advertising funds that would have helped saturate the market with commercial ads to announce the public service, are/were probably lacking (or totally unavailable). It was definitely NOT a complete failure, because, after all, SOME children DID actually get a laptop. Furthermore, as a Mac user, I see no reason why everyone feels that it HAD TO BE a Windows based unit. Contrary to the, “Windows is ALL there is” belief, there IS room on this Earth for alternatives and variety!

If it WERE Windows, then it could NOT have been cheap, or free. It was the thought that counts. For all we know, he may well have approached Windows and been laughed out the door, or totally shot down. Beyond criticizing the man, what the heck have all the critics done to make this world a better place? Huh? All you critics, if you don't like what he did, or how he did it, then come out and do something better! You know what they say. Put up, or SHUT UP! At least HE put up. What have YOU done lately?

Either way, it is still a magnificently heartfelt and marvelously brilliant idea (not to mention a very cute CHILD'S, laptop). A brand new XO laptop is better than NONE AT ALL! I wish Nicholas Negroponte all the luck, success, and support in the world. He can always go back to the drawing board, or another humanitarian can either join him in his efforts, or pick up the torch where he left off. He certainly has my vote!

You assertion that, “Linux, in the hands of consumers, is a complete failure” is completely false. A growing number of our customers are using Linux and we are now getting calls from across the state for pre-installed Linux systems.

You don't sound like a Linux user to me, you sound like a shill, and shills regularly like to inject the token “I'm a Linux user” or “I love Linux” comment in a pathetic attempt to make their shilling less obvious.

2. The price… see point 1.

3. Its for children…

The underlying idea was and still is, brilliant – that access to computing, like air, water, food, and shelter, has become a basic human right, for children in even the poorest communities in the world, as well as their families. That is very empowering. Many other development programs can piggyback on top of that.

At Google Headquarters, there is a flat screen with a rotating earth showing the number of searches in real time, as peaks, colored by language, all over the globe. Night and day show up. It doesn't take many rotations to realize that Africa is dark. No electricity, no computers, little education, negligible numbers of searches searches. It doesn't take many rotations to realize that where the globe is dark, many needs are great.

That said, from the point of view of one who was eager to buy into the Give One Get One program, a veteran of user groups of past operating systems, although not Linux, here are the issues that stand out for me:

1. Poor distribution at the beginning. Had Amazon handled the first program, and advertised the second one more widely, the results might have been better.

2. Almost no documentation. Not everyone has the time, inclination, or skills to not only learn the operating system, but develop the applications it lacks.

3. An educational philosophy that is flawed at best, and autocratic at worst. Teachers and students should be able to use a computer as a tool. Collaboration has its place, but so does learning the basics, incluidng learning math and reading literacy in addition to computer literacy.

4. No teacher's tools, manuals, guidelines, lesson plans etc. Teachers a busy, and could use a lot of help.

5. A marketing system that was the polar opposite of the stated, social learning objectives. Negroponte wanted the convenience of dealing only with large, million dollar orders from governments. These days, some of the most successful software ventures have gained ground through social marketing, one person at a time. As has, ironically, the whole netbook computer category.

6. Irreconcilable differences with other key originators. Enough said.

7. No plan for updating the computer hardware in year two. If the OLPC XO 1.5 had been ready last Christmas, along with the improved distribution system, it might have sold much better.

8. Sugar was not a bad idea. It just would have helped if Sugar 1.5 had incorporated some standard features, such as a file management system along side of the “journal” approach, that would let grownups use it for real work.

9. It's still a great conversation piece. I carried one through an airport the first year, and had people come up to me, ranging from the grandmother of a child who had been a tester in a University of Maryland Lab, to a designer who worked with Yves Béhar of fuseproject, which designed much of the XO's hardware, but had not seen the final version in action.

I am eager to see what happens next!

Another mistake was that they tried to equip kids as if they are all programmers. The programmer kids need the least help. They will find parts of 3 old PC's and put them together and install Ubuntu and program up a storm. The kids who need help are the other 90% who are going to be doctors, artists, business people who all have an I-T burden because of our modern world. So equipping these kids with email, a modern Web browser, an audio video player, and IM is more important than making the C language available to them. In other words, it should be more “one smart phone per child”. Communication, reading, writing, publishing are the important functions, the same as ever, just now with a digital component. Programming is just one of the things you do with a computer.

Grousing about Windows is hilarious because XP would have not run on the machine with any kind of usability. It had a Geode processor in it.

The moral of the story is that real philanthropists fail. It's much better for the starving children in the third world to be supported by Monsanto.

trey, if anything is idiotic, it is your failure to recognize that Nate's point on Windows is legitimate! Netbooks themselves would not have taken off at the rate that they have had it not been for Windows XP(or, more accurately, Microsoft's fear that they would lose market-share to Linux).

Arguments can be made either way but, personally, I would have rather seen Windows! The user-base is too large to ignore!

They designed OLPC to be closed system by SW and HW to avoid others to steal it from kids and use it for other then educational purposes.

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Their HW is great, but it is secondary for the goals .

Now that cheap ARM netbooks are comming from China, they can make Sugar an application.

Another issue are the business interests of american government.
After all, if USA doesn t do OLPC right, maybe Chinese will !