Have $400 burning a hole in your pocket and want to pick up one of the most innovative mini-laptops around? OLPC is reviving its buy one give one program this year which allows folks in developed countries to pay for two XO laptops and take one home while the other is donated to a child in a developing nation.
As previously reported, the group has partnered with Amazon this year to make the sales process a bit smoother than last year. Now Laptop Magazine has confirmed the start date for the promotion: November 17th.
The good news is that you can order an XO in time for the holidays. The bad news is that if you were holding out hope of getting a unit that could dual boot Windows XP and the Sugar OS, it looks like you’re out of luck. Amazon will not be selling Windows XP versions. OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte says the group is thinking about making a different type of dual boot system available though. It’s possible that you’ll be able to pick up an XO laptop which boots Sugar OS and a more traditional Linux distribution.
I wonder when the new OLPC machines will hit (if at all); I don’t see buying another XO right now at $400 (knock down the price, let’s see the volume go up!), but I might at that for a dual-touch-screen machine like they’ve showed off as a future vision.
timothy