After grumbling in solitude

[unless_spring]

... for the last few weeks, I got a chance to try XO out the way $deities intended it to be used: networked with other XOs at an Austin Linux Users Group meeting last Thursday. These capabilities are supposed to make it the coolest laptop known to humankind.

In theory, at least.

Beside me, 2 people brought their XO laptops to the meeting: Mr. The

Comments

Squeezed XO

[raimondas]

I am afraid that with normal PCs such as Asus Eee pushing prices down to below $250 and mobile phones/pdas pushing capabilities up in the $50-100+ range, the OLPC is doomed to be a tech curio rather than revolutionary innovation.

If you want very limited capabilities, you can always get a phone/pda. If you want to be somewhat power user, you can get Eee or similar. And both of those opportunities will become much better fast due to market pressure. Indian and Chinese companies are working on other cheap PC/PDA/tablet combos. Free market for the win. :)

Why would anyone get OLPC in this situation? Apparently even some bureaucracies that are interested in it are smart enough to run test trials first. :) We'll see the results.