My XO sour graping

Filed in archive News on December 30, 2007

The Give One, Get One program of the One-Laptop-Per-Child (OLPC) is about to end tomorrow and I have yet to get my hands on one.



My main contention is WHY is it only available in North America? I mean, I may be living in a developing country (aka third world) but there are some people here who can afford to buy one and give one to a child here. Why can't the OLPC devise a way to let those who can afford buying one from the Philippines to give one to a child in the same country? I know that the program prefers hooking up with national governments but at the rate things are going here in the Philippines, I highly doubt if Microsoft will allow a Linux-running XO laptop to invade its turf via the gov't route. Oh well.



After reading Michael Tiemann's blog about how his 9-year old were able to tweak an application, I figured that this can be extended to other Linux distributions such as Edubuntu. Or even better, maybe the OLPC can also help get Scott McNealy's Curriki to be integrated with the program - at least for the teachers. Kids will teach the teachers on how to use the XO but teachers need to integrate the technology with their curriculum.

Well, these are all because I envy those who already have an XO Laptop! Hahaha. I wish that we can get the XO's Mesh Networking to work with other Linux distributions, too. This will be a great addition to Edubuntu or to the Xandros Linux for Eee PC.

Image from Flickr:ChristopherBlizzard.