I seem to remember around 2007 there were several netbook manufactures who were just getting started calling out the OLPC as the direct inspiration for creating

I seem to remember around 2007 there were several netbook manufactures who were just getting started calling out the OLPC as the direct inspiration for creating the market segment in the first place. Meanwhile, that article describes Intel's device as having a better CPU, but half the screen rez, 1/5 the battery life and costing hopefully only a bit more than twice as much two years later. The OLPC hardware was very low-spec. But, it was a brilliant design for being so low spec. It's UI was considered alien at the time. But, today the app-based, fileless approach has been proven out by the tablet market to be much better for the mainstream, non-hardcore user. It's unfortunate they insisted on running so much in Python on such a tiny CPU. I understand that they really wanted view/modify source as standard for the kids. But, the only language I could see that working out well at the time would have been Lua --which doesn't have nearly as much clout as Python even today. In my outside observation, OLPC was mostly tanked by politicians declaring that "If our kids can't use it to learn Microsoft Office, I don't want it even for free." There were a multitude of issues. But, that one really cut off the investment that could have overcome them.