4 ms·

OLPC’s $100 laptop was going to change the world – then it all went wrong (2018)

12 points by rmason 6y ago

rektide 6y ago
$100 laptop back then was absurdly absurdly cheap. still is! but much more so then. OLPC is still the most innovative, learnable, interseting attempt at creating a computing environment I've ever seen. a journal keeping track of what you did, so you could revisit. cross-laptop applications using mesh networking technologies to communicate & share computing spaces. the OS wasn't all built alone in a lab somewhere. it took the best technologies of the day, took what already was making linux desktop as great as it was (dbus), and ran with it (xmpp-salut link-local messaging as a transport for dbus). i've never seen a team be 1/10th as aware of the computing environment, of what the alpha geeks are doing, and they did a brilliant job taking those pieces to forge something incredibly interesting & promising for young educational users. huge respect to OLPC.
- rbanffy 6y ago
  Even though it failed its ambitious goals, it still changed the world. The fear it instilled in mainstream PC makers created the netbook segment. Of course, they never were as innovative as the XO. I hope someday we try to do it again.
  - emteycz 6y ago
    Yeah! Today there are $35 computers with 4 cores and 8GB RAM... That were top high end computers back then! It should be done, the premise hasn't changed.
    - kencausey 6y ago
      Please correct me if I'm wrong, but today's $35 computers are missing both input and output devices (keyboard, mouse/touchpad, monitor). These are not without cost.
      - atatatat 6y ago
        $65-$110 roughly.
        imtringued 6y ago
        We don't know how much it costs but we advertise it as $35.
      - emteycz 6y ago
        Isn't there enough of these dumped? At least keyboards and mice, if not older LCDs.
newsbinator 6y ago
> If you remember the OLPC at all, you probably remember the hand crank. It was OLPC’s most striking technological innovation — and it was pure vaporware. Designers dropped the feature almost immediately after Negroponte’s announcement, because the winding process put stress on the laptop’s body and demanded energy that kids in very poor areas couldn’t spare. Every OLPC computer shipped with a standard power adapter. I think kids everywhere have the energy to turn a hand crank. I mean they usually have the energy to play football. Very malnourished kids who can't turn a handcrank probably don't have the mental clarity to use a laptop for long either. Maybe if the mechanically-cranked power system were separate from the laptop body it could have worked better?
- emrah 6y ago
  > Maybe if the mechanically-cranked power system were separate from the laptop body it could have worked better? That makes a lot of sense but perhaps that would have been much more expensive than including a COTS power adapter.
  - m-p-3 6y ago
    Offer it as an optional add-on, and those who really needs it at least have the option. And maybe some solar panels would be cheaper now?
- Nextgrid 6y ago
  I can't imagine a hand-crank actually providing enough energy to power a laptop for any practical period of time?
  - imtringued 6y ago
    Incinerating the food probably generates more useful energy than eating it and turning a hand crank.
redis_mlc 6y ago
The OLPC was junk from the get go - shitty mono screen, not compatible with Windows - an ivory toy born of elitist ideas. I knew it was doomed from the start, especially with a unique OS that required thousands of programmers to donate apps for free to make it useful. Anybody in the industry who saw it thought, "What a POS. Hope it doesn't get stolen." The OLPC was the Theranos of its day.
watersb 6y ago
We had two of these OLPCs for a while. I'm very glad I was able to play with them. There were many remarkable innovations in the system, but the most striking to me was the mesh WiFi. The kids took these up to the family ranch for a bit. Our one internet connection was in the house down by the pond; the main old ranch house didn't have it. But an OLPC up at the big house could always get a strong "wifi" connection, as long as the other OLPC unit was down at the pond. Up to 1km. (Not strictly 802.11, was an additional spec, but it just worked.)

12 points by rmason 6y ago

$100 laptop back then was absurdly absurdly cheap. still is! but much more so then. OLPC is still the most innovative, learnable, interseting attempt at creating a computing environment I've ever seen. a journal keeping track of what you did, so you could revisit. cross-laptop applications using mesh networking technologies to communicate & share computing spaces. the OS wasn't all built alone in a lab somewhere. it took the best technologies of the day, took what already was making linux desktop as great as it was (dbus), and ran with it (xmpp-salut link-local messaging as a transport for dbus). i've never seen a team be 1/10th as aware of the computing environment, of what the alpha geeks are doing, and they did a brilliant job taking those pieces to forge something incredibly interesting & promising for young educational users. huge respect to OLPC.

rbanffy 6y ago
Even though it failed its ambitious goals, it still changed the world. The fear it instilled in mainstream PC makers created the netbook segment. Of course, they never were as innovative as the XO. I hope someday we try to do it again.
- emteycz 6y ago
  Yeah! Today there are $35 computers with 4 cores and 8GB RAM... That were top high end computers back then! It should be done, the premise hasn't changed.
  - kencausey 6y ago
    Please correct me if I'm wrong, but today's $35 computers are missing both input and output devices (keyboard, mouse/touchpad, monitor). These are not without cost.
    - atatatat 6y ago
      $65-$110 roughly.
      - imtringued 6y ago
        We don't know how much it costs but we advertise it as $35.
    - emteycz 6y ago
      Isn't there enough of these dumped? At least keyboards and mice, if not older LCDs.

newsbinator 6y ago

> If you remember the OLPC at all, you probably remember the hand crank. It was OLPC’s most striking technological innovation — and it was pure vaporware. Designers dropped the feature almost immediately after Negroponte’s announcement, because the winding process put stress on the laptop’s body and demanded energy that kids in very poor areas couldn’t spare. Every OLPC computer shipped with a standard power adapter. I think kids everywhere have the energy to turn a hand crank. I mean they usually have the energy to play football. Very malnourished kids who can't turn a handcrank probably don't have the mental clarity to use a laptop for long either. Maybe if the mechanically-cranked power system were separate from the laptop body it could have worked better?

emrah 6y ago
> Maybe if the mechanically-cranked power system were separate from the laptop body it could have worked better? That makes a lot of sense but perhaps that would have been much more expensive than including a COTS power adapter.
- m-p-3 6y ago
  Offer it as an optional add-on, and those who really needs it at least have the option. And maybe some solar panels would be cheaper now?
Nextgrid 6y ago
I can't imagine a hand-crank actually providing enough energy to power a laptop for any practical period of time?
- imtringued 6y ago
  Incinerating the food probably generates more useful energy than eating it and turning a hand crank.

redis_mlc 6y ago

The OLPC was junk from the get go - shitty mono screen, not compatible with Windows - an ivory toy born of elitist ideas. I knew it was doomed from the start, especially with a unique OS that required thousands of programmers to donate apps for free to make it useful. Anybody in the industry who saw it thought, "What a POS. Hope it doesn't get stolen." The OLPC was the Theranos of its day.

watersb 6y ago

We had two of these OLPCs for a while. I'm very glad I was able to play with them. There were many remarkable innovations in the system, but the most striking to me was the mesh WiFi. The kids took these up to the family ranch for a bit. Our one internet connection was in the house down by the pond; the main old ranch house didn't have it. But an OLPC up at the big house could always get a strong "wifi" connection, as long as the other OLPC unit was down at the pond. Up to 1km. (Not strictly 802.11, was an additional spec, but it just worked.)