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A much better starting point would be to make laptops able to be as easily repaired as a normal PC.

azinman2 5y ago
PCs at the time were much more expensive, ran closed source Windows (versus open sourced Linux of OLPC), weren’t good ebook readers given their screen technologies, didn’t have mesh networking technologies, and a whole host of other things that made the OLPC far more interesting and hypothetically relevant to the problem they were trying to solve.
- Inhibit 5y ago
  Having owned a range of second hand junk laptops at the time I assure you they ran Linux just fine. As did new machines. The rest is true enough and I'd add that there wasn't anything nearly as rugged at the price (used Toughbooks, or that style, were more expensive).
  - azinman2 5y ago
    There wasn’t anything at the price.
    - erwincoumans 5y ago
      I vaguely recall Intel had some rugged convertible Classmate PC. It was sturdy and the price was reasonable but its performance was bad (like most netbooks).
      - azinman2 5y ago
        It was well over double the price of OLPC, and had different functionality.
        erwincoumans 5y ago
        Yes, I was referring to a rugged (child proof) laptop. I think I got mine around 500 USD, not cheap, but cheaper than the Thoughbook. Hence my reply.
      - cjbprime 5y ago
        Yes, but the Classmate was created in response to the OLPC laptop. From its Wikipedia page: > The Classmate PC represents Intel's competitive response to the OLPC XO, whose unusually low prices and use of AMD chips threatened to steal market share from Intel and other major manufacturers.
ferdowsi 5y ago
iPhone internals are difficult to repair, but they make up for it with reliability. If OLPC had hit that target they could have been successful but it was basically not achievable for a mid-2000s laptop.
- Gigachad 5y ago
  The iphone isn't actually that hard to repair. If you have the parts and the tools, almost all the parts can be replaced pretty quickly. The problem is a lot of the parts that tend to fail like a screen replacement or water damage to the main board cost as much in parts as the phone is worth. Which in a way makes sense because the screen and main board make up pretty much all the value of the phone. The nice thing is they have come a very long way in terms of battery replacements. You can get it done by apple for quite cheap and soon you will be able to buy the battery officially. But improving phone repairability wouldn't really do much for poor communities because it is more economical for them to just buy one of the dirt cheap working phones on the second hand market. You would never bother to fix an iphone 5 for example when you can get another working one for almost free.
  - noizejoy 5y ago
    > The problem is a lot of the parts that tend to fail like a screen replacement or water damage to the main board cost as much in parts as the phone is worth. The problem is a lot of the parts that tend to fail like a $part cost as much in parts as the $device is worth. A general problem leading to too much stuff into garbage. Anyone coming up with a beneficial solution to this general problem might just win themselves a Nobel Prize.
  - ClumsyPilot 5y ago
    The 'problem' is that Apple forbids their suppliers from selling any parts to consumers or repairmen in order to charge exorbitant sums. And if you do find alternative parts and offer repair services to the public they prosecute you and destroy your life https://repair.eu/news/apple-crushes-one-man-repair-shop/ https://repair.eu/news/apple-crushes-one-man-repair-shop/

PCs at the time were much more expensive, ran closed source Windows (versus open sourced Linux of OLPC), weren’t good ebook readers given their screen technologies, didn’t have mesh networking technologies, and a whole host of other things that made the OLPC far more interesting and hypothetically relevant to the problem they were trying to solve.

Inhibit 5y ago
Having owned a range of second hand junk laptops at the time I assure you they ran Linux just fine. As did new machines. The rest is true enough and I'd add that there wasn't anything nearly as rugged at the price (used Toughbooks, or that style, were more expensive).
- azinman2 5y ago
  There wasn’t anything at the price.
  - erwincoumans 5y ago
    I vaguely recall Intel had some rugged convertible Classmate PC. It was sturdy and the price was reasonable but its performance was bad (like most netbooks).
    - azinman2 5y ago
      It was well over double the price of OLPC, and had different functionality.
      - erwincoumans 5y ago
        Yes, I was referring to a rugged (child proof) laptop. I think I got mine around 500 USD, not cheap, but cheaper than the Thoughbook. Hence my reply.
    - cjbprime 5y ago
      Yes, but the Classmate was created in response to the OLPC laptop. From its Wikipedia page: > The Classmate PC represents Intel's competitive response to the OLPC XO, whose unusually low prices and use of AMD chips threatened to steal market share from Intel and other major manufacturers.

ferdowsi 5y ago

iPhone internals are difficult to repair, but they make up for it with reliability. If OLPC had hit that target they could have been successful but it was basically not achievable for a mid-2000s laptop.

Gigachad 5y ago
The iphone isn't actually that hard to repair. If you have the parts and the tools, almost all the parts can be replaced pretty quickly. The problem is a lot of the parts that tend to fail like a screen replacement or water damage to the main board cost as much in parts as the phone is worth. Which in a way makes sense because the screen and main board make up pretty much all the value of the phone. The nice thing is they have come a very long way in terms of battery replacements. You can get it done by apple for quite cheap and soon you will be able to buy the battery officially. But improving phone repairability wouldn't really do much for poor communities because it is more economical for them to just buy one of the dirt cheap working phones on the second hand market. You would never bother to fix an iphone 5 for example when you can get another working one for almost free.
- noizejoy 5y ago
  > The problem is a lot of the parts that tend to fail like a screen replacement or water damage to the main board cost as much in parts as the phone is worth. The problem is a lot of the parts that tend to fail like a $part cost as much in parts as the $device is worth. A general problem leading to too much stuff into garbage. Anyone coming up with a beneficial solution to this general problem might just win themselves a Nobel Prize.
- ClumsyPilot 5y ago
  The 'problem' is that Apple forbids their suppliers from selling any parts to consumers or repairmen in order to charge exorbitant sums. And if you do find alternative parts and offer repair services to the public they prosecute you and destroy your life https://repair.eu/news/apple-crushes-one-man-repair-shop/ https://repair.eu/news/apple-crushes-one-man-repair-shop/