One of the most ambitious non-governmental aid projects is the One Laptop Per Child project, which had started life as a notion of putting rugged, simple computers worth $100 into the hands of Third-World countries.
The project is on track, more or less, although this sub-compact computer is now called the XO Laptop and the cost is $188 (U.S.), with hopes to drive it down to the original $100 over the next year.
Launched at the beginning of the month, it is being sold in an interesting campaign: People who want to participate (in the program called Buy One, Give One) will pay $399 for two of these machines, one of which will be sent to a Third World country, and the other to keep. The offer lasts only until Monday, Nov. 26. It should be an effective way to get people to participate and kick-start the program.
Canadians can get it from the One Laptop Per Child organization, or call 1-877-70-LAPTOP (1-877-705-2786) to order the unit over the phone; the Canadian partner in the program is Nortel.
Another interesting thing is that the Quanta Computer, the XO Laptop’s contract manufacturer, believes it could ship 5 million to 10 million units to countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Libya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Thailand and Uruguay.
This is a staggering figure. If the OLPC people can reach that goal, it will have one colossal impact outside of the Third World: The future of Linux.
The XO Laptop runs a variant of Red Hat Linux. Put that in 10 million machines, say, and Microsoft should start sweating. Redmond will, of course, emphasize that it is not competing with the OLPC project, but when 10 million kids grow up with Linux, their future purchases will certainly be coloured by what they grew up with.
