The OLPC program just got a lot more mainstream, with word that Amazon will start selling the XO Laptop starting in November. It’ll be sold as part of the “Give One, Get One” program, meaning that for every XO Laptop you buy, one lucky youngster in a developing country will get one, too. (You’re actually paying for two laptops.) You’re doing charitable work with literally zero extra effort on your part.
What’s sorta weird is that the sales are currently only scheduled to continue through the end of December. Guess they’re counting on people’s Christmas Cheer, and rampant credit card debt, to help out the OLPC program. Nothing wrong with that, I guess.
In other OLPC news, it looks like a version of the XO Laptop that ships with, and dual boots into, Linux and Windows XP, is scheduled to ship in the next month (or so). That’s what an OLPC rep has said, adding that the new dual boot XO Laptop should help speed adoption rates around the world.
Well its for charity so thats good.
“As it has been reported, One Laptop per Child will sell its XO Laptop on Amazon.com later this year as part of a global ‘Give One, Get One’ (G1,G1) program. Although the first iteration of the ‘G1,G1′ program was extremely successful and sold more then 185,000 laptops, the delivery of the laptops in the USA did not run as smoothly as we anticipated. Selling the laptops on Amazon.com will provide us with the resources to process and ship the laptops globally in a timely fashion.
In addition, contrary to some media reports, it will be a Linux-based XO Laptop that will be offered as part of the global initiative and not a dual-boot machine running both Windows and Linux.”