[TriLUG] Buy 1 Get 1 Free OLPC / XO

[Tom Eisenmenger]

I know this is an old, forgotten post (see below - frankly, I don't know how
I missed it).  At any rate, I just came across this news item:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/24/business/worldbusiness/24laptop.html?_r=2&
ref=technology&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

In a nutshell, the OLPC Project is offering American and Canadian consumers
a "Buy 1, Get 1 Free" opportunity.  For $399, you can buy an XO which will
be delivered by Christmas 2007 and another XO will be shipped to a child in
a developing nation.

Is this something Trilug could take on as a community project?  I know that
most of us don't have deep pockets (I've got two in college myself) but it
might be worthwhile.  We could either use our own machines to help the
development effort, or we could "adopt" an underperforming school in the
area that's open to the idea of using OSS machines.  

Sadly, the window of opportunity is narrow and almost upon us - the OLPC
must receive orders between Nov. 15 and Nov. 26 so this might just not be
possible but I thought I'd toss out the idea anyway.

-- Tom Eisenmenger

-----Original Message-----
From: trilug-bounces at trilug.org [mailto:trilug-bounces at trilug.org] On Behalf
Of Tanner Lovelace
Sent: Friday, August 10, 2007 3:50 PM
To: Triangle Linux Users Group discussion list
Subject: [TriLUG] One Laptop Per Child, Reviewed by 12-Year-Old

Interesting article on Ed Felten's blog this afternoon:

One Laptop Per Child, Reviewed by 12-Year-Old
http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=1187

Short synopsis as I read it: The hardware is great, but
could use a bit more battery power.  The software,
however, needs some work.  To quote from the article:

"My main problem with this laptop is how very slow
it is. It's true that I am used to faster computers, but
that's not the problem. It's just really slow. I had to
wait two minutes to get onto one application. That's
just a little longer than I can accept."

So, on a similar subject, we've had a "Sugar Hackfest"
on the wiki for a long time with no date. (For those that
don't know what "Sugar" is, it's the software inside the
OLPC.)  Is that something the LUG would be interested
in?  Should we actually pursue that or just remove it from
the wiki?

Cheers,
Tanner
-- 
Tanner Lovelace
clubjuggler at gmail dot com
http://wtl.wayfarer.org/
(fieldless) In fess two roundels in pale, a billet fesswise and an
increscent, all sable.
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