OLPC xo laptop

[sje]

I signed up for the get one/give one notification program but later decided against the purchase, in part because of a late realization that the keyboard is just too small for me.

The XO laptop is in danger of being obsoleted by the new and upcoming low cost notebooks from several sources. I read earlier today that XO head Negroponte is leaving the project after having too many managerial headaches. That may be useful, but it's a bit late in coming.

The XO has suffered from near fatal feature creep along with over optimistic software development schedules. The correct way of doing the XO would have been to get the hardware working, but ship with only a simple book reader and the basic wireless mesh drivers. That would have had the laptops in the hands of needy children for a year or two and doing a lot of good while the rest of the software would be delivered later as an update.

It's also somewhat annoying that the XO guys have badmouthed the Dvorak keyboard layout. The XO would have been a great way of introducing millions of folk to rational typing instead of the 19th century Sholes/QWERTY layout.