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OLPC’s $100 laptop was going to change the world

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235 points ChrisArchitect | 1 comments | 16 Apr 18 14:55 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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dingo_bat ◴[16 Apr 18 16:05 UTC] No.16849980[source]▶
The real reason why OLPC failed is that children in downtrodden countries don't need a laptop. They need food, a healthy environment, good old fashioned classroom education and plenty of pens and notebooks. A laptop is the worst tool you can use for studying.

I went through my entire school and undergraduate college without once bringing my laptop into the classroom. My mother and father learned to program in FORTRAN using nothing but pen, paper and the occasional slide rule.

Paper books, decent sized notebooks and ballpoint pens. Spend $100 on that. That will actually help. This whole project was solving a first world problem in the third world.

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mjw1007 ◴[16 Apr 18 17:25 UTC] No.16850842[source]▶
Paper books are expensive to print, warehouse, and ship.

If someone could make a robust laptop for $100 I could easily believe in it being a net gain, even if it was only ever used for reading textbooks.

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dingo_bat ◴[16 Apr 18 17:34 UTC] No.16850931[source]▶
No. Paper books for schoolchildren are extremely cheap[0]. They work without power. They work even after getting a bit wet. They work even if you sit on them. You can highlight and underline stuff on the pages. You can share it easily. You can even take small notes on the books. You can do exercises right on the book. You can take photocopies easily. There is simply no competition.

[0] https://www.amazon.in/Books-NCERT/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=n%3A97...

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1. avhon1 ◴[16 Apr 18 18:25 UTC] No.16851438{3}[source]▶
The OLPC has most of the characteristics you ascribe to books:

* it works even after getting a bit wet

* it works even if I sit on it (caveat: the hinge will definitely snap if I sit on the screen while it is open)

* I highlight, underline, and annotate documents with it

* I can do useful work in it. (As an example, I made [0] on one of my OLPC XO-1 laptops. I also developed a patch for ico [1] on the same laptop.)

* I can easily copy and share my work or other people's work with it.

(If you want, I can post some videos to defend this. The OLPC is a really well-designed piece of hardware, and too few people have gotten to experience it.)

[0] http://bloominglabs.org/index.php/Logo#Animated_Logo

[1] https://linux.die.net/man/1/ico