Martijn @ opensource

Finally... It only took them a year or so. The OLPC's Give-One-Get-One project is coming to Europe. Let me introduce the OLPC project for the people who have been sleeping in a cave for the last two years.

The OLPC project, also known as the "One Laptop Per Child" project is a collaboration between several hard- and software companies with the common goal of building a $100 laptop which will be sold/donated to third-world countries in order to help education... that's it in a nutshell.

The hardware specs can be found here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OLPC_XO-1#Hardware. It runs on a customized version of Linux (Fedora GNU/Linux) and is designed with minimal power consumption, minimal production cost, a "cool" look, e-book functionality and it aims to be open source! Excellent!

A while back a second project was started, the Give-One-Get-One project, G1G1. Basically, you with your western-world-good-paying-job buys two of those laptops, you get one and a young little African boy/girl gets one to help his/her education. A year ago I thought this was a great idea, I was planning on participating in the project too! Unfortunately the laptop wasn't directly available in Europe. There were ways to get it, but I'm the kind of person that would like to be able to use the warranty if it might break. So it would've been a hassle ordering it from the US.

Recently the news came that the G1G1 project was coming to Europe. In my opinion? Too fucking late guys... Don't get me wrong, I think it's a beautiful initiative. Although the concept has had it's struggles, it still is a good cause to join!

On the other hand I think people will not be eager to get that thing, I mean... the hardware is probably outdated and for the price of $400, that's around € 316, I can get a way more up-to-date netbook. So why would I spend more money to get a lesser gadget? To help a good cause, of course... the best reason I can come up with.

Yet I'm not jumping of joy, nor am I almost pissing my pants of excitement. I'm still thinking if I should get it, my heart says I should join the good people that have supported the OLPC project. My technical-minded brain says I should buy a laptop that will not be collecting dust because it's not up to my standards...

I'm not a marketing guy, and I know jack shit about building concepts... What I do know is that I'm a person that belongs to the general public (at least, those with technical interest), and the general public is the consumers group the OLPC guys are aiming at with this G1G1 project in my point of view.

The netbooks of this day are more powerfull, look better and run Windows Xp, which is easier for most people that want to buy one. I have a feeling these modern-day netbooks aren't helping the sales of the G1G1 project, it's a shame...