I got my XO from the One Laptop Per Child project yesterday. It is incredibly cute, but the keyboard is going to drive me crazy fairly soon. It’s too small to touch-type on for me, so I am using two fingers, a technique I thought I’d abandoned years ago.
I’m really impressed with its WiFi – it sees (and connects to) networks that my other computers don’t show at all. I need to upgrade the OS so it will automatically connect to my home network – I’ve been using an open network with a cryptic name, probably not the smartest idea for the long run.
The only real problem I’ve had with it is using Twitter; when i type into the posting box, the display lags many seconds behind. I guess it’s due to the keystroke-deriven Javascript, but that’s just a guess. I’m certainly not seeing any delay typing this posting into WordPress’s browser interface.
I can see how a box like this can make a difference in a child’s life. I’m glad I signed up; I’m not quite sure what I’m gonna do with this one in the long run, though.
I’m green with envy (and impatient: I also ordered one, that once upon a time, I hoped to have with me on Christmas). You may want to use twitter from http://m.twitter.com/home or just from gmail/IM. And, of course, follow @OLPC :-)
I’m not sure I quite like the precise shade of green of the box itself. :)
Hadn’t thought of using the mobile twitter interface but I’ll give it a shot (I do not need a spare-time programming project of writing a native client. I do not need a spare-time project of ANY kind). And thanks for the pointer to @OLPC.
Still waiting for mine to arrive, when did you order yours?
I’ve read that it has a better antenna than most “normal” laptops, hence the better reception.
Can you use a USB keyboard with it? I assume it doesn’t have Bluetooth.
There’s a few terminal based twitter clients, relying on lynx and Perl.
I ordered mine on November 15th, so it took just under 2 months to arrive. Which is better than some internal orders for laptops of about the same computing power, back in the day.
The “rabbit-ears” iconic antenna are definitely better than standard laptop antenna — and optimizing the networking capability makes a lot of sense for the target population.
No Bluetooth, but it should use a USB keyboard. I just don’t happen to have any spare USB keyboards. I do have some spare PS/2 keyboards at home, but for some reason, the OLPC folks omitted the PS/2 port.
Ok, I ordered mine mid-December so it’ll probably arrive late January or early February.
I wonder if the PS/2 to USB dongles would work with it?
I’d be impressed if a dongle worked with it — I’ve had very poor results with the dongles with other computers.