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One Laptop Per Chip Unveils Give One, Get One Campaign.

Category: Mobile

by Anton Shilov

[ 09/24/2007 | 11:11 PM ]

The ambitious “One laptop per child” (OLPC) program has reached a new stage, when the non-profit organization can begin to ship laptops to those who need them. However, many countries potentially interested may be reluctant to get something they are unsure about. In order to give those states a try for free, the OLPC organization kicked off Give 1 Get 1 Program.

Starting November 12, the non-profit org will be offering a Give 1 Get 1 Program for a brief window of time. For $399, end-users in the U.S. will be purchasing two XO laptops – one that will be sent to empower a child to learn in a developing nation, and one that will be sent to them. In addition, end-users will be able to donate $200 or more to the organization in order to get a laptop or two to children in developing countries.

“The real reason is to get this thing started. If, for example, donations reached $40 million, that would mean 100 thousand laptops could be distributed free in the developing world. The idea would be to give, perhaps, 5000 machines to 20 countries to try out and get started. It could trigger a lot of things,” said Nicholas Negroponte, founder and chairman of One Laptop Per Child, in an interview with the New York Times.

Currently it is unclear what users of Apple Mac OS or Microsoft Windows could do with the XO laptop by OLPC that uses a custom Linux operating system and hardly offers performance expected from a personal computer nowadays. Still, according to NYT, some children in the U.S. had found the XO laptop useful. 

Current OLPC XO laptop features AMD Geode LX-700 processor with 433MHz clock-speed and built-in graphics controller, 256MB of PC-2100 (DDR 266MHz) memory, 1GB NAND flash that substitutes hard disk drive, 7.5” screen with 1200x900 resolution, wireless and wired network adapters as well as integrated webcam, microphone, speakers and so on.