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The One Laptop Per Child operating system is now available for free downloading for "any" PC or Netbook, according to its maker.

The XO-1 user interface

(Credit: Sugar Labs)

Sugar Labs, responsible for building the low-cost device's XO-1 operating system, released it online last week for loading onto any USB flash drive greater than 1GB.

Called "Sugar on a Stick v1," Sugar Labs hopes it will help spread the use of the OS in classrooms, without the need for the OLPC machine.

An IDC analyst said earlier this year that the OS would be one of the OLPC's more attractive aspects that vendors would be interested in copying for the Netbook market.

It is based on the Fedora Linux kernel and can be booted from the USB stick without needing to be installed over the hard drive's existing OS.

According to Sugar Labs, its OS is used by almost a million students ages 5 to 12 in some 40 countries. Its social-oriented interface recognizes other Sugar-based PCs around it and interacts with them without the need for Internet connection.

Sugar Labs was spun off a year ago after Walter Bender, now its executive director, left the OLPC initiative to start the nonprofit spinoff.

Victoria Ho of ZDNet Asia reported from London.

Specifically marketed with kids in mind, PeeWee PC is a site that offers not only kid-friendly PCs, but also laptops customized for your ever-growing child.

On Wednesday, PeeWee PC is rolling out the Atom-powered PeeWee Pivot Tablet Laptop. The 3-pound PeeWee Pivot Tablet Laptop--which is more of a tablet Netbook than a laptop--sports a rotating screen that converts between a normal notebook orientation and a touch tablet.

(Credit: PeeWee PC)

Kids can use either a keyboard or an included stylus to interact with their favorite programs or games. The unit features a rugged, spill-resistant case that's designed to endure the bumps and knocks the younger generation has to offer. So, parents, when your child goes into a temper tantrum and flings the machine around, you might be knocked on your a**, but know that your investment has sustained the fall from your head to the floor.

Kidding aside, the PeeWee Pivot Tablet Laptop runs Windows XP on a 10-inch screen, 1.6GHz Atom processor, 1GB of RAM (upgradeable to 2GB) and a 60GB hard drive. In addition, the tablet has two USB 2.0 ports, an SD/MMC media card reader, a VGA port, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, and a 1.3-megapixel Webcam. Reminiscent of Intel's Classmate PC in 2007, the Pivot Tablet has a carrying handle that's removed by taking out the battery and then removing the four screws that affix the handle.

The PeeWee Tablet Laptop ships with game titles for pre-K, early elementary, or upper elementary students, plus a free Walt Disney Windows XP theme, and a proprietary security suite so parents have complete control of how and when kids use the notebook--parents can also view browsing histories, block sites, take screenshots, and control the system remotely.

The One Laptop per Child initiative seems to have found that imitation isn't simply a form of flattery, it's grounds for a new business model.

Speaking at the TED 2009 conference, OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte said that the future of the initiative--which set out to put simple, durable, low-cost laptops in the hands of schoolchildren in developing nations--is to become, in essence, more commonplace, to "build something that everyone copies," according to Ethan Zuckerman, blogging from TED.

Bold colors were a key part of the original OLPC design.

(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET News)

That copying has already begun, Negroponte said, pointing to the surging popularity in recent months of Netbooks--laptops built by a range of commercial PC makers with a focus on low cost and simplicity of design. "They didn't copy the right things from us, but they exist," Negroponte said, per Zuckerman. "We had to build the first laptop because no one else would do it."

In the early days of the OLPC, the group's design became famous as the "$100 laptop"--after the target price set for the device--but over time, the price crept up to nearly double that level; the $100 price tag would have to wait for economies of scale that proved elusive. Meanwhile, even before the advent of Netbooks, the price of higher-end laptops kept dropping.

Given the pressure from commercial markets--"It's sort of a tragedy"--Negroponte said that the OLPC would release and open-source its hardware design and invite others to copy it, according to Zuckerman. Within three years, Negroponte expects companies around the world to be cranking out some 5 million to 6 million such machines every month, compared with about a half-million OLPC machines now in use.

Last May, as the OLPC sought broader acceptance--and five months after Bill Gates told CNET News that the "OLPC hasn't done that well"--the group said that it would be working with Microsoft to make a Windows variety of its XO laptop, in addition to the original Linux model.

One month ago, amid harsh economic conditions, the OLPC announced that it would be cutting its workforce by 50 percent and cutting salaries for remaining employees. It also said it would hand off development of its Sugar operating system to the open-source community.

The One Laptop per Child initiative's "Give One, Get One" scheme is to come to Europe.

Nicholas Negroponte, founder and chairman of OLPC, told ZDNet UK in an e-mail interview Wednesday that version two of "Give One, Get One" (G1G1) would enable European users to participate in the scheme.

"(The) popularity of G1G1 expanded in the USA," wrote Negroponte. "We are taking G1G1 global this time."

Under the G1G1 scheme, people will be able to purchase an XO laptop, the price of which will also buy and send an XO to a child in a developing country. The scheme ran last year in the U.S. and is due to restart there on November 17. People in the U.S. will be able to purchase the laptops for $399 and donate through Amazon.com.

No official details were available at the time of writing about U.K. cost, availability, or when the scheme will launch in Europe.

Negroponte wrote that technical support for users is still being worked out and that Amazon will not be selling a dual-boot version that runs both Windows and OLPC's open-source Sugar operating system.

"We will not sell the dual-boot," wrote Negroponte. "Microsoft is making that version for the developing world only."

The next stage of the OLPC project will depend on the popularity of the G1G1 scheme, the results of which are due at the end of December, wrote Negroponte. If the results are good, the project will expand to distribute the laptops among displaced people, conflict regions and the 50 poorest countries.

After that, OLPC will "make the laptop available to the rest of the world through a partnership of some sort," wrote Negroponte.

Negroponte added that he believed the price of an OLPC laptop could drop to $75 by 2011, "as long as the dollar does not sink."

Tom Espiner of ZDNet UK reported from London.

Starting on Monday, One Laptop Per Child's XO laptop will be available through the Give One, Get One program again, this time facilitated by Amazon.com.

For $400, the nonprofit low-cost laptop program will send one XO to the purchaser and one to a school-age child in a developing country.

OLPC said in September that it wanted to revive last year's successful program, but didn't have the infrastructure to support the program alone.

Although Microsoft has started making Windows available for the OLPC, that extends only to those in developing markets like Colombia and Peru, not folks taking part in Give One, Get One.

For more about the upcoming Windows XP version of the XO, see the video below.

CNET News' Ina Fried contributed to this report.

The One Laptop Per Child project is bringing back its two-for-one deal on its low-cost laptop.

It has tapped Amazon.com to handle its Give One, Get One program, launched initially last year. Through the program, anyone can pay for two XO laptops; one is shipped to the buyer, and the other is sent to a school kid in a developing nation. It will run from late November to late December this year.

(Credit: OLPC)

An OLPC official told PC World the group is working with Amazon because the nonprofit just doesn't have enough manpower to handle the program.

In other OLPC news, the nonprofit also said that the delayed dual-boot version of the XO should arrive next month. Originally expected in August or September, the delivery date was pushed back.

The device will come loaded with both Windows XP and the Linux-based Sugar operating system created for the XO. The inclusion of XP stemmed from pushback that OLPC got from developing nations that wouldn't buy the laptops for its classrooms without the world's dominant OS on it.

Looking ahead, the XO maker has also said that the next version of the low-cost laptop, the XO-2, will be available beginning in the second quarter of next year. The XO-2 will have a two touch screens, and no keyboard.

Shuttle's custom version of Foresight Linux on the new XP19 monitor.

(Credit: Erica Ogg/CNET News)

Attending LinuxWorld might be a first for us here at Crave. But I did want to head over to the expo, held at the Moscone Center here in San Francisco, to see Shuttle's latest mini desktop, the KPC K4800, live and in person.

Turns out there was more for us to see than we thought--bonus! Along with its just-released $299 mini desktop, Shuttle also had the $199 K4500 on display at the Foresight Linux booth. (Foresight actually created a custom OS just for Shuttle machines.) The KPC 4800 was hooked up to a new display Shuttle is offering.

Bug Labs' Bug Base gets a few updates.

(Credit: Erica Ogg/CNET News)

The Bug Base now has a Web browser.

(Credit: Erica Ogg/CNET News)

The XP19 Monitor is almost iMac-esque with it's picture-frame style support. But the similarities really end there, since it's silver, and of course, just a monitor.

Shuttle says the XP19 is 0.9 inches thick, has a 5-millisecond response time, a 9-millimeter border, and integrated speakers. Also, there will be a tablet version of the XP19 in late October or early November.

Bug Labs was also on hand, showing off a few new updates to its Bug Base gadget platform. The hardware is essentially the same, but the software interface for the Lego-like gadget prototyper has been improved. The device now runs Poky Linux--which is intended for small devices--and now has a Web browser and window environment. The software update, available in either late August or early September, will also support Wi-Fi. Also, we hear the MMCmicro card slot will be switched out in favor of microSD in the next version.

OLPC had a booth in the nonprofit ".org" section of the expo hall, but it was really just showing off the XO. No XOs with XP to be found, unfortunately. But still, there was a steady stream of conference attendees crowding around the tiny green-and-white machines.

Absent was the XO's rival, the Classmate PC from Intel. The chipmaker is currently working on the third-generation version of the low-cost laptop which runs both Linux and Windows XP. And though Intel had a fairly large booth at LinuxWorld, a woman manning it said she hadn't even heard of the Classmate.

A row of XOs at LinuxWorld 2008.

(Credit: Erica Ogg/CNET News)

(Credit: Dell)

The Eee PC launch went so swimmingly, now everyone is jumping into the pool. Dell's looking ready to make a splash with a mini Inspiron netbook, seen in the hands of Michael Dell himself at this week's All Things D conference. (Dell offered virtually no details on the product, except to say it is the "perfect device for the next billion Internet users.") Acer seems to be dipping its toes into the shallow end, with the rumored Aspire One netbook. MSI's Wind mininotebook sat poolside for a photo shoot. And champion swimmer Asus confirmed to CNET UK that the company would release a 10-inch Eee PC at the Computex trade show in June.

Component makers seem ready to take a dip, as well: Chip designer Via Technologies launched a line of Nano processors for netbooks and released its OpenBook MiniNote reference design. Meanwhile, Intel is rumored to be developing a dual-core version of its small-form-factor Atom chip. On the OS side, Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth confirmed that his company will announce a version Ubuntu for ultramobile devices, called Netbook Remix, in the first week of June.

Outside of the pool, CNET Blog Network's Peter Glaskowsky says he's seen the shortcomings of the OLPC XO laptop and thinks the recently announced XO2 design is just all wet.

In other news, a company called DeviceVM announced that its Splashtop instant-on software would be available on five new laptops from Asus; Intel pushed back its Centrino 2 launch until mid-July; Samsung developed a 256GB solid-state drive; and the dissection-happy crew at TechRepublic found another victim in the Alienware Area-51 m15x.

And finally, one German user found an alternate use for his $1,799 MacBook Air: bread knife.

Have a great weekend!

Last week, the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organization announced its new XO-2 laptop design, which will likely replace the XO-1 design I've written about before on this blog. There are images of the XO-2 on the OLPC wiki and a video clip from the announcement on Joanna Stern's blog for Laptop magazine.

The OLPC XO-2 laptop features two touch-screen LCDs with a hinge in between.

(Credit: One Laptop Per Child)

The new design uses two touch-screen LCDs flanking a central hinge. This approach allows the unit to be used as a book with facing pages (shown here), as a conventional laptop using a virtual keyboard on the lower display, or as a single system shared by two users.

This is just a conceptual design so far, and the images are computer-generated, but OLPC announced some goals for the redesign-- smaller overall size (about half that of the XO-1), lower weight, 1W power consumption, and a volume price of just $75 in 2010.

These will be difficult goals to achieve, principally because of the doubling of the display area. The XO-1's display is its most expensive component and probably also its heaviest, most fragile, and most power-hungry. As a result, I think the XO-2 design concept is a little too ambitious in a few specific ways.

First, the bezels around the outside of the displays are too narrow. Although modern PC laptops have aesthetically pleasing narrow bezels, this advantage comes at a significant price in the manufacture of the LCDs-- the driver chips have to be mounted on the back of the display glass and connected by flexible circuits. I don't think the XO-2 price target can be achieved without sacrificing the narrow bezel.

Also, LCD touch screens need to be more heavily built than non-touch screens. This is even more true when they're meant to be used by young children, who may use much more force than necessary and may not keep their fingers clean. The XO-2's "keyboard" screen had better be almost bulletproof... and that means more size and weight.

The thin, light, small-outline enclosure also impairs ruggedness. A system intended for use by young children in austere conditions needs to be more heavily built. For example, thin case halves mean thin hinges. Though thin hinges can be strong enough when made with heavy or expensive materials, that solution conflicts with the XO-2's weight and price targets.

The 1W power-consumption target will be especially difficult to hit. The XO-1's LCD consumes about that much power all by itself, and at least twice that with the backlight on. If the OLPC folks mean that the 1W figure is for outdoor e-book reading (CPU idle, backlight off, no network activity), they ought to say that. Giving that figure along with images of brightly backlit displays is misleading at best. (And the color in the simulated images is much better than that available from the XO-1's relatively washed-out display.)

Also, the OLPC people talk about Windows compatibility-- Windows XP, at least-- and it's unlikely there will be any Windows XP-compatible hardware platform capable of achieving a 1W average power consumption figure in 2010... never mind the 1/4W or less that would be available to the processor and chipset with two LCDs running (even without the backlight).

The XO-2 could be based on some cellphone-like chipset, but that would sacrifice Windows XP compatibility. And if there is an XP-capable low-power chipset on the market by 2010, it's likely that it will also be used in more traditional laptops and mobile Internet devices. Similarly, the technology behind the XO-1's LCD is likely to be more widely used in the next few years. In other words, the XO-2 isn't likely to gain any meaningful advantage in this respect over competing platforms.

To me, none of this bodes well for the OLPC initiative in spite of the publicity it has received from these announcements. The organization still seems committed to a strategy of over-promising and under-delivering... not exactly a path to success.

OLPC users meeting at Baycon

(Credit: Peter N. Glaskowsky)

Incidentally, over Memorial Day weekend, I met with several XO-1 users at Baycon, an annual science-fiction convention here in Silicon Valley. This was the largest collection of OLPC users I've ever seen in person. The crowd was a mix of individual users, OLPC developers, and people interested in getting an XO-1 of their own.

OLPC developer Ed Cherlin (shown here on the right in the blue and white-striped shirt) recapped the announcements from last week, described new XO-1 software under development, and answered questions. (I asked him why browser bookmarks disappear after a reboot-- he said this was by design, but that previously visited URLs can be found in the Journal. Sure enough, that works.)

The meeting was also a recap of the shortcomings I've seen in the XO-1. Several of the systems people brought to the meeting had dead batteries because of previous use that day, networking activity while the machines were apparently in standby, or because they hadn't shut down properly. Of the eight or so working machines present, no more than three or four were able to get networked together, probably because of incompatible software versions. Nobody was satisfied with the keyboards. Of course, these were all older users with hands larger than the children for whom these systems were designed, but if OLPC can't get adults interested, there'll never be enough software to meet these kids' needs.

Nevertheless, it was a fun and informative get-together, and it probably persuaded some of the non-owners in the group to get XO-1s of their own when the Give One, Get One program starts up again in August or September of this year.