I was all for the program it was designed for when I signed up; and I am seeing what they saw, right in front of me as well.

Seems like a decent machine for coding from somewhere when you just want ssh access and something to type on.

- I cannot save files in either Writer or Browser
- many linux commands do not work in Terminal, including -man-

Bottom line is that for kids it is a decent “interface” but I think the authors forgotten that the teachers need to have the ability to program this thing. You need to install applications for particular tasks, etc. You need to manage the files to clean it. You need to backup what’s on it. Otherwise, it is just a toy for kids that do not grow with them.

In the end I started thinking about installing one of the live linux distributions on it, say Mandriva 2008 live. I just do not understand why they did give an option to start a laptop in a standard KDE-like mode. After all every laptop has to have a way for the administrator to with it and the graphical interface is too limited for it, whereas the available commands are pretty limited as well.

Finally, I am afraid that such a great idea may end up giving wrong impression in the end. If they get it wrong, it will take a long time for similar projects to really take hold in the future. So in the future someone may really know how to get it right, but because it was done wrong first, no body would listen, or least least it would take a lot of effort for people to to listen.

I wish them luck and I will use my laptop to keep in the car to occasionaly check email or write text - notes. It can do it sufficietly well. But I am afraid that there is a possibility the whole project will go nowhere.

Andrew

What do you mean by “and the applications feel a bit snappier.”?

Have they improved the hardware or some sort of OS/application management since your first user experience?

This is a very exciting concept for collaborative classroom work.

I experienced the jumpy mouse problem when I first started using it; but, after an overnight charge, it seems to have disappeared.

IMPRESSIONS:

CONS: The keyboard is nearly useless for anyone with hands larger than an 8yo (maybe this should be in PROS section); Larger PDFs are sloooooooow.

PROS:
– eBook mode;
– Black and White no-backlit monitor mode (beautiful in its simplicity);
– Collaborative, easy-to-use OS (with uber-nerd Linux underneath);
– Networking-centric experience
– two USB ports (add mouse and keyboard to have user input in eBook mode)

Like other posters, I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it. I think it would be useful as an eBook reader/back-up/rugged laptop (leave it in the trunk of my car) or to simply donate back to XO. If they haven’t already initiated this program, they should seriously look into it…

I’ve also been trying to get some of the developers that I work with to get excited about it — it would be fun and meaningful to build an app for it. I just don’t know what the target audience wants/needs! It’ll be interesting to read some of the case studies once it reaches critical mass…

You open up PDF books from the Journal, not the write application. Write can rarely handle a PDF file. I found it will open up some word files, the more complex ones might present some problems.

As an EBOOK reader, once the book is loaded, it seems pretty nice. But it doesn’t have a touch screen, which of course is a bit beyond it’s actual marketed audience. YOu can use the buttons on the front to read and scroll thought the Ebook. First zoom using a mouse under VIEW, to the proper size then scroll away.

YOu can reorient your book and scroll as well, but currently the scroll buttons stay in the original orientation and don’t match the new screen (left, right or upside down) orientation possible.

So I’ve found that for me the best solution is to have a small optical mouse and use a scroll wheel on it while in ebook mode. Or keep it oriented in the normal screen mode and use the front buttons.

Sometimes I’ve had the browser or read application quit unexpectedly when pressing one of the zoom buttons. Maybe the machine thinks I’m trying to end the application by having the pointer near the top corner. I’m not sure what that’s about.

In Ebook mode, it seems to display only one or two pages of the PDF at a time, it will scroll and “load” each page as you get to it. This is okay for casual reading. For quick moving up and down and searching though the ebook, it might be a little on the slow side. I’m looking at ebooks that are image and size intensive.

Sometimes when launching the ebook or looking at a PDF the application will just hang and not launch. Perhaps I’m using something that’s not the right format filewise when this happens.

There are power limits on what the USB buss can support. I’m not sure if this is what causes the strange mouse activity that happens sometimes. The jumping around mouse. I read that this happened in some test machines when the battery was below 50%. It seems that if the battery is low I’ve experienced this a bit more.

The browsing on an open WIFI channel, who knows what goes on when you start the thing up. At first it seems the machines don’t want to browse, I found in my first XO after registering my machine the browser started to work. (Local home browser). I could see the network earlier but not browse at Panara bread.

I’m thinking it iwll work now.

Sometimes the machine seems to go into a long delay. This can be frustrating. I found write will hang if I choose to insert a picture just choosing the insert picture menu item. The first time I used write it seemed to work okay. I may need to have a picture on the clipboard first to do this. I’m not sure what that flacky activity is about.

I actually bought four XO’s to get two to insure I could play and test the mesh networking with my own machines. I haven’t been able to share, chat or get anywhere with the mesh other than see the other machine and initaiate a chat without having the chat session work. I’m doing something wrong there, and hope to “learn my way around the problem”.

Finding out the reader works with PDF’s and that this thing can open up word documents is a big plus.

I haven’t loaded the free Pepper OS on it and read about a different user bricking his machine when trying Pepper on the production XO he just got in the mail. I’ll hold off on Pepper until someone else figures that out. Don’t want to brick a machine and not be able to restore it.

Would like to know how to have a base copy of the XO software. Even a backup of my XO’s configuration on a USB key. I suppose I could copy all the files to a USB key and that would kind of be a backup of the software. I’m going to read more about that on the OLPC support site and figure out more about that before doing anything with Pepper.

It’s a very interesting toy and geek gadget. I had one lady ask me for a card when she saw me play with the laptop. I said I didn’t have any documentation and told her to Google XO laptop. She wanted to know about “donating” to the OLPC foundation as a “non profit” through her work payroll deduction. I said I’m sure you can donate, but chances are it probably doesn’t appear on most Payroll deduction plans as a list of a donor site.

That’s it for now.

My real interest about this is in studying long term ways to have a digital library that’s dependable and low energy footprint. It’s very hard to beat an XO from an energy footprint perpsective. In my thoughts toward “survivalism” of Peak Oil. I think about different configurations, when the first world, becomes more like the third world. The XO is in some ways an interesting “survival” grab the bag and go, type of device. It could fit nicely into a long term plan of low energy footprint for most browser and reading needs.

I have a Seagate 100 gig hard drive USB with two plugs, one is powered by the USB (green) side. I was able to power and get stuff off that. So a cheap USB 100 gig drive will work with the XO as a futuristic Ebook survival low footprint library. Imagine having thousands of books and your charger in a small briefcase that is sturdy for all types of possible long term reading and low energy use.

The Mesh network fits nicely into “survival” and “low energy footprint” thoughts as well. You can actually have your own peer to peer mesh learning environment with these. Which would be a huge plus in countries where kids might not be able to always travel outside their huts to go to school. They can network and do school activities from the safety of their home. This is a huge benefit for the third world and would fit into small eco-village styled green low footprint living in the USA as well. (I’m talking about more like organic 2090 living, than today.)

But now I’m leaving the thoughts of the XO as a reader gadget which is more along the lines of the earlier posts.

heck for that matter my 4yr old??

shoot me an email if you think I should or not…

been debating on it for a while now.

thanks.

I’m also not sure what I’m going to do with them. My kids are six and thirteen but we have lots of other computing options in the house. So I’m interested to just observe what they make of the XOs. I’m also excited to see what the hacker/dev community creates for them.

I feel like I should develop software for this thing. I’m write apps for a living and I spent eight years at university studying education. I almost feel obliged! But I’m also notoriously bad at getting stuff done outside of my current time commitments — so we’ll see if this goes anywhere. (It would help to justify the ‘investment’ that I’ve made.)

That signal analyzer app is pretty impressive though.