Opportunity window [LWN.net]

Opportunity window

Posted Apr 22, 2008 16:21 UTC (Tue) by bronson (subscriber, #4806)
In reply to: Opportunity window by NigelK
Parent article: Walter Bender's "goodbye OLPC" note

> And there is no compelling reason to get an XO over a Classmate/Eee/whatever other than a
small price difference.

Not actually true.  The screen is unequalled.  For reading black-on-white text, it's the
finest, most readable LCD I've ever seen -- indoors or out.

But, I agree, as soon as the EEE gets a halfway decent screen, there won't be a compelling
reason to struggle with the XO.  Here in the first world anyway.  :)

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Opportunity window

Posted Apr 22, 2008 17:41 UTC (Tue) by oak (guest, #2786) [Link]

> But, I agree, as soon as the EEE gets a halfway decent screen, there 
won't be a compelling reason to struggle with the XO.  Here in the first 
world anyway.  :)

The latter part is important. XO uses much less power than any other 
laptops (there are mobile devices that much do better, but not laptops).  
It's actually possible to use it outside of powergrid (using hand pull 
etc) unlike the normal laptops.  Here in the first world, I wouldn't mind 
a laptop like that at my parent's summer cottage (which doesn't have 
electricity, but could have networking through GSM).

One shouldn't forget about the mesh networking either which works even 
when the device is turned off.  Again, that's not an advantage here in the 
western land of broadband, but things are different in countries where in 
addition to powergrid, you don't have any computer network available, or 
if there is, it's very unreliable.

Opportunity window

Posted Apr 22, 2008 20:19 UTC (Tue) by man_ls (subscriber, #15091) [Link]

Hmmm... Mesh networking is cool, but I'm not sure it is the way to go for a reliable connection. Particularly if it is used in the rural areas of the third world.

Even if the reported 1.6 km range turns out to be true, that will hardly connect all inhabitants of a village. Connections to the rest of the world will be hard to come by.