Low-cost laptop program sees a key leadership defection (AP)

While I do think the OLPC could be great for textbooks, the question is who is going to write
high-quality textbooks and provide them cheaper than the prices that you already mentioned. Of
course, existing publishers could provide electronic books at a low price per pop (and make a
profit on the quantities). Suppose that these non-free textbooks are half the price of
on-paper textbooks for third world countries, you'll still many textbooks to cover the cost of
an XO machine.

Not to mention that dead tree books work better for extreme climates.

I think many people involved have noble intentions. And as a side effect, the XO has pushed
down prices for other laptops. But I am not sure whether an XO is a better investment than
text books, and maybe normal computers in a more protected environment (e.g. a classroom),
where they have a longer lifetime, and you don't need one machine per kid.