Brilliant idea, create the ability to aquire knowledge, something which the wealthy countries take for granted.

However the scheme still relies on convincing ignorant wealthy people to purchase something for a cause they may not understand.

419 scams are at least not stealing people for slavery to build the superpowers!!

Don, Cape Town, South Africa

If you think this is a bad idea then you obviously have no idea how to search for anything on the internet and I'm shocked that you even found this article. You are foolish if you think that this can not be a tool to educate children in other countries. Capitalism? No. Food, water, shelter? Don't talk to me unless you are donating half of your salary towards families in third world countries. You rich, stuck up, worthless snobs. If I were a kid in a position to receive one of these laptops and I heard your snobbish retorts I would want to puke, which is pretty much what I want to do anyway. Playing Halo? Enabling terrorists? How do you suppose, Byron, that these people learn to build homes, sanitize water, grow crops, use birth control? Perhaps....we.....could....give them a tool that would enable them to learn how to do those things. I hope you get this before your charter plane leaves for Africa on your mission to teach the people how to live and survive.

Matt, Indianapolis,

As a U.S.-based project, it makes sense that they are starting the "Give One, Get One," initiative in America.

The name "One Laptop Per Child" expresses goals that obviously even the developed world just isn't ready for. Laptops sent to these developing countries will be shared by many children in classrooms, and likely some will even be shared by entire villages.

You ask what good these laptops will be to children who suffer from hunger and inadequate health care...the idea here is not to just send laptops instead of other charitable giving; it is to provide an educational tool that will help them reduce their dependency on the charitable acts of supposedly "wealthy, guilt ridden Americans" IN ADDITION to initiatives that provide healthy food, medicine, and clothing.

Mark the date; place your orders. Donate BOTH laptops! And in the meantime, find out how else you can help feed, clothe, and provide health care and educational opportunities to children EVERYWHERE.

Holly, Rochester, New York USA

In the end it will be the functionality of this device as a teaching tool that will enable children to eventually make money in these third world countries. Sending food alone will do nothing for these countries other than prolong their doom. If these devices will educate children to be able to bring money into their lives I'm all for this project.

Ben, Salina,

This project is NOT for the benifit of over-privliged middle-class kids, if you paid any attention you might see this.

M$ and Bill aren't about offering cheap laptops or software to anyone just market domination and phoney claims of how they
"inovate", how long did it take M$ to do a tabbed browser? too long and it's practically worthless.

Linux is quite stable and not a major memory hog like that other OS, but then tech support would be a local call in the third world as most have sent their TS overseas.

The whole project sounds great, and petty comments from large companies like Dell and M$ are baseless as they would NEVER venture into something like this and only complain as if they cared when they weren't included.

mlucas, Fort Worth, TX

Oh yea, lets give them $100 worth of potato chips, pizza, big Mac's and french fries to put in their microwaves so these kids can become obese like the kids in USA. And throw in a cell phone so they call or text message all their friends while driving down a dirt road in their Cadillac at 70 mph.

Walt Mayberry, Chicago, Illinois

The Laptops will end up on the Black Market of Asia just like all the other items unsuspecting people take to there local high street charity shops. In the Philippines shopping center bookstores openly sell donated books Average cost around 100 peso Most workers in rural area receive around 150 peso per day. Donated cloths called Ukay-Ukay can be found in most provinces and are bought mostly by tourist as local can not afford the high prices. I am a UK citizen; I have been living in Asia for the past twelve years.

Mark Kilroy, Panglao, Bohol, Philippines

Some call this a band-aid, or an empty gesture, and I say that you are not wrong but are not right either.
There could be better ways of using the financing of this project to help those in need, but to critisize an attempt at helping those areas that could use this technology to find and discover a better education is nothing to dismiss. Most of these laptops will go or be donated to non-profit schools in developing countries, allowing those trying to help a invaluable tool in educators fight against ingnorance.
Trash Bill and Intel, but the XO project is something more than most companies are doing, so I say good on them.

Matthew, Oslo,

The Laptops will end up on the Black Market of Asia just like all the other items unsuspecting people take to there local high street charity shops. In the Philippines shopping center bookstores openly sell donated books Average cost around 100 peso Most workers in rural area receive around 150 peso per day. Donated cloths called Ukay-Ukay can be found in most provinces and are bought mostly by tourist as local can not afford the high prices. I am a UK citizen; I have been living in Asia for the past twelve years.

Mark Kilroy, Panglao, Bohol, Philippines

Why does a kid aged 7 to 11 need a laptop? How did generations past ever manage to become educated? It seems like the money and effort on this could be better spent.

Karen, Reno, Nevada

This is a fantastic project. It amazes me to read the uneducated, ridiculous comments posted previously from people in the USA. I can't wait until these children in the 3rd world are more educated and computer savvy than most of the previous posters. It will probably take them a few weeks to surpass their level of understanding of the world (if they're not there already), then maybe a few years before they can earn more and contribute more to society. Talk about teaching a person to fish....

mike, Mountain View,

Listen everyone, for years and years and years we have given food, clean water, school books, etc. to children, look at all the effort charities such as World Vision, Save the Chidren, Oxfam, Compassion, have put into this, advertising, giving, etc......the bottom line is our western world is selfish. Despite extensive needs in terms of health care and education, we have reached a "steady state" in terms of what we are willing to give. This project is not in competition with the above efforts. People will not choose to give for computers OR give to food. No, this program does something different. It allows the west to provide something useful for their own children very cheaply, while also doing good. Who knows what will result? You will be amazed at the creativity and innovations of kids when given opportunity. You never know, it may be the secret to breaking the cycle of poverty, here + there. I will buy one for each kid in my kid's class, and Gates, Intel, shame on you both

Dorcas Sandness, Fort Smith, USA

A noble initiative indeed and Negroponte should really concentrate on getting his product right and encouraging competition at this end of the market. Ultimately he can always claim his first mover status but this should be about allowing the poorest people in the world access to technology and information that will in time be the "great equalizer".

The difficulty is more in convincing the west that Africa is not a hopeless case and the few naysayers like Darryl, who believe that Africa is simply a den of thieves and Nigerian email scampsters who pray on peoples greed to effect their scams.... Africa is primarily full of honest hard working people who deserve a chance to pull themselves out of poverty... if this initiative does pick up momentum we can give them this chance.

Sipho Phiri, Lusaka, Zambia

These laptops will be far more powerful than the PC's of over 20 years ago, that allowed Microsoft and Intel to make their first hundreds of millions. It could be that they are more powerful than Laptops of 5-8 years ago. What did people pay for them then?

Perhaps Microsoft etc. hate to see another market develop which which will give an alternative to their expensive products.

M. Sheridan, Oldham, UK

An excellent idea, that is if people are willing to go and buy themselves the comptuer to have one shipped, OLPC will only succeed if people get off their rumps and make it work. And "shame shame" on intel, they should really grow a heart(and soul) and feel ashamed for trying to undermine a potentially good idea.

Joe, Cushing, Oklahoma, USA

It is a interesting effort and will provide some insight to social and economic dynamics. In no time, the worlds Hackers will discover all kinds of cool stuff to do with them. I suspect the a number will wind up on E-Bay or be traded for food or hard currency. The world is made up of people, and people tend to lean the way they choose regardless of the good intentions of others. I suspect there will be abuses. But the ideology behind the effort is a good one. There will be hurdles to overcome, like getting a wireless connection somewhere off the beaten path. Teaching the teachers on the capabilities of the units. Creating easily available access to downloadable materials that are XO compatible. The fact is such a device does elevate the prospect of higher learning that many may never know. Ignorance & Poverty are the real enemy, also those would expoit under educated & poor. It will be an interesting excercise in human nature to follow at the very least. I support it.

MJ, Woodbridge, VA

So much criticism! At least someone is doing something instead of talking. OLPC highlights the miserable plight of most of the world's children. Eventually the XO might be given out free if enough families in the richer part of the world pay for it. Education is a start. People have to be able to stand on their own feet. How do they jump start to a better world? Do they want to follow Communist China's industrialization, or the United Kingdom's descent into green poverty? How can they know without educating themselves?

Simon E. Bode, Bath, UK

Good to know the world populous is more for feeding dictators and their armies than attempting to educate the people in those countries, informing them that their leaders are dictators that are taking their food.

With education comes the knowledge to fend for yourself. If the people of these countries can fend for themselves then they will grow to have little or no use for our assistance.

Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach him how to fish and he'll sit in his bass boat all day drinking beer....or something like that...

Jeremy, Chesapeake, Virginia, USA

Brilliant. Lets all make it easier for dodgy African countrys to commit larger amounts of internet scams. '419 scams' are reportedly the 3rd highest contributor to Nigerias GDP alone and it is having a growing impact in a number of other African countries.

Let's all give them additional access, for free, so that they can steal more money from poor, unsuspecting people. I guess at least way it may help distribute money more evenly on a global scale. Pat yourselves on the back folks.

Darryl, London,

Before criticizing OLPC, consider that the Internet has the potential to be the great equalizer in the realm of information. Why spend $200 on a few books when you could give a child access to the Internet for the same price?

Third world children with access to the Internet can become first class citizens when participating in the information culture which thrives on the Internet.

I have personally seen and used a prototype OLPC unit. The hardware and software are purpose built for the intended task, and it is unlike any laptop you have seen before. Please do not dismiss OLPC based on your experiences with conventional laptop computers.

Negapronte and his crew are not dummies. They have carefully considered and addressed all of the concerns that have been raised in these comments. Please see http://laptop.org for more information

John Robertson, Pelzer, SC

The energy sources they really need are distributed generation - photovoltaics, wind, small hydro, biogas, and self-powered products such as this computer. Not western-style centralized power grids run by corporate oligarchies. That is the old-fashioned, polluting, and wasteful way to generate electricity. Distributed generation has taken hold where the legislative climate has been favorable. It has not done so well in others (e.g. US, UK) where big businesses who own the coal mines, large power stations, and grids also seem to own the government. Centralized grids are not the 'free markets' that 'pro-business' politics works them up to be, distributed grids are.

cjohnson, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, USA

The problem with global education for third world countries is a lot more complex than giving each child a laptop. While I applaud the company's attempt at innovation and coming up with some sort of solution, it doesn't take into account that there are far more pressing issues than not having a laptop.

Most of these kids don't have enough to eat. They are being sold into forced labor. Many don't have clothes to wear to school. More importantly many towns don't have schools or even teachers. 100.00 US dollars can buy them many neccessary goods to keep them fed and clothed for months. Chances are quite high the very first thing they'll do is sell their laptops.

Let's focus on the core issues, solve the disease of poverty and lack of education through fair trade practices and encouraging business development, educating teachers and building schools...all of that first... instead of sticking a bandaid on the problem.

Kathryn , Los Angeles, CA

Don't you need to find a hot spot to use Wi Fi?

Katie, San Diego, CA

It's too bad that billionaires are afraid of helping a 5 year old learn if they can't make money on it. Gates doesn't surprise me; he's always been an opportunist, but Intel could have been larger about it. Everybody else can save the criticism until after they step up to the plate and do 'ANYTHING'. With the wind up power, it might be the best educational gift that keeps on giving available to these children. Good luck with the program. I'll pitch in when I have my cash back up (temporarily out of work).

Tim, Seminole, USA

A picture of great intentions poorly painted. Teaching people to build energy efficient homes at close to zero cost, sanitize water, grow sustainable crops, birth control...all of these are needed well in advance of portable, breakable, computers. Books require no further technology to be of use.

Byron, laguna beach, USA

To Stan and Roy. These laptops are not merely toys for the children of these devleoping countries. These are meant to be a more economical alternative to school books. School books cost hundreds of dollars per child and the poor countries can not afford this so the children don't get a decent education. Negropontes idea is that if all the children have a laptop, the teacher can download the daily lesson and each child will get the lesson from the wireless connection at no additional cost. The kids can take the lesson home (even if they don't have electricity at home), do their homework and turn it in with the wireless connection the next day at school. They can have interactive study sessions through the community wireless connection. The teacher can do all the marking and grading through the network. Brilliant!!. Each of these laptops should last 3 -4 years so the savings over the cost of books will be huge.
It is such a good idea that we should be doing it here as well.

Tom Barrington, Saskatoon, Canada

A laptop like this is equivalent to many pens, many many books. What we have to ask ourselves is: why is education in america so backwards as to still require students to carry around heavy, one dimensional books. No sound, no movies, no edutainment, no creativity... This project is aimed at students who already have food, just not enough teachers. It's not as silly as you think. I plan to buy one and when I'm done playing with it, I'll let my five year old have it.

Tim, College Place, WA

Unfortunately in this case the road to silliness is paved with good intentions. It is a typical liberal techie attempt to help. Unfortunately many schools in Africa and Asia have more pressing needs than a computer. For example basic school books and writing equipment and more critical still electricity and running water.

By all means give them computers, but first things first: exercise books, pens and pencils, clean toilets, a school lunch, a qualified teacher and then much much later a computer.

I wonder whether these well intentioned folk have ever been to Africa or parts of Asia and seen for themselves what is and is not practical.

It reminds me years ago working in Africa. We gave a calculator as a school prize. It was appreciated, but then the batteries ran out and nobody had any replacement batteries.

Ellen O'Day, Toronto , Canada

This project seems really interesting to me; if it's done well, it could do a lot for education and democratization alike.

James Green-Armytage, Goleta, CA

I think while the project is with good intentions, I find it a bit ridiculous that instead of food, education and skills we send them computers. Why? So they can figure out ways of expanding the network of terrorism? I am not opposed to 3rd world countries entering the free enterprise system with our help. I am opposed to doing so when there are so many children/families in this country that cannot afford computers either. Let's figure out a program for our kids, then worry about the rest of the world. Maybe computers in the hands of american youth will give them the ambition to succeed and to get out of the negative cycle their families seem to be in.

stan, Louisville, Ky

The people doing this have noble intentions. I just don't agree that a laptop is the best way to help people who can barely find the basic elements needed to sustain life.

I wouldn't mind donating the other laptop to a poor inner city school and help out our own. I wish that were an option, I would probably go for it. We are a developed nation and we need to develop students to work in the information and services economy.

These other under-developed nations need to become more industrialized and prepare their kids to work in industrialized types of jobs. Economies develop, and they don't develop over night. Countries can't simply skip a step in that growth process. The best thing we could do for them right now is to encourage political reforms so that corrupt governments don't rob people of their futures.

I agree with the people who made this that poverty is a problem. Laptops aren't the solution to that problem.

Roy Lawson, Lakeland, FL

These computers should also be great for elderly Americans (especially shut-ins) who can neither afford current computers, nor deal with their complexities. I can't wait to purchase my own on Nov. 12, and if it functions according to expectations to encourage its use in senior center, senior p;ublications, and retirement homes!

Thelna V, Mueller, Birmingham, USA/AL

The OLPC scheme is a scam to promote a make-do dependency by way of a thoroughly underpowered product, in order to deprive the developing world of the energy sources it really needs. This is a waste of everyone else's money, and is a cynical move on the part of the environmentalists and their global warming propaganda.

Charles Smyth, Belfast, Northern Ireland

What is ridiculous? To get technology in the hands of the next generation of third world countries? How do you expect these countries to compete in view of the globalisation?

Furthermore, hunger is a problem in countries that are struck by a natural disaster or who are in (civil) war. That leaves a lot of other developing countries open for this initiative don't you think?

Bram, Yaounde,

Yes, let's not give them the TOOLS to dig themselves out of their crushing poverty. Let's keep them dependent upon western countries so we can continue to exploit their natural resources and make a nice percentage giving them loans.

Dave, Loveland, Colorado

I disagree with what you say Kevin. If kids in those countries had educations with laptops--perhaps they can figure out how to save their country instead of relying on charities and America.

Paul Reiner, Macon, GA, USA

Kevin is 100% right on. What will we have, kids in an undeveloped country playing 'Halo3'. I don't much subscribe to the idea of cultural imperialism but if I did this would be a perfect example.

Michael, grand junction, Colorado, USA

What is ridiculous? To get technology in the hands of the next generation of third world countries? How do you expect these countries to compete in view of the globalisation?

Furthermore, hunger is a problem in countries that are struck by a natural disaster or who are in (civil) war. That leaves a lot of other developing countries open for this initiative don't you think?

Bram van Asseldonk, Yaounde, Cameroon

set up local computer labs for the poor--a sort of free cyber cafe. This is a well intentioned but silly effort. 90% of these laptops will end in the west as these students sell these units to take care of their families.

I owned my first computer in 1978 and I love technology- but the developing world doesn't need laptops. Even children in america don't need this.

I only hope people realize that development is organic. The most important part of developemnt is a stable society where a return on capital is possible.

The world is turning in the right direction. And soon laptops like this will be a joke--probably before they are ever shipped.

Christopher Wentling, fargo, usa/fargo

OLPC is an amazingly asinine project -- rather than send the parents help with feeding and supporting their family properly, my fellow Americans would rather spend hundreds on a laptop PC for those parents' child. Considering the cost of upkeep and replacement within 2-5 years, this amounts to little more than economic colonialism. Now that our own chidren are utterly dependent on computers, we try to get the rest of the world's children to be so, too.

Max Schwanekamp, Eugene, OR, USA

The fact that no attempt at the "give one, get one" scheme isn't available in Europe or elsewhere should be a clue that "taking advantage of America's largess" isn't just axiomatic in our immigration policies. If I were to guess, I'd doubt that the project ever really takes off. Not that it doesn't deserve to be successful. A low cost, go anywhere, Linux based portable would be a hit among even we upscale users. However; depending on a "charity scam" targeting those "wealthy, guilt ridden Americans" to market and fund production of this system hardly seems like the proper way to introduce the product. I'm an engineer, and IMOH; a portable system, with a serial port, not dependent on being on the grid, that offers the flexibility of Linux, would be invaluable to people like me.

Ed Weirdness, Garland, Tx

As long as Microsoft software is not included I agree to the project !

Denis Blais, Nanaimo, Canada

How about feeding some poor children rather than giving them laptops. There's plenty of middle class kids in North America who don't have their own laptops. This is ridiculous.

Kevin Redmond, Waterloo, Canada

this is really one of those "why can't we all just get along" moments! This is not the place for for profit mongerring or compettition. ALL of the appropriate companies that can should be contributing to this cause. They can all provide parts and technologies &/or $$s. This could ensure the $100.00 cost or even lower it and the idea was to bring technology and educational opportunities and advancement to those who might otherwise never see such a thing. The BOTTOM LINE here folks is that these recipients grow and evelope and contribute and BUY YOUR PRODUCTS! Oh, and how about that nice warm feeling of DOING GOOD!

Ted Washburne, Vancouver, WA

if it is bad as advanced micro devices said it is, why not change the name , from a lap top computer... too., a computer device, thatwe are planning to get one and we will give one..

steve sendek, royal oak, oakiand,mi.

How do you get your name on this list. I might be interested in doing this, but would like more information on the laptop and what country the laptop would go to. Would we have a say / preference? Thank you.

Michael Battani, Columbia, South Carolina