Europe also getting a taste of OLPC sugar on Monday

The OLPC, Give One Get One program is heading to Europe on November 17th -- the same day the deal kicks off in the US. Thanks to the Amazon hook-up, 27 EU nations as well as Switzerland, Russia, and Turkey can grab an XO laptop at a cost of about £268 / €313. That's one XO running Sugar (not XP) for you and one for a child in a developing nation... other than your own.

[Gabe @ Nov 14th 2008 7:23AM]

Giving laptops to children will definitely help those third world countries, all right.

[anticlimate @ Nov 14th 2008 8:02AM]

Yes, it will help, I'm glad we agree on this.

[iEye @ Nov 14th 2008 7:26AM]

No go... this thing takes 113 seconds to boot... anything over 4 seconds is pushing it...


subliminal message;
"Go out and buy ASRock Mobos now mofo's!!!"

[Ian @ Nov 14th 2008 7:31AM]

Give those kids netbooks and stop punishing them with this monstrosity. They're all going to think that computers come in grotesque colours, and can only perform a handful of tasks, but in a half-assed way. Netbooks may not be pretty, but surely they're more representative of the type of computer that people outside the 3rd world are using.

[Don @ Nov 14th 2008 9:44AM]

Give those kids a real computer for the same cost. He/she is gonna need to burn pron one day u know... think about your kids for once, geez

[anticlimate @ Nov 14th 2008 8:18AM]

But shouldn't a kid use something designed for kids rather than something designed for adults? Children are not just little adults, and by the time they grow up, who knows what a computer will look like (and I really hope it won't be like today's netbooks or laptops).

[Fara @ Nov 14th 2008 7:32AM]

Nice image switch. This one is better than the last one.

[Socrates @ Nov 14th 2008 8:32AM]

No need for OLPCs!!! We already have Magalhães - the super PC!

[Magallanes @ Nov 14th 2008 11:15AM]

Me what?

Anyways, here (third world country) you can buy a second handed pc for less that $80 (and if you are lucky plus a printer).

[Socrates @ Nov 14th 2008 11:25AM]

It's Magellan in english.

My good friend president Chavez (Keyz in English) has already requested me one million of Magellans for Venezuela. Take That OLPC!

See: http://www.portatilmagalhaes.com/

[Seb @ Nov 14th 2008 8:38AM]

"developing nation... other than your own", that's cute ! when the US has a decent social security system I'll let engadget editors call european countries "developing"

[cybernesto @ Nov 14th 2008 2:05PM]

you should read this article twice before saying that...

[chezzo @ Nov 14th 2008 9:11AM]

I think he read it fine... Engadget just called every country in Europe a "developing nation"

[Rowdehaj @ Nov 14th 2008 2:11PM]

Rectification. Now. What the fuck are they thinking.

[dzhiurgis @ Nov 14th 2008 8:48AM]

Whoa, what a nice picture!

[DrXym @ Nov 14th 2008 9:02AM]

It's too bad OLPC didn't manufacturer a consumer version when it made sense to do so. They had a killer concept and the momentum to make a go of it. Sell a version in black with more memory, storage, conventional desktop and a few other changes and flog it for €350. They would have made a LOT of money, all of which they could have ploughed back into their educational version. Instead Asus, Acer and others commercialized mini laptops and OLPC got squat. Oh well, it's their loss.

[mike @ Nov 14th 2008 9:06AM]

"developing nation... other than your own" Nice one engadget, making us in Europe feel all special, and there was me thinking we had some of the most developed nations in the world with free health care and all.... unlike some other so called 'developed' nations.

Good news on the OLPC give one get one though !

[Richard @ Nov 15th 2008 6:42AM]

He's talking about turkez duh :D. And btw the EU only has 27 countries

[Boarderwoot @ Nov 14th 2008 9:34AM]

How do I know that a kid on the streets somewhere is getting their laptop and I'm not getting swindled? Sounds like mischief to me. I'll go back to counting my coins now and the rest of you get back to work!!

[Chris @ Nov 14th 2008 9:41AM]

UK£ 268 = 394.6568 U.S. dollars
€ 313 = 396.5397 U.S. dollars

This buys one for me and one for someone else? So yeah, there ~200USD each.

[OCEAN 'CLAK' 20th @ Nov 14th 2008 11:41AM]

'i' dont like it, id rather just donate my old macbook air and white macbook instead free to a child

[Shinigami @ Nov 14th 2008 3:57PM]

Say... If they sell it in Russia, who gets that second laptop? Africa? Or maybe some alien child that doesn't have an Earth toy yet?

[sam @ Nov 14th 2008 6:09PM]

how long do you think your macbooks would last in a desert or whatever... or for that matter, in the hands of a young child? :)

In addition to the fairly-rugged-ness, there are some pretty clever design features in OLPC (eg two-mode screen that can work in b/w mode even in bright sunlight), even if the software is a matter of taste.

personally, I have to say I'm not so worried about the quality of the machine - I've seen one, it's cute and nice and seems to work reasonably well. I'm sure if kids in Africa need laptops, these are absolutely fine - they don't need XP (wtf? are they going to run photoshop or something?) or a high-powered CPU or whatever. what I'm not really convinced about is that kids in Africa actually need laptops at all. (And yes I *do* give money to overseas-development charities, this isn't some kind of lame excuse for being a tightwad.) There is some kind of theory that if you get kids across the 'digital divide' everything else (sanitation, drinking water, education, non-corrupt police, the second coming of Jesus Christ) will follow, but I'm just not sure I believe it.

If you want one because it's cool though, go for it - and there's no reason kids in developing countries *shouldn't* have laptops either, can't do any harm. I just don't think it's a panacea.