Pay attention to this sentence, because it’s not one you have probably heard before: This week, I bought three new laptops for $800.<\/p>\n
This morning, the One Laptop Per Child project opened up their give one, get one program<\/a>, and I was there. For US$400, I bought two OLPC XO<\/a> laptops. One goes to me, one to some kid in a developing country.<\/p>\n So, I suppose that’s a halfway decent thing to do. But, I mostly wanted to get my hands on one of these things that we have all heard so much about.<\/p>\n Second, I ordered an ASUS Eee<\/a>. For $400, it’s a more-or-less fully functional Linux laptop and about the size of a small hardcover book. I’m hoping this one has a little more real utility.<\/p>\n The specs sound a little thin for a modern laptop: 900MHz, 512 MB RAM, 4GB storage (flash, not hard drive), 800×480 display. But, that would have been a pretty snappy laptop 4 or 5 years ago. How much has my workflow really changed in the last 4 years? [A laptop isn’t a primary PC for me. It’s a thing to use when not in my office or at home.]<\/p>\n I know low-end mainstream laptops are bumping down in the $500–600 range, but there’s that part about weighing less than a kilogram and fitting in my man-purse. How could this not be ideal for travelling?<\/p>\n I’m also hoping it can ride on a iRobot Create<\/a> and run Player<\/a> for a sweet little autonomous robotics platform. If they come out with the $200 model, that would give us a full setup for <$500 that high school kids could play with.<\/p>\n