Greetings from an XO laptop! Now with pictures!

[K.Mandla]

The keyboard on this is so small I can't type much. I'll post some pictures when I can get a stable connection. ;)

http://xs123.xs.to/xs123/08036/img_0636558.jpg.xs.jpg (http://xs.to/xs.php?h=xs123&d=08036&f=img_0636558.jpg) http://xs123.xs.to/xs123/08036/img_0621954.jpg.xs.jpg (http://xs.to/xs.php?h=xs123&d=08036&f=img_0621954.jpg) http://xs123.xs.to/xs123/08036/img_0627879.jpg.xs.jpg (http://xs.to/xs.php?h=xs123&d=08036&f=img_0627879.jpg) http://xs123.xs.to/xs123/08036/img_0630580.jpg.xs.jpg (http://xs.to/xs.php?h=xs123&d=08036&f=img_0630580.jpg)

These things are cute! :KS

Edit: Everybody say cheese!

P.S.: 56K alert on those photos. Click at your own risk. ... :shock:

[bufsabre666]

what os you running? whats its speed like? how light is it? who let the dogs out?

come on i need answers

[K.Mandla]

Okay, I'm back on the big machine now ... It's a RedHat variant, I believe. Package management is through yum, and it's not a speed demon. cat /proc/cpuinfo says AMD Geode, which puts it around 425Mhz or so. That's an i586 if you're interested. I just updated to 2.6.22 or so.

The Sugar OS is very smooth -- almost everything is single-left-click. Bundled software is all recast versions of lightweight software. Abiword is on here, a kid-style paint program, X (7.3?) runs the show, and so forth.

Weighs around three pounds and is rather rugged, really. Right now I'm leeching Internet off a very distant wireless connection, so I might not be able to put photos up for a little bit.

I'm trying to get the Gimp installed so I can chop down some of the pictures I took of unpacking the box. I don't have an SD port on any of my other computers (note the plural :roll: ), but this has one. The problem is that I don't have a wired connection and the wireless is very sketchy from where I am. ...

[bufsabre666]

awesome i was looking at getting one, how does everything look on the little screen? do you lose anything that you have on the desktop? how does it compare to ubuntu?

[fuscia]

have you tried throwing it off a bridge yet?

[K.Mandla]

awesome i was looking at getting one, how does everything look on the little screen? do you lose anything that you have on the desktop? how does it compare to ubuntu?
Well, there's no desktop per se. It's more like an interactive program list. You have a central task switcher that you use to bounce between "Activities", and a kind of scrollbar picker that you use to start them. So there aren't any icons or wallpaper or anything like that.

It seems a little confined at first, but it's just running on top of X so it's not like you can't get out of it. And there's a terminal, and if you know what you're doing you can get anything done with a terminal. ;)


have you tried throwing it off a bridge yet?
Not yet. I have a few more tests I need to run before that one. :D

[fuscia]

i've tried sugar on a livecd and found it kind of fun.

[K.Mandla]

That's the last time I listen to you fuscia. I dropped it off a bridge and it totaled this car. :shock:

http://xs123.xs.to/xs123/08035/crash45627.jpg.xs.jpg (http://xs.to/xs.php?h=xs123&d=08035&f=crash45627.jpg)

Laptop's fine though. Sure are tough.

[az]

It takes just under two minutes to boot. It takes about twenty seconds to open the browser. Pages are displayed a lot more swiftly than on a pentium II 450 MHz running Ubuntu, though.

The screen has 1200x480 resolution, which means than you get to see a useful portion of the page horizontally, but you usually need to scroll down to see the rest of the page. Using the page down button makes this pleasant.

Most websites work fine. I was able to browse a few dell.ca systems on it. On a normal computer with a nromal screen resolution, I find that I can get lost on the dell.ca website because you need to sometimes click on the system at the top-right of the screen instead of the center of the screen, but this is not made worse on the XO.

The display is really really sharp.

The wireless is really impressive, too. I had no idea how many people in my neighborhood use wireless, since no other wireless device I own would detect anything other than my neighbor. The XO seems to be able to see and associate with wireless point pretty far away.

The installed OS seems to take up just over 300 megs of disk space.

[K.Mandla]

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention: az has one too. :D

az, you're still in Christmas mode.

[fuscia]

That's the last time I listen to you fuscia. I dropped it off a bridge and it totaled this car. :shock:

http://xs123.xs.to/xs123/08035/crash45627.jpg.xs.jpg (http://xs.to/xs.php?h=xs123&d=08035&f=crash45627.jpg)

Laptop's fine though. Sure are tough.

i note you said "this car" and not "your car". as browning would have said "all's right with the world."

[K.Mandla]

Well, yes, I'd never drop my laptop on my own car. That might scratch the case or knock the display hinges out of line. :D

Actually, I seem to remember someone else with an indestructible laptop, who threw it out into traffic and it smashed up a passing car. You don't know anything about that, do you?

[wishyjr]

how did you get your lappy's guys? can you just buy them from a website? I thought that they were only for educational instituions (ie schools) - is there a retail version too?

[TrailerTrash]

That OLPC (XO) is using a trimmed down Fedora 5. :)

[popch]

These things are cute! :KS

Some people have all the luck.

[K.Mandla]

how did you get your lappy's guys? can you just buy them from a website? I thought that they were only for educational instituions (ie schools) - is there a retail version too?
Around mid-November they offered them to U.S. addressees. I don't recall if they sold out or not, but the buy-one, give-one program ended around the close of the year.


Some people have all the luck.
I'm taking it out of the house today. I have to show it off to the neighbors. :biggrin:

I'll have pictures up as soon as I can get a reliable connection, I promise.

[az]

how did you get your lappy's guys? can you just buy them from a website? I thought that they were only for educational instituions (ie schools) - is there a retail version too?

http://www.laptopgiving.org/en/index.php

There were offered until December 31, through the Give one Get one program.

[jrusso2]

Around mid-November they offered them to U.S. addressees. I don't recall if they sold out or not, but the buy-one, give-one program ended around the close of the year.


I'm taking it out of the house today. I have to show it off to the neighbors. :biggrin:



I'll have pictures up as soon as I can get a reliable connection, I promise.

I would be very interested in hearing your impressions of the XO. Do you think you could give a short review.

What works, what doesn't what the limitations are etc.

Thanks

[K.Mandla]

I promise that ... as soon as I finally conquer SimCity. ... :mrgreen:

[mips]

I promise that ... as soon as I finally conquer SimCity. ... :mrgreen:

I read about 3 days ago that the Sim City code was GPL'd. Was a cool game from what I remember.

[Praadur]

Good grief, it is cute.

It even has a D-Pad and buttons... at the side of the monitor, no less! I can't help but imagine how well that works.

[K.Mandla]

Yup, and the screen pivots and folds back on itself, so the entire thing turns into a giant Gameboy. Sort of. :roll:

[Mateo]

No offense, but I find it a little creepy that people are getting these things like they are toys to tinker with. They are supposed to be going to underpriviledged children. I don't see why anyone else would even want one. Not trying to bash anyone in particular though

[popch]

No offense, but I find it a little creepy that people are getting these things like they are toys to tinker with. They are supposed to be going to underpriviledged children. I don't see why anyone else would even want one. Not trying to bash anyone in particular though

People who have bought one have paid for two, the one they got and the other for some child in need.

Since these represent top of the shelf technology, I can quite see why anyone else would want one. I, for instance, am 'anyone else'.

[Mateo]

i didn't know about buying two, thanks for explaining that.

[Lord Illidan]

My staff will be sending you the bill for my car shortly.

[K.Mandla]

Oh, was that your car ... ? :oops: You know, your car left a scratch on my new laptop.

[vexorian]

No offense, but I find it a little creepy that people are getting these things like they are toys to tinker with. They are supposed to be going to underpriviledged children. I don't see why anyone else would even want one. Not trying to bash anyone in particular though

You may like one for development.

[K.Mandla]

One last note and then I promise to let this thread sift down through the stack: I put about three dozen pictures and a lot of explanation on my blog, here:

http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2008/01/20/unpacking-an-xo-laptop/

If you're interested, feel free to check it out. If you're on a slow connection or a slow computer be forewarned; there are about 40 thumbnails on that page, and so it will load slowly. Cheers!