Boy, I couldn't have been more wrong. Only hours ago when I wrote my comment about the confirmation of the Amazon deal and G1G1 v2 laptops coming without Windows XP I said:
Amazon will run with G1G1
In the end I believe that this is about as much information as we're going to get before the marketing campaign leading up to the actual start in late November takes off.
Now laptopmag's Joanna Stern, who is well known for testing Windows XP on the XO back in August, proved me oh-so-wrong by talking to Nicholas Negroponte and confirming the price and launch date of G1G1 v2:
OLPC Founder Nicholas Negroponte confirmed that Amazon.com will offer the XO laptop starting on the Give 1, Get 1 launch on November 17. According to Negroponte the laptops will retail for $399.
Negroponte also commented on the operating system running on the G1G1 XOs:
"It will not be dual boot, but may have a Linux standard desktop as well as Sugar," Negroponte said. The decision to offer dual operating systems has not been finalized, however.
And to top it all off he made the following comment:
He also revealed that the first 100,000 or 150,000 customers participate in the program will get the XO system right away.
Now that he's spilled all the beans the only things we still need to find out is whether G1G1 v2 will be globally available!
>>>>may have a Linux standard desktop
I think that refers to the XFCE included in the -faster builds, and possibly -joyride (I haven't tried latest builds in several weeks). The default XFCE desktop in the Ubuntu version in the olpcnews forums was much nicer than what OLPC provided, but I'm sure that there'll be significant improvement before November.
@deg
i was just about to say that maybe it might also be ubuntu (or something of the sort) coming bundled in with the xo, but not only would that not make sense, and would be pretty silly in general, but it doesnt say anything about another linux distro, just simply a different gui.
it could also be something like kde couldnt it be? not saying that i really think it would be anything other than XFCE, just saying that there are alot of possibilities out there, even for a low end system like the XO.
however the inclusion of xfce doesnt do everything. 399...im disappointed. even 10, 20 dollars lower would have shown that they are headed in the right direction. whatever the reason is, to stay true to the project, olpc needs to start lowering their prices. at the very least i would like to hear that they have begun manufacturing them cheaper. anything that says that the computers are getting cheaper would make me feel a little bit better
finally:
am i the only one who is pretty surprised about the whole xp thing? i thought they had NN by the balls...he must be trying to really get something out of the deal to be stoping xp from the coming g1g1
@abe
Amazon likely means free shipping, so it is technically ~$25 cheaper than last time.
Amazon may mean free shipping if you buy it with something else, but I'd rather see they charge it so that getting one does mean giving one.
"am i the only one who is pretty surprised about the whole xp thing? i thought they had NN by the balls...he must be trying to really get something out of the deal to be stoping xp from the coming g1g1"
MS cannot deliver. They never could. All we had was demos, but nothing about security. The demos were suspicious on their own, but there was nothing said about firewalls and AV software.
How long do you think OLPC will survive if the next delivery of G1G1 become zombies within 30 minutes?
Remember that the XO is much too "low-powered" to run current day AV software. And giving very poor children laptops that need $25/year AV subscriptions won't go down well.
Winter
please send me the centres in india where i could purchase the XO laptop for me.
A GHG1 would be far more successful (Give Half Get 1) especially after the spectacular failure of the first G1G1 (crippled shipping + half-working Sugar).
After 1 year, we are getting close to make our XOs usable. (the upcoming Update 2 seems to address the biggest problems and missing features like power management and corrupted SD cards)
At USD299 even those people might buy it who otherwise may not be charitable at all.
At USD399 they will never sell 180K units again like in the first round, since most of the enthusiasm is gone.
I would disagree sola, many people that I have shown the XO too are VERY excited to purchase one.
Im currently living in Sweden and several others here would like to buy several... which leads to that important "will it be offered globally" question.
They are currently working on XFCE on the XO as of Aug. 5th... it hasn't been worked on much since then, but I can see it being integrated soon:
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XFCE_and_Sugar
399 is a GREAT price point and the fact that it allows a FREE laptop to be delivered to a child in another country is still amazing to me. I personally wish the best for G1G1 v2
Conspiracy theories aside, XP will never ship on G1G1 machines because Microsoft won't want to give away their OS (or close to it). They are a business, not a charitable organization. We are relatively wealthy westerners, not charity cases.
The same goes for the GHG1 idea. Just because Amazon picked up the project, doesn't mean that they want to do it for free. The couriers certainly don't do it for free. The manufacturers certainly don't do it for free. These are businesses, and they sell people products and services in order to make money. The fact that the customer is donating $200 to charity doesn't really change much, because they are still buying a $200 product. Changing that to a $100 donation and a $200 product only reduces the degree of altruism. Besides, if the customer was truly just interested in charity, then they would forego the little green laptop altogether. After all, the people who actually developed software with G1G1 machines is in the minority.
Incidentally, that just happens to be why so many of these recent netbooks are so expensive. (Ignoring the slightly higher-end parts) you will find that everyone wants to make a little money. By the time you consider manufacturers, shippers, distributors, and retailers, business ain't cheap.
@Jordan:
"you will find that everyone wants to make a little money."
Note that selling stuff is VERY expensive.
A dime at a plant in Indonesia is easily $10 in High street.
Winter
So where can I sign-up?
I just went to Amazon and can't find any mention of the new program. (Searched Under: XO Laptop, OLPC, G1G1) Amazon, are you listening????
If OLPC had any sense, they would be ready to take my money. I'd sign-up right now and let them take my $400 and earn interest on it.
Looks like a great machine and, critics aside (both the technical and political), this is an impressive machine and a great project.
I can see a lot of support systems in place on the internet, which is promising. If the numbers of laptops would go up, costs would come down and the enthusiasim will continue to grow.
I noticed users/learning groups in DC and out of MIT. I'd bet you could set-up a summer camp for privledged kids where they have to buy a G1G1 XO laptop to get in and you could train the kids to use the computer and use it as part of regular discussions on the original premise of the project.
I'm betting they can sell all 180,000. Heck, that's not going to be enough! Here's #1 of round 2.
Could you please give me some info about theses 2 questions :
- I am starting a project for a Tanzanian NGO to organise internet access and computer learning in a rural village of North-west Tanzania. Where can I apply with my project to possibly get donations of XO laptops (else, where are going the "given" laptops) ?
- I currently live in France and am looking at acquiring a couple of XO laptops on November 17th with private donors' contribution to initiate the project. Will i be able to order from Amazon.fr (in France) ? Or will I have to order it from Amazon.com (in the US) and pay for more shipping fees to get it to France (before getting it to Tanzania) ?
Thanks
Lola, if what you have in mind is a small pilot in Tanzania then you can try and get some laptops via the contributor's program (http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Contributors_program) by submitting an application at http://projectdb.olpc.at
Wrt your second question it seems as though G1G1 v2 will initially only be available in the US. There are some early indications that it might come to other parts of the world at some point or another but no confirmed information about that. So at the moment it looks like amazon.com will be your only choice...