OLPC Give One Get One. Arrived

I am sitting here in my office writing this entry on my OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) XO-1. It arrived last night.

my first impressions:
The packaging is sparse but sturdy, Two bits of paper with a note and the saftey warnings (no babies is first on the list). I am guessing that this isn't humor but I am entertained.

The keyboard has a nice feel for a membrane type keyboard, the keys have a slight depression which makes them fairly easy to feel. It is a little small for my hands (a good thing given the target market).I tried an external keyboard and mouse (they worked as I was expecting) but I have revirted to the built in.

I have had some issues with the stock browser in terms of speed and compatabiliy. It also seems that downoloads from the browser disapear (I am probably missing something simple). Installing Opera does the trick for me. It brings back tabs! Image rendering is more consistent and reliable and I can choose a download location. Vital sites such as this blog, the full twitter web interface and google reader all work and appear correct. Sites of importance such as the managed operations portal also work.

Wireless support is quite good, at least as sensitive as my full size devices, with the exception of WPA support (comming soon), in the end I backed down the security stance of of my APs and turned on MAC filtering.


Remaining issues: paste, Copy seems to work, I can drag from the frame and paste into applications. Why can't I paste text into the terminal?


I am sure that many of you are now asking the same question...but will it run solaris? I think the answer is probably not. Atleast not with a gui.

Still others are likely wondering, will it run the super beta punchin for linux. To that I am thinking no, but man that would be sweet!

olpc