The new laptop

I hope they do this, keeping the new inexpensive laptop available to the general public on this buy-one-give-one model. I wouldn't mind having one myself.

Imagine the inexpensive technology that could be produced with proper motivation. You already see this in the software arena, things like the Open Office suite. There's a hardware equivalent to this attitude.

clipped from news.yahoo.com Keep Selling the Cheap Laptop, Supporter Urges As commercial sales of One Laptop Per Child's XO laptop close Monday, a user tracking the nonprofit effort said continued commercial availability of the laptop could benefit OLPC's nonprofit effort, the XO manufacturer and children using it as a learning tool. Gabriel Morales, a technology enthusiast in Miami, feels so passionately about distributing the laptop commercially that he has set up a Web site, XOforall.com, to drum up public support for continued commercialization. Using a handcrank, pedal or pull-string, the laptop doesn't rely on an electrical outlet to run, making it useful for situations where power is unreliable or unavailable. The laptop also runs longer than a traditional unit-- up to 21 hours-- thanks to its custom-designed, efficient power-saving features implemented at the hardware and software level, Morales said.