The OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) project has received my interest almost since its conception in 2005 and now I have been able to test out the OS thoroughly heres my thoughts.
The OLPC OS’s GUI (Sugar) is well, different but in the good kind of way. Applications are shown on the bottom left of the screen. “My Home” shows the current applications open in a circular fashion. As-well as showing off other statistics, such as battery power remaining.
The far left button on the top of the screen is “My Neighborhood” which shows all the computers that are in vicinity of each other. Next to this button is “My Friends.”
The OLPC laptop can connect to the internet by creating a mesh network (Ad-hoc) of multiple computers.
The browser is Gecko based, the same engine that powers firefox. Its super simple to use and allows for multi user collaboration but the low resolution of 800×600 makes certain web pages that are designed for higher resolutions act strangely.
Paint is very interesting as-well, allowing multiple kids to collaborate at once, on the same project.
TamTam, the Garageband of the OLPC OS.
Write is self explanatory just by looking at the screenshot.
The OLPC’s Linux OS allows aspiring geeks a chance to play around with linux, under a “Classic GNOME” session. Which is complete with a terminal emulator application! :-)
OLPC without a doubt, will change the lives of all the children who receive one. If you want to try the OLPC OS for yourself download the LiveCD version and pop it into your computer.
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