$100 laptop project launches 2007 (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

The first batch of computers built for the One Laptop Per Child project could reach users by July this year.
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The first countries to sign up to buying the machine include Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Nigeria, Libya, Pakistan and Thailand.
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Test machines are expected to reach children in February as the project builds towards a more formal launch.
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Instead of information being stored along the organising principle of folders and a desktop, users of the XO machine are encouraged to work on an electronic journal, a log of everything the user has done on the laptop.
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Trial versions of the operating system in development can be downloaded to be tested out by technically-minded computer users around the world.


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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6224183.stm

to d/l OS images for emulation: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OS_images_for_emulation

[eppur_se_muova]

1. AP article describes the OS a little more ...

Novel software drives '$100 laptop'

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (AP) -- Forget windows, folders and boxes that pop up with text. When students in Thailand, Libya and other developing countries get their $150 computers from the One Laptop Per Child project in 2007, their experience will be unlike anything on standard PCs.

For most of these children the XO machine, as it's called, likely will be the first computer they've ever used. Because the students have no expectations for what PCs should be like, the laptop's creators started from scratch in designing a user interface they figured would be intuitive for children.

The result is as unusual as -- but possibly even riskier than -- other much-debated aspects of the machine, such as its economics and distinctive hand-pulled mechanism for charging its battery. (XO has been known as the $100 laptop because of the ultra-low cost its creators eventually hope to achieve through mass production.)

For example, students who turn on the small green-and-white computers will be greeted by a basic home screen with a stick-figure icon at the center, surrounded by a white ring. The entire desktop has a black frame with more icons.

This runic setup signifies the student at the middle. The ring contains programs the student is running, which can be launched by clicking the appropriate icon in the black frame.
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more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/01/02/hundred.dollarlaptop.ap/index.html