OLPC XO vs. ClassMate 2goPC

---+ BRIEF SUMMARY:

Last year's OLPC One Laptop per Child) XO PCs, running Linux, were one hell of a lot easier to get up and running than this year's Atom based Classmate 2goPC, running Windows XP.

The XO was up and running, and being played with by my daughter, in a few minutes.

The Classmate 2goPC has taken hours.

---+ DETAIL:

Last year I got my daughter an OLPC XO for Xmas. Actually, 2, or a total of 4 under the Buy 1 / Give 1 program. The XO was up and running within minutes.

However, the XO had some limitations:

a) My daughter has had problems using the Windows PCs at school, because the XO's user interface was so different.

b) The XO's Sugar interface is idiosyncratic, to say the least. No printing. No files. They say, essentially "Humans forget, therefore computers should too." Althouh my daughter has figured out how to deal with this, first, it is useless learning, and secondly she regularly loses data.

c) Because the XO is not a standard PC, it cannot run all web software E.g. my wife bought my daughter a "Webkinz" toy, whose tie-in website does not seem to run on the XO. ActiveX? Flash? I dunno.

Obviously, some of these problems can be solved by uninstalling the OLPC XO software, and/or running vanilla Linux software. But that somewhat defeats the point of the XO.

Therefore, I gave in and decided to buy my daughter a Windows PC. Fortunately, the Atom based Classmate 2goPC was available, under an Employee Purchase Plan. (Unfortunately, the plan did not include the Classmate Tablet 2goPC, which I would have bought instead if I had known it were available.)

I meant to purchase the 2goPC for Xmas, but website issues got in the way... ultimately I only gave the 2goPC to my daughter today, as a late Xmas present. She unwrapped it this morning circa 8am.

First delay: the instructions say to charge for 6 hours before using. I could probably have used it plugged in, but just in case...

At 3am my daughter came home, anxious to try her new PC. We power it up...

The usual delays, after asking for PC name, etc.

Next delay: Internet Explorer hangs configuring itselg. Like, a 45 minute long hang. So we reboot.

This time it comes up. OK, let's run Windows update... Microsoft Update... Much downloading and several reboots later...

Microsoft security Center is warning about no virus scanner. Fortunately, my employer has a homeware program, whose single license for use on an employee PC I am not using. So I install that... sevceral more reboots later, including rebooting the company PC that I was transferring from...

Upshot: my daughter's 2goPC seems to be working now. 6:19pm. More than 3 hours since we powered it on; almsot 10 hours since my daughter unwrapped the Classmate 2goPC.

This compares unfavorably with the several minutes required for the OLPC XO last year.

Worse: my daughrer was able to get the OLPC XO up. Daddy (I) had to sped several hours supervising the Classmate 2goPC. My daughter, quite understandably, lost interest.