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Given the surging retail popularity of budget-friendly Netbook computers, you’d be forgiven for forgetting the Quanta-made XO, which is the ultra-cheap cornerstone of the One Laptop per Child Association (OLPC) as it carries forward its non-profit quest to provide modern computing solutions for school kids in third-world and developing nations.
The XO, coming soon to a school near you -- as long as you\'re in Uruguay. Image: JenCarole/Flickr.
Back in the headlines this week, the OLPC’s drive to spread the XO platform around the world has received a notable boost after South American nation Uruguay penned a substantial deal that will see every child attending state-run primary schools given access to the iconic green and white portable system.
Unveiled to expectant school children at a school in Montevideo on October 13 as part of the country’s ‘Plan Ceibal’ (Education Connect) project, each XO computer will cost the government some $260 USD – which is a price that covers any required maintenance and repairs, along with online access and teacher training.
Described by Miguel Brechner, head of Plan Ceibal and director of the Technical Laboratory of Uruguay, as being part of a programme that “seeks to reduce the gap between the digital world and the world of knowledge,” the little XO computer runs on an open-source Linux operating system and uses the Sugar graphic user interface (GUI).
The brainchild of prominent MIT professor Nicholas Negroponte, the XO computer comes with a 7.5-inch TFT LCD screen (1200 x 900), 1GB of flash memory, and is powered by the AMD Geode LX700 processor.
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