My B4 #OLPC prototype, 15+ years old. Original battery. Still works and battery charging is no problem. Impressive little machine :)

And thanks to @random_musings I have a few more 1.0 and 1.5 (or are they 1.75?) to work with for #girlsday in the #redhat office in #Munich. #LifeAtRedHat.

@jwildeboer I had one, left it in the office when Covid broke out and when I came back 1.5 year later, it was gone. 😢

The 1.5 HS definitely has a way better keyboard. Also — blue.

@jwildeboer it can't be 15 years old, I remember OLPCs like it was yesterday :).

@jwildeboer I was going to give it to the museum of computers at the local uni, Peter Robinson used to have a big pile of them, so I might ask him if he could give me one for the museum.

@jwildeboer I found my original EEE PC 701 recently and it still works too :).

@sesivany @jwildeboer I'm still using OLPC. It still has sunlight-readable display and many hours on original battery. Museum can have it when it stops being useful :-).

@jwildeboer No 1.75s are in that batch, since I only have one of those, and couldn't part with it. 😊

@jwildeboer yeah and it can take any power adapter in existence. and the firmware is FORTH, so you don't even need an operating system. hands down the best computer ever made! (@ljs -- after the pdp-11 of course)

@random_musings @jwildeboer any of you guys running mainline kernel on these? i got a branch with 3d and sound working that i never upstreamed due to personal issues (being a full time mom and a tired old sod at the same time), but perhaps i could be motivated to beat it into shape

@lkundrak @jwildeboer wait don't tell me this isn't a fast PDP-11???

@ljs @jwildeboer it is not very fast

@lkundrak @jwildeboer more time to think

@jwildeboer
Is there any battery in it that might leak in the foreseeable future?

Would be a shame if it breaks due to normal stuff.

@jwildeboer Mine won't boot, alas.

@RezzaBuh @jwildeboer I remember it as just a blink of the eye ago as well. I never actually got my hands on the hardware, but I recall doing QA on some of the software components via Fedora.

@jwildeboer I also liked idea behind educational software. I know that project ended, but what was main reason why it failed?

@peteriskrisjanis @jwildeboer

Because it was the wrong solution for the wrong priority of problem. It was a top-down flashy "tech will save you poor third-worlders" grandstanding, not an actual ground-up solution of what poor non-western countries actually needed or wanted. It achieved a few Ws but as far as distribution and impact goes the entire project was ignorant and ill-considered.

@peteriskrisjanis @jwildeboer Good question. I've only found this assessment https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262537445/the-charisma-machine/, not sure if I agree

@TheEntity @jwildeboer that is actually good point, while a bit harsh. But true.

@peteriskrisjanis @jwildeboer Speaking as somebody who helped assist a country deployment as a highschooler in a (poor country): content, content, content. As in: there was no content for it aligning with local syllabi. Think of all the education management systems they have, and imagine they mostly didn't exist. The technology was there, but not the content. A businessperson came to us and offered to sponsor 100 units based on our presentation! One of the more exciting days of my life.

@rooneel @jwildeboer and content keeps being biggest burden and problem. Heh.