Using the OLPC - Day 2

Installing xo activities is a snap, up there with OSX's .dmg install process. Installing anything else can be a bit of a pain, as it's command line installation using RedHat's yum system (which at least has fixed dependency checking since last I used it (I started with RH5.2, then left Linux, then got back into it with Debian and have been a Debian/ubuntu user mostly ever since).

The black and white screen mode is amazing. End of story. The screen-rotating button is nice when switching to ebook/tablet mode, though the lack of access to the touchpad in ebook mode can be awkward.

Wifi config is annoying to me, but obviously designed for the expected default use case of meshing with other XOs and a school server, not hopping on an open wifi access-point network.

Every laptop should have a built-in handle, or at least some way to attach one.

The keyboard is still a bitch to use. It's back at hunt and peck speed almost, and I keep not hitting the space bar right, and sometimes it feels like you really have to mash down on the keys - but precisely - to type. I'm sure I'll get the hang of most of it, but my hands are just too big to use the control keys (shift/ctrl/alt/fn) the way I'm used to. Also, the hold-down-key-repeat "feature" seems missing - perhaps by design.

My battery life seems to be around 3 hours with some activity, and doesn't ever hit 100% charge (as soon as I unplug it it's at 97%). Hopefully the update coming out next week will enable sleep and hibernation, which should improve that dramatically.

Overall, impressive, but despite the fact that it's already being rolled out, it's still rough around the edges.

This post typed and posted via OLPC/XO -- blame the keyboard for typoes.