OLPC Gets Backing in Australia

For years, the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative drew major headlines even as promises made by the initiative’s organizers were routinely missed. The original idea behind OLPC was to create $100 computers that could arrive in the hands of poor kids all around the world. Too bad that $100 price point was never achieved, and other problems arose.

The OLPC platform has stayed around, though, and now One Laptop Per Child Australia has received $11.7 million in funding from the Australian government to buy Linux-based XO (OLPC platform) laptops for 50,000 students.

As Computerworld notes:

“The funding will be used to purchase Linux-based XO laptops for 50,000 students…Ultimately OLPC Australia intends to deploy laptops to 500,000 Australian students.”