The Theft Problem

There is a brief discussion of the theft problem on this page Hardware_Ideas#The_colour_of_the_case

How can we make sure that adults do not steal these laptops and start to use them for nefarious purposes?

Make them different to public available comercial products

If the olpc laptop has different

• color
• shape
• size of motherboard

it can be easily identified as a olpc laptop.

Serial Number

The MAC Adress can be used as a serial number. If a laptop is stolen this number will be written to a database. There can be a USB Stick with a small linux and all serial numbers of stolen laptops. If you boot from this USB stick it should show if the laptop is stolen. (MAC adresses can be changed temporarily by software)