Exhibit FAQ

(Used for LinuxFest Northwest 2008 amd PyCon 2008 .)

Introduction

Just a word of warning, many times at conferences OLPC XO Laptops are the hit of the show. One may end up discovering, spending a lot more time talking about them than first planned. (Depending on what else you are trying to do this may or may not be a problem)

Below is a Frequently Asked Questions ( FAQ ) with the consistant answers for everyone to provide when asked. With so many questions and ways of asking them, below is a guide to help keep answers consistant between conferences.

Common questions

(asked at XO table/exhibits at conferences/festivals)

Is that really a laptop ?

Looks like a childs toy laptop.

(no this is OLPC's XO Laptop, available for limited time purchase November to December 2007)

How fast is it, how much RAM and storage ?

Hardware_specification

Looks kind of small, can it work with other equipment

3 usb ports, SD card slot, audio in/out,Peripherals/Sensors

What are those two things that poke up ?

Does it have wireless

(wireless -> mesh discussion)

Where are they being deployed ?

Where can I get one ?

What happened to the Give One Get One (G1G1) program?

How can someone (or some organization) get them

(No more G1G1, non-profits / schools can order via GmGm , min order of 100)

How much does it cost ?

(price)

What is the G1G1 program?

(how many were purchased)

(why was the program stopped, will it re-open, what about overseas)

I ordered a G1G1, but still haven't gotten it yet.

Why haven't all of them been delivered.

What's my status ?

(Overwhelmed with the response of G1G1 limited time offer, waiting on parts for manufacturing)

How long does the battery last ?

(5 to 7 hours, depending on usage... [Show dimming of screen for power saving])

I have seen more like 3-4, but I don't dim the screen.

It's going to get better as the XO software is updated. Long discussion of how most of it will be powered down except when you touch the keyboard.

What new technology is in it

(Linux Red Hat Fedora Core 7, some microsoft windows programs can be run via Wine)

Why is this better than the EEPC/classmate/surplus PC/etc ?

Can you run other software on it ?

Somewhere I saw instructions for starting a conventional window manager instead of sugar.

How can you develop for it without getting one

There's lots of ways:

• Sugar-emulator coming with Ubuntu Hardy Heron in April
• Live CD
• Emulation (QEMU, VMware, Xen, VirtualBox, ... )
• sugar_jhbuild

Category:Emulation

Or apply for the Developers Program and get your hands on one.

how do you open the $@#%@# thing ?

(especially amusing when you hand them the open laptop, they close it and can't re-open it)

See [1]

what are the two squares to the side of the touchpad ?

Trackpad

Where is the crank

(if OLPC can spare some sample chargers to display at the booth it would be wonderful)

The crank had to go after the mechanical engineers modeled the stresses created by cranking, and conclude that it would significantly reduce the lifespan of the XO. Rumor has it the mechanical engineers had a solution: Make the case out of titanium, instead of plastic.

Solar, it turns out, is cheaper (~$2.50 per Watt) and easier (no cranking required)...

Battery and Power

Things to demo

• Neighborhood

("... main purpose of XO is encouraging sharing and collaberation" )

• Friends

("... you can connect and share with friends")

• Home

("... these are the Activities currently running, and that you can use at anytime")

• Activities (

20+ of them are included in standard setup.

All written in Python, Open Source, source code can be easily downloaded and updated.

Here are some common ones (hover over icon)

• pippy
• distance (if you can make it work reliably)
• measure
• Record (video and still camera)
• browser (some people want to browse internet)
• chat

Some frequent addons

• XoIRC
• Speak

Some existing linux programs have been shown to work on XO

• Firefox / Opera
• Picasa
• (etc)

Mesh demo

Decide if you are going to have the machines on a mesh with each other, or on an access point so they can connect to the Internet (I would say have them connect to the Internet unless there is some specific reason to not do so).