Well I tested the concept with the OVC (Org for Orphans and Vulnberable Children NGOs) Kaduna back in March and every NGO there were extremely supportive of the idea of these. I do have some reservations with them, although they are perhaps not the ones that John mentioned above.

My impression is that the XO Laptop needs tailor-made software, so existing applications are not usable with the machine.

Security will be an issue here, where a $100 laptop is more than three months salary.

Also, when a family has ten children, will they get one each? This seems a bit wasteful (OLPC?). Most families share computers, from what I can gather.

Lastly, there is a lot of work going on with "acclimatising" PCs to be lower power and usable in the warm. such as at www.inveneo.org. There is also a UK laptop in development which does something similar, so I am told (no info yet, though). So my point is that an ordinary PC, with no need for proprietary software, has a lot of advantages. Current prices from Inveneo are affordable too (and not far off than the $400) so if people want to buy some PCs for our rural solar-powered cybercafe, feel free to do so!