Serendipity35

Hand assembled by the OLPC team, the first 10 prototypes of the One Laptop Per Child initiative have been completed and are being prepared for testing and production.

"Quanta, the Chinese computer maker that won the international biddingfor the project earlier this year, will assemble 900 OLPC machines that will be used for destructive testing and distribution to our development partners," OLPC executive Walter Bender wrote. "Our vision is a step closer to becoming a reality."

Based in Cambridge Massachusetts, the OLPC project's goal is to distribute millions of low-cost (under $100 to produce per unit) self powered mesh-network laptops to impoverished children around the world. The Linux-based computer has become a hot topic in the open source community, though it has not yet been determined which versions and distro of Linux will actually ship with the final product.

Although there have been no final orders committed, Argentina, Nigeria, Thailand, Brazil, and even Libya have all been reported as planning to purchase 4 million units.

Bender has described the planned installed software package as "slushy" and "fluid" at this point, but the OLPC laptops are expected to ship with a chat client, a web browser and a text editor based on AbiWord.

No final date for shipping production units has been announced.