| ecoIron on OLPCs |
| Written by Hank Green | ||
| Friday, 24 November 2006 | ||
 The One Laptop Per Child project is generally
considered to be a humanitarian mission, not an environmental one.
EcoGeek has never ever mentioned the OLPC project and that, frankly is
wrong. Mark at ecoIron has put together a list of reasons why the OLPC
project is good for the environment. First, the project isn't about the
cycle of obsolescence and upgrades. These computers will work well for a
long time, and they won't end up in landfills any time soon. Second, there are lots of them and they're all the same. That's good news because it makes them simpler to repair and it makes repair parts more abundant. Finally, the OLPC runs on 2-3 watts of power, setting a standard far below anything seen in the consumer electronics industry.
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In developing countries...
written by GTW , November 25, 2006 | ||
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The more repair-friendly computers are the unbranded ones that are assembled from scratch. Fixing their standard components allow technicians to gain the re-applicable repairing skills useful when fixing similar components from different manufacturers.
Laptops aren't the most repair-friendly devices since they're all tightly packed in a small casing and their internal designs tend to be manufacturer dependent. I haven't yet seen a OLPC but I hope they're built to be repair-friendly without too much soldering on the printed circuitboards etc.
One more important thing is the lifespan of the system. Sure, it's $100 or something but people probably could buy a repairable/upgradable desktop in these countries for not much more. It won't mean that poor hopeful families will end up with short-lived laptops after investing one month's salary on each but, it will probably take like a while and one more generation of OLPC notebooks to gain the trust of these private individual buyers in the intended market.