Way back in November, I jumped at the chance to get one of the OLPC machines. For a small contribution and some waiting time, I would get my very own OLPC laptop (yes, I know that is redundant).

So, I cracked it out of the box and fired it up (like any geek) and here is what I have found:

1) I did not get one with a power crank :-( Mine has a wall wart (in a bright green colour).

2) The keyboard is SMALL. Now I am not talking about Palm or Blackberry small, but it is SMALL. Smaller than the Happy Hacking keyboard and the keys are ruggedized, so they are a little tricky to work. Still, I expect I will get used to them.

3) It only has a gig of "disk" which I suspect is actually solid state. Of course, it also has three USB ports and an SD RAM slot, so that should not be much of an issue.

4) The version of Linux on it is custom but RPM based.

5) It has cute graphics, but also has a full terminal.

6) It has what looks like a full colour screen, but works mainly in black and white when you are not actually using something in colour (battery reasons maybe?

It has cute little "bunny" ears for wi-fi that also act as the catches to keep the screen closed, and the screen is on a full swivel (it has to be to get at the SD slot).

I have not gotten the wi-fi configured yet and it does not have any other network connection. I do not think it is a touch screen but I have to tinker around with that.

I will keep you updated as I play with it more. Feel free to shoot your questions over and I will answer as best I can!
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David A. Lane is a Linux Journal Reader Advisory Panelist.