Pogue loves the XO, I remember the Commodore 64

Lots of people have been poking fun at Negroponte and the "XO" laptop. Pogue has been using one ...

Laptop With a Mission Widens Its Audience - New York Times

... There’s no CD/DVD drive at all, no hard drive and only a 7.5-inch screen. The Linux operating system doesn’t run Microsoft Office, Photoshop or any other standard Mac or Windows programs. The membrane-sealed, spillproof keyboard is too small for touch-typing by an adult.

And then there’s the look of this thing. It’s made of shiny green and white plastic, like a Fisher-Price toy, complete with a handle. With its two earlike antennas raised, it could be Shrek’s little robot friend.

And sure enough, the bloggers and the ignorant have already begun to spit on the XO laptop. “Dude, for $400, I can buy a real Windows laptop,” they say.

Clearly, the XO’s mission has sailed over these people’s heads like a 747.

The truth is, the XO laptop, now in final testing, is absolutely amazing, and in my limited tests, a total kid magnet. Both the hardware and the software exhibit breakthrough after breakthrough — some of them not available on any other laptop, for $400 or $4,000...

It uses almost no power. I think I might buy a pair in November. The program deserves a chance to succeed. If Pogue is right, and he usually is, I think they'll reconsider their decision not to sell it for $250 into the US market. I remember a time that people could buy a Commodore 64 for about that price, there's been nothing comparable since.