I got to geek out with my Dad a bit - he recently got an OLPC and was showing it off to us. It's a sweet little machine. Here's a photo of it next to my EeePC:
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The next day there was an article in the Fresno Bee about the OLPC, talking about some Peruvian kids who were checking it out. The article was mostly pretty good except for a couple FUD-bombs that obviously dropped in there by somebody with an interest in Microsoft. I don't want to say any more about the haters and FUD-shovellers.
The OLPC is a neat device that will be enjoyed by a lot of kids. It's definitely not perfect - we saw a couple bugs while we looked at it. It's not for everybody either - even though my EeePC-trained fingers could probably adapt to the keyboard I wouldn't be able to do much of my work on it. And free laptops are definitely not a solution to world hunger problems.
But it's got a lot of things going for it too. The mesh networking idea is awesome - I wish we could have more of that on systems here. And it's got some programming tools built right in too. Hopefully some lucky kids will take to the OLPC the way I did to my ol' TRS-80. Actually, the OLPC, even with its flaws, is a MUCH more capable machine than my old Model I. Anyway, some might start down the road to learning how to make technology work for them, and use it to effect some change in their own and others' lives. And that would be a Good Thing™.