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[tinou]

just got mine today, played with it for about 45 minutes. impressions:

* TINY -- i knew it would be small, but it's really small. this is actually a plus, i hate big things
* VERY COOL LOOKING.  the handle, the green, the logo

i think it'll work well as a basic, bare bones web browser while at the starbucks waiting for my bus kind of device. 

[humptybump]

I couldn't get the feedreader reader to read (restarted, reran it, etc.) but then it just started working!

I'd be curious if others have the feed reader working. I do not and there is a high priority bug engered against this problem.

[davek]

Yesterday I had just read the "Your XO laptop is on its way." email and was signing up for TMobile when the doorbell rang and the darn thing arrived.  I couldn't believe the box was so small and light.  Unpack, plug in, turn on, change my router from WPA to WEP, and I'm on board.  After ten minutes I plugged in a mouse...I think I'll get one of those mini mice and make a holster for it.

Briliant design, beautiful display, logical controls, and I knew I'd have fun when I saw the Terminal and Analyze activities.

Shakedown is going to take a while, but so far I'm very impressed.  Let the learning begin!

[Sam]

Its time for those lucky enough to have an XO laptop to tell us what they think of it. 

My XO arrived today, Dec. 21, via Fedex unannounced.  Ordered Nov. 22.  It worked right out of box and got online in minutes bootlegging neighbor's wifi.  No email from anyone including T-Mobile, yet.  Think I'm going to love it.  Not a techie here, just a 77 year old guy trying to get excited about something!

[akamran]

I couldn't get the feedreader reader to read (restarted, reran it, etc.) but then it just started working!

I'd be curious if others have the feed reader working. I do not and there is a high priority bug engered against this problem.

I couldn't get the feed reader to work either -- also, the journal wouldn't recognize a USB stick.  Other problems: it is difficult to tell how to save documents and other files -- wading through the journal to find the time you used the activity to create a particular document is a pain.  I hope the suggestions made by other posters are followed: manual, tabbed browsing, etc.  And the wiki support pages should be written in plain English, for those of us who haven't spent our entire graduate career programming.

But everything else is very nice.  I like the size, even though the keyboard is a tad small (and I have small hands).  I got it so I could take notes and surf the web, and maybe check webmail once in awhile, which it does quite well.  But I'm also having fun playing with the other activities.  And I definitely win the coolest person in the office/department award this year!

[Lylah]

I got mine tonight and I really like it. The only thing is that it didn't connect to my wireless home network but I know there is a fix for that somewhere, I just do not want to deal with it tonight.
My son loves his and first thing tried to get to pbskids.org but of course that didn t work.

I am not a geek, just a pseudo-geek so the fact I did not have any trouble getting this going is worth mentioning :-)
The interface is nice, takes some getting used to but it is nice. my son and I had no problem switching back and forth between activities and the chat, being goofy with each other.

Mine has a kind of fuscia x and an orange o, my sons came with a blue x and a red o.

the keyboard is really small but i could type on it if i am careful.the screen works fine, though i havent tried it in the outdoors mode yet.

can't think of anything else to add except for please excuse my typing, I am super sick today.

off to sleep... after I play with my xo some more lol.
night
L.

[thepete]

After two days of messing around with it, I have to say that I really like everything about the design of the hardware.  I don't have the problems others are having with the keyboard being so small--sure, it's not like a full-sized laptop keyboard and I am typing differently (more hunting and pecking, sometimes with just one hand, even), but I have little doubt that I'll adapt in another week or two and be comfy with it.

The software is taking a bit more effort to adapt to.  I was surprised at how underfeatured the SugarFox browser is.  No tabs, no multiple browser windows, and no easy way (that I could find) to configure Gnash for Flash playback (or not).  I managed to install the Opera browser and Adobe's Flash plugin.  But, ironically, SugarFox runs Flash better than Opera does.  Now Gnash is still trying to handle Flash, but doesn't do it automatically, it just replaces any Flash instance with a "Click here to Play" link, but since I have Adobe Flash installed, each Flash instance appears again right under Gnash's attempt and plays it automatically, just fine.

SugarOS, itself is a cool OS, to be sure, though it does re-think things in ways I was surprised about.  "Journal" is about as accurate a term for what it does as "Finder" is on the Mac.  I think a better term would be something like "log" since "Journal" seems more personal and opinion-based and "log" tends to refer more to literally "what happened".  Journal in SugarOS is literally your computer's history.  In fact, maybe that's the word to use?  "History"?  Also, the way it works in conjunction with websites is not what we're used to--which is fine (when you click "browse" button on a website it brings you to Journal), I just hope there is a better explanation of how this is supposed to work.  Right now it seems a little amorphous for me to even explain.

Over all, I'm not putting this baby up on eBay.  I see that there are two directions to take it in--first, the intended route and stick with the way SugarOS runs things (ideal for kids, somewhat limited for adults looking for more to do and more control to have), or, second, use Opera for everything--Zoho, Google Docs and Meebo run in it reasonably well, so there's no reason to even worry about using SugarOS and since Opera accesses local storage directly and not through the Journal.  This means you can treat it like a "regular" PC.  The key there is learning where everything is kept. 

Either way, this is a great laptop and I don't see myself ever parting with it.  I just hope that the OS improves quickly.  I don't mind a bit of buginess, but if we can add things like "force quit" and have it generally handle memory allocation more effectively, that'd be great.  Oh and I also like how "alt+tab" cycles through the open apps, just like on a regular machine

Things I'd like to do next:

1) Work out why I can't upload through Flickr's website (I click "browse" in SugarFox and it does nothing)
2) Work out what the "game controller" style buttons on the right of the screen do (or how to tell them what to do)
3) how to configure Gnash to play mp3/4s and STOP trying to play Flash in either browser.
4) Invent a time machine so I can do points 1-3 and still have time to celebrate Christmas  at the same time. ^_^

[az990tony]

Wayan,
My first impressions here:
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/page/InsideSystemStorage?entry=my_xo_laptop_has_arrived

As I make more OLPC-specific blog posts, I will post a link on the appropriate forum.

[dicea]

My first impressions are collected with pictures here:

http://dicea.livejournal.com/506807.html

Working in the freight and courier business, I noticed details about the packaging and transport. 

[marc]

It's cool and different.  As a refugee from xp, it's really different, but very explorable.  I was VERY pleased at the support for MAC address and networking at:
wiki.laptop.org/go/Support_FAQ
I would love to see kids used to the natural world discover this "critter"  I'm pretty sure we have no idea how they will circle in on this - but when they do, get ready for some software revolutions!

Good on ya, olpc

[molo]

Hi,
We (my partner and I) got ours on xmas eve, but have had little time to play and explore. Just opening it took a few minutes, cause I was trying to assume I knew nothing about how to go about it. Ha. After a minute or two, we solved the puzzle. Am a (reluctant) Windows user,  but the Sugar os seems really new and unfamiliar.
Able to get on the internet but haven't found any others in my neighborhood yet. Hope to go to a Seattle group on Sunday.
Just wanted to say hello. 

[eden]

Welcome, molo!  If you would like to see some other XOs appear in your "Neighborhood," try this:

GregoryBoysMom,

Here's the geek-to-English translation: 

1. Start the terminal activity by clicking on the terminal icon. It looks like a window with a $ in it.
2.typing sugar-control-panel -g jabber and then hitting the enter key will show you what the XO is currently set to:
3. You can change that setting to the one you need to use for the mass XO chat by typing
sugar-control-panel -s jabber xochat.org and hitting the enter key.
4. The last step is to reboot the XO by pressing the Control, Alt and Erase buttons at the same time. When the XO reboots it will now be set to allow you to chat with other XOs by using the xochat.org servers.

Hope this makes sense

Aunti

[Dr.Data]

This is a fantastic little PC.  Hope the folks at OLPC read and absorb the lessons from the real world.

First impression:  great little laptop.  Keys are a little small for adult fingers (the pad size could be a little bigger for older children) but usable.  Space bar seems to be very stiff (requires a very precise strike); maybe will loosen up as used.

Biggest issue was getting the Baby to talk with a Linksys WPC54G router.  Once I reflashed the system (that was scary) with Build 653 I was able to connect to the world. Linsys and other Cisco routers are pretty common in the world...support should be there; also, why are XOs shipped with old systems? 

Other impressions. An MP3 player would be nice;  how many OGG Vorbis files are out there?

When I flopped around to eBook position, the web browser still worked except there was no way to click on a link; some keystroke combo of the game control keys would help.

Dr. Data
Northern California

[Heng]

I'm completely exhausted.

Today I had the postal odyssey, followed by the find-the-right-adapter-odyssey (US plug -> Euro outlet). Every bone in my body hurts. I still have no network connection and I have hardly done anything with the XO, except carrying it around to test every available adapter and power supply, I could get my fingers on.

Sounds pretty bad, huh?

But I have to say: Just one look at my XO and I smile like a child at Christmas!

This is one fantastic piece of hardware. The small display is no problem at all, because it really looks, like it has infinite resolution.

Now the only bad point: I think it's too big.

Yes I know, everybody else said: It's tiny. It's really, really tiny. It's way too tiny.

But these people were expecting laptops. I was expecting a glorified PDA. And it will be nearly impossible to carry this thing around without actually noticing it. But maybe a tiny backpack can get me close.

I'm very happy. And I think, there is a chance, that people who are really angry at OLPC, might soften a little, as soon as they see this machine.

[eden]

Hurray, Heng, congratulations!   

I laughed when you said it is too big.  My husband bought an Asus eee pc out of technolust after I received my XO.  Here I was thinking the XO was tiny until I saw how leetle-bitty the Asus eee is.  (I think the XO screen is prettier.)  And yes, I understand the smiling like a child at Christmas.  There is something about this laptop that makes me feel like a child, in a good way, as I explore and learn with it.  And I really hope the rest of the G1G1 donors get theirs asap so they can recoup their excitement too.