Yesterday we received our very own XO laptop from OLPC to play with. We'd seen one up close at Squeakfest last August, but now we've got time to get to know it and show it off to others.

Here Paula's trying Squeak Etoys on it:

As you can see next to her 15" MacBook, the XO is made for little hands. I was very pleased with its performance. Fedora & Sugar booted in a minute and Etoys loaded in about ten seconds which is plenty fast enough.

Also very impressive was the reflective display. You really can read things in full sunlight, which I had heard about but didn't really appreciate till today. It's a wonderful thing to behold, and saves power as well.

There's too many things to note in one post. Tonight I upgraded to the latest build and talked with some of the developers. They're inches away from code complete, which is always a heady time in any software project.

An excerpt from IRC:

<Mitch_Bradley> has NN seen the new screens?  I need affirmation.
<cjb> You're a unique and beautiful snowflake.
<jg> does that mean he melts and becomes all wet?
<kimquirk> I think it was just the flake part...

Anyway, today I make my first Etoys tutorial movie. More tomorrow.