For the World's Poor Children, This Computes

Lastly, instead of the traditional proliferation of ports, slots and other connections, it only has two USB ports, an Ethernet connector, headphone and microphone jacks. This keeps it simple and saves weight and cost.

One might think that this bare-bones combination of features would be completely unusable. But functioning as a simple Web and e-mail device connected to a wired or wireless network -- which is all many home computers are asked to do -- the Classmate works.

The lack of moving parts also makes it exceptionally sturdy. Dropping it on a table only caused the Classmate to go into standby mode. Its sealed keyboard resisted water poured onto it.

The most awkward part of the Classmate was the software on it: Many common dialogs in Windows XP don't fit on a screen that small.

As an alternative, Intel sells a Classmate with Mandriva Linux installed. It gets by with just 1 gigabyte of flash-drive storage.

In simplifying the laptop for the developing world, Intel managed to build a device that's just a little more pricey than limited Internet-only devices like AMD's discontinued Personal Internet Communicator -- but Intel's can still run regular desktop programs.

Classmate's use of flash memory could make sense in other computers. If digital-music players can gain battery life and sturdiness by replacing hard drives with increasingly cheap flash storage, why not laptops too?

The same goes for the lack of any optical drive. If you already download most of your essential software, and you can transfer files with a USB flash drive, is a CD reader always necessary?

The Classmate, and the XO, are only supposed to change the shape of computing abroad, but don't be surprised if they have an effect right here.

Living with technology, or trying to? E-mail Rob Pegoraro atrobp@washpost.com. Read more athttp://blog.washingtonpost.com/fasterforward/