(I posted this a couple of days ago, but it was never released from amsat.org limbo. So I resend. My order for OLPC went in today -- they accept either PayPal or plastic -- Tom)
Another thing I gleaned from the OLPC wiki is that it supports FORTH (start at http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Forth_Lesson_0).
Karl (DJ4ZC) designed Phase-3A back in the late 1970's and the onboard computer (IHU) used the computer language that Karl wrote called IPS (Interpreter for Process Structures) based on FORTH, but with German syntax and multi-tasking real-time support. Several of us (W0PN, W1HDX, ZL1WN, DB2OS & I) ported the German "dialect" of IPS into English and the "Gerglish" IPS has served as the basis for running all the Phase-3 IHUs up thru AO-40 (thanks to the efforts of W4SM and G3RUH). IPS is also planned for P3-E (N4HY already has it running on the new IHU) and probably P5.
As another possible AMSAT/OLPC synergy, I can easily envision the OLPC Forth kernel being adapted to real-time control tasks with the addition of Karl's "chain".
Although it is really modest compared to the normal laptop, Nick Negroponte and his team has really come up with a platform that has amazing possibilities!
Meanwhile, ASUS has introduced their commercial Linux-based "Eee" miniature notebook that is already available ($399 from Amazon http://www.google.com/pagead/iclk?sa=l&ai=BuJiyAGg3R9XlK4iaeuyDjLIMqprePM7tta0EqNmYlROgjQYIABACGAIoAjgBUKHAuc0HYMnOh4mIpIQQoAHQ1fn-A6oBGkdHR0xiK0dHR0xhQjMrR0dHTGxFTisyTlJTyAEBgAIB2QOFt4nqV-FMVuADEA&adurl=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000Y33CVM/2launch-20) -- Just Google ASUS Eee http://www.google.com/search?q=Asus+Eee&sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1B3GGGL_en___US214 or see the Eee wiki entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASUS_Eee_PC#Storage for details.
73, Tom