As soon as I heard about the OLPC project in late 2007, I wanted to research what others were saying before I jumped ahead to make a purchase. There were varying comments on several discussion boards.
One comment suggested that the XO laptops are ‘not compatible’ with the usual Microsoft software and that children who would seek employment in adulthood would not be able to function if they did not know how to use Word or Excel.

I had the opportunity to test one of these laptops and even my 3 year old son can utilize it in a basic sense. "Compatibility" is really not an issue.
The laptop teaches more free and creative thinking than regular machines.