Intel evil or not, I always preferred them to AMD as they always seemed more stable and responsive. I mention this because I think the ASUS Eee PC is far better value than OLPC when you do not need the mesh network, wind-up charging, extra waterproof/rugged construction etc.
OLPC makes perfect sense for countries where mains power is tricky and computer networks are none-existent. However the faster CPU, better graphics, double the memory of the Eee is sure to be better for Uae - although I do not recall ever being happy with Uae performance on anything short of a Ghz or two. That said, I think its far more optimised these days.
