"Education might be the stated aim of the project but its not the limit of the device."
Actually, I think it was the stated aim, but then they realized that, learning from the OLPC project, they needed to cater to the developers and techs that would buy these for projects.
If their forums were up, you'd see that they said that they have no plans for U.S. distribution anytime soon.
In addition, the HDMI support means you are locked into a T.V., or a computer monitor with HDMI which isn't as common, and the ARM architecture means most of the pre-built code out there won't run on it.
I was caught up in the hype too originally thinking of everything I would do with it, but basically, it is a slow computer without a case that will have few OS options, few software options, and that you could connect to a T.V. While there is much you could do with that, it certainly puts it into perspective.
A better option for most would be to find a used computer on Craigslist or eBay. However, if you live in the UK and are truly interested in a small ARM computer and have everything else you need to use it, go for it. I won't.
Actually, I think it was the stated aim, but then they realized that, learning from the OLPC project, they needed to cater to the developers and techs that would buy these for projects.