But you had. Sorry, I couldn't resist -- the screen is not monochrome.
http://laptop.org/laptop/hardware/specs.shtml
"Monochrome display: High-resolution, reflective sunlight-readable monochrome mode;"
Regardless I don't want to become exclusively about the OLPC more over what should and shouldn't be included/supported in the grand scheme of things. The OLPC was more in reference to i586 being obsolete.
Thinking hard about it, shouldn't it be the OS manufacture that ensures that their product supports a wide a range of hardware as possible?
Leave applications developers to support the OS and OS to support the hardware. Of course HW manufactures are a rule unto themselves and cause all sorts of issues like the CMOV and PAE issue, and this is only the CPU which is one of the more stable bit's of hardware.