OLPC: one excuse per child

[greggh]

http://www.itwire.com/content/view/17830/1090/

Nicholas Negroponte, the head of the One Laptop per Child project, is in the news again, this time trying to rationalise the appearance of Windows XP on the laptop manufactured by the project.

I suspect very much that Saint Nick has taken a page out of the manual drafted by the Linux Foundation. Else, how would he expect people to swallow the following argument?

1. We are using an OS called Sugar on the XO laptop

2. We are going to be dual-booting this with XP shortly.

3. Later, Sugar will run on top of XP.

4. This does not mean the role that Sugar plays in the project is diminished.

5. It actually means that the role played by Sugar is enhanced.

Shades of George Orwell and Animal Farm, methinks.

Negroponte can spin things any way he wants; one does wonder, though, how he reconciles the change to XP with this "core" principle of his project:

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Core_principles

Free and Open Source

The child with an XO is not just a passive consumer of knowledge, but an active participant in a learning community. As the children grow and pursue new ideas, the software, content, resources, and tools should be able to grow with them. The very global nature of OLPC demands that growth be driven locally, in large part by the children themselves. Each child with an XO can leverage the learning of every other child. They teach each other, share ideas, and through the social nature of the interface, support each other's intellectual growth. Children are learners and teachers.

There is no inherent external dependency in being able to localize software into their language, fix the software to remove bugs, and repurpose the software to fit their needs. Nor is there any restriction in regard to redistribution; OLPC cannot know and should not control how the tools we create will be re-purposed in the future.

A world of great software and content is necessary to make this project succeed, both open and proprietary. Children need to be able to choose from all of it. In our context of learning where knowledge must be appropriated in order to be used, it is most appropriate for knowledge to be free. Further, every child has something to contribute; we need a free and open framework that supports and encourages the very basic human need to express.

Give me a free and open environment and I will learn and teach with joy.

[LinuxMint-4]

I wonder if there were some "deals" made to put Windows on these laptops, ....nah that kinda stuff never happens... I wonder if the E.U. has any comments on it....

[snarkout]

I think the much bigger issue at this point is the large number of the units failing and the total lack of a coherent RMA system. I'd say that about half of the people I know who have an XO have had catastrophic failure of screens and or PSU/battery, and the fora are littered with similar complaints. The one my folks bought became a brick after about 6-12 demo-style uses, meaning firing it up, noodling around a little, and seeing what stuff does rather than hours of hardcore hackery. Who gives a shit what OS is loaded on it when it's dead?