Just when you thought you knew everything there was to know about the
OLPC,
Negroponte, and the
Sugar interface, in comes the man himself using the "W" word in an
open-sourced conversation. Curiously enough, Nik Neg has not only stated that the present is "perhaps the most critical stage of the OLPC's life," but he also blurted out a quasi-firm $176 pricetag that would be attached to them. Additionally, he went so far as to admit that "XO's developers have been working with Microsoft so a version of Windows can run on the machines," and while no direct linkages were drawn to the recent
$3 software package that the firm had announced, the writing is somewhat on the wall. Furthermore, a whopping 19 state governors have reportedly shown interest in grabbing a few of the inexpensive machines for their own schoolkids, and while the creator initially stated that the XOs were "designed for a totally different situation," he was also quoted as saying that business in the US "couldn't be ignored." C'mon guys and gals, how about a
little less conversation and a little more
action?
Read - Hints of Windows on OLPC
Read - US schools could adopt OLPC
posted April 27th 2007 1:14AM
Why do I get the feeling Negroponte is feeling the heat from Microsoft
a bit? Don't take this the wrong way, I despise Microsoft in every
sense, but my point is, with Microsoft announcing their $3/unit
software deal for developing nations, does it come to any surprise
that Negroponte & Crew may be working with Microsoft so that it is
the OLPC machines out there doing the whole philanthropic thing, and
not some other brand like Dell or HP? If the OLPC project became
overshadowed by a Dell+Windows mix for the target nations, the OLPC
project would be the laughing-stock of 2007. It's actually sad to
see...some of these developing nations are having a hard enough time
with domestic problems....if they end up getting educational
computers with Windows, that will be just another long list of
problems....bloatware, crapware, whatever you want to call Windows,
it won't be good. The countries will be locked in to the Microsoft
limbo, forever forced into hole-creating 'patches' and the endless
wait for a good service pack or OS upgrade (because Vista sure isn't
cutting it).
I still think a crank charger would be better than the pull-string system this has.
vista ultimate?
Since when has the number 19 been a "whopping" number?
19 out of 50 states is over a third of the US.
Whoops! I interpreted it as 19 countries, not U.S. states.
And here I thought that right or wrong, we'd never have OLPC's in USA schools: http://www.olpcnews.com/use_cases/education/childrens_machine_xo_usa_school.html
.
How I like it when you try to redirect traffic to that lil' site o' yours...
is this a new mac?
why not give this to the kids in USA schools instead of ipods? they are more education centric and handy little mild use computers.
We all know there's absolutely no reason the OLPC couldn't be released in the US with Linux, just like the rest of them. Personally, I think it's pretty sick that Microsoft's positioning itself to infect impressionable young minds with the belief that Windows, arguably one of the worst operating systems available, is the only one that even exists. (And yes, that is what they're trying to do.)
This project should have been aimed at students world-wide, including the US, from the get-go. While a number of kids in this country may have computers at home, in the classroom it is often a different story - many are lucky to have 1 or 2 computers for an entire classroom or even school, and they rarely have internet connectivity - consequently many kids are deprived of the tools they need to succeed at school since computers in the classroom are so scarce. More importantly, many poverty areas of this country have no computers or access to the internet. I would think that it is equally important to provide computers and internet connectivity here as well as abroad - supplying students here and abroad based on economic or educational need should be the goal.
Cool! I hope US schools get access to these, with or without Windows. I am working with the Etoys/Squeak team, and just got my XO-B2 dev unit two weeks ago. I also happen to be involved with a local elementary school as a "reading partner," and I brought in my OLPC for me and my partner to read a book from it (it comes with a bunch of books, only one in English, but also Spanish, Croatian, Farsi, probably others). Anyway, it was amazing to see how excited these kids got over this little computer- not only did my partner tell me I was the "best reading partner ever," she also asked me to come back with her to her class when we were done, which I did, and it was fun to see how pumped the kids get over it. I'd love if I could get these kids one of these machines!
I wouldn't be caught dead with one of these things. They look like they were designed for a three year old. now, when i bring my 17 inch HP dv9000 to school, it turns heads, but where I live no one would want to be seen with one. Make it black, add gloss, maybe something cool like a neat lid imprint design, than I'll think about it.
Jeez -- is there any place safe from the vermin of Redmond? Or do I just smell a schill in Negroponte? By the way -- one does NOT need MS to run a business. Mine works very well without it, thankyouverymuch, and NO -- it is NOT related to the graphics world at all. We're a pharma research house.
I am purposely not reading any other comments but just want to put in my two cents. First, Bill Gates has some real issues for even thinking of competing with an initiative which helps children, purely because it is not Windows based. Business is not just business! Second, Dell would be the last company to have anything to do with downing this project, as we can see by their new push of Ubuntu 7.04 on an array of Dell desktop PCs.
Microsoft should start choking on them selves any time now, so no worries. Keep up the great work for the kids and props to Dell for recognizing open source as a real option.
Cheers...