Back in November of 2006, I wrote a piece about the One Laptop Per Child Project. I was afraid that the project's focus on creating a whole new paradigm (the Sugar UI) would ultimately intervene with the actual goal of the project: teaching stuff to kids. Ivan Krstic, former director of security architecture at OLPC, wrote an essay in which he heavily criticises the OLPC project.
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Member since:2006-02-12
wake up man! OS X is locked to the Apple hardware and the company would see absolutely no reason to let OLPC use it at any price level. Apple sells products where as MS sells software and much like the good ol' neighborhood drug dealer it is giving free samples. There is no free lunch and the fact that the OLPC management is so blind as to not see the MS agenda is just another proof how a good idea alone is not enough to make it big in the business world.
Oh, and the reason why the OLPC never made any progress is because they are treating this like some 2 bit OSS project instead of a real business/job which it is and has always been. 2 years ago the hardware was pretty good. On paper it was the best things since fast food but then came the delays and then the ridiculous idea of selling it to developed nations for 2x the price. Come on, you are not really going to give away a free laptop for every one that I buy. You don't even have a deployment strategy let alone one for giving away free stuff. Plus this very much looks like discrimination based on place of birth/residence ... Anyway the bottom line is that OLPC, while having a huge industry backing and a considerable financial one, has already turned into a fiasco. I did have a lot of respect for the project, today I would be ashamed to say that I work for them.
Member since:2005-06-29
Member since:2006-01-16
"Keeping people learning one single platform, why don't take OS X for instance? Is much clean and not desktop lock in..."
Except that it _is_ a desktop lock in, just as Windows. Thinking about that, you could also call Gnome a desktop lock in.
Sugar has the advantage that it doesn't teach any desktop. It's a dedicated platform as a learning environment.
Member since:
2006-12-22
Keeping people learning one single platform, why don't take OS X for instance? Is much clean and not desktop lock in...
The reason of OLPC was failing was Intel Class Mate pc, bad design decisions, the mesh and eventually the price.
For me, Sugar is great as much they learn to use the computer in an agnostic way, means to not learn XP interface and at the end to be blown away by the Vista's or Windows 7 interface. Is a share that person to get in any way desktop locked in by only one monopoly, even is MS or Apple. The future is education, not the companies!