OLPC + WinXP = OLPC?

[Pangloss]

I'm surprised there hasn't been any comment on last week's announcement that Microsoft is porting Windows XP to the XO+ (the One Laptop Per Child box, also known as the hundred-dollar laptop).

 

http://money.cnn.com/2008/05/15/technology/microsoft_olpc.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008051519

 

According to the article OLPC president Walter Bender quit in protest during the negotiations, but Negroponte seems determined. Both sides seem to have a valid point. If you're going to really get this thing out there, having Windows on it will help. But it's certainly a double-edged sword, "enslaving" millions more children to a proprietary OS.

 

What do you all think?

 

("Papa, after I ZIP my Excel homework and transmit it to my teacher in the rich, decadent, carbon-emitting West, will we eat today?")

[antimatter]

Really, I don't think the OS matters all that much...maybe they should port Ubuntu or something so that MS doesn't have a chance to 'enslave' any more people.

 

That last line is...really sad...

[insane_alien]

it was origionally going to be a linux distro. then microsoft barged in.

[antimatter]

Damn MicroSoft.

I think linux would've been a much better idea, you know, to get kids into a less main-stream OS....actually, now that I think about it, it would be a better idea to give them a computer with a more common OS, so they can use most of the computers around right now, since the majority employ XP.

[Klaynos]

I don't think have windows on it is an advantage when people have not used computers before... if anything mac's tend to be the best for that kind of user.

[antimatter]

Klaynos, do you really want computers ruined for kids at that early an age?

[Klaynos]

Klaynos, do you really want computers ruined for kids at that early an age?

 

Ruined? Most peoples issues with macs tend to be lack of familiarity in my experience... Mine tends to be the mice, keyboards and lack of virtual desktops though, but that's mostly because of uni ones, and none of that would matter for a new user.

[antimatter]

My school made the unfortunate decision of arming itself with a disturbingly massive arsenal of Macs, and the issues I face can be summed up in a short list:

-Unstable

-In-efficient

-Slow

-Endless errors

-Unnecessary 'user-friendly' functions that slow everything down

-All eye-candy on the exterior, cleverly concealing the piece of **** underneath.

 

Is that enough? I almost failed a project because the Mac I was using at school failed to print a paper, instead, opting to open a series of web pages saying "Get a Mac!"

I don't mean to be rude, merely to express my hatred for mAcs

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

I've only had that sort of experience with OS 9.

[Klaynos]

OS9 was terrible, a crime... OS10 is far far far better....

 

As for your problems antimatter, I use macs quite a bit now, for about 4 years it's been a few hours a week and since going to OS10 we've had no real issues other than sometimes the clustering software slows down individual computers for users...

[Dak]

it was origionally going to be a linux distro. then microsoft barged in.

 

iirc, ms didn't 'barge in'; rather, hardly anyone was buying the laptops due to their lack of support for ms.

 

linux isn't so much better than ms that anyone really wants to pay the cost of conversion yet -- they'd be happy if everyone used linux, but not being the first minority to use linux in an ms-dominated world/market -- and that seems to include africans.

[Pangloss]

it was origionally going to be a linux distro. then microsoft barged in.

 

It IS a Linux distro. As it says in the article I linked, hundreds of thousands of computers have already been distributed and are in use, all running Linux. The XP thing is a planned development, not yet in service.

 

Also Microsoft can't really be accused of "barging in" -- Negroponte is holding the door open and waving a piece of cake on a string.

[antimatter]

linux isn't so much better than ms that anyone really wants to pay the cost of conversion yet -- they'd be happy if everyone used linux, but not being the first minority to use linux in an ms-dominated world/market -- and that seems to include africans.

 

It doesn't really matter about which one is better, it just makes sense to port the OS that is most commonly used.

[Aeternus]

Ruined? Most peoples issues with macs tend to be lack of familiarity in my experience... Mine tends to be the mice, keyboards and lack of virtual desktops though, but that's mostly because of uni ones, and none of that would matter for a new user.

 

I believe they have spaces in Leopard. Although I'd prefer a decent linux distribution over OS X these days, it's just easier to use most OSS tools and utilities, and I'd rather not support yet another proprietary OS and environment (bit hypacritical as I'm typing this on a macbook but my next laptop won't be a mac).

[mooeypoo]

Really, I don't think the OS matters all that much...maybe they should port Ubuntu or something so that MS doesn't have a chance to 'enslave' any more people.

 

That last line is...really sad...

 

Actually, usually the choice for linux instead of xp comes because windows has a very large fee they are requesting on every computer that comes pre-installed with windows.

 

I know that the EEE 900, for example, has some differences between the XP and Linux versions (I think linux comes with 64GB extra HD space or something similar) *exactly because* of those fees..

 

The linux version is cheaper, so the manufacturer can spend the fee-money on more HD space.

 

 

So, maybe going for the cheaper Open Source alternative will actually save money so the computer can either be cheaper, or be able to have more options in it.

 

~moo