Thufir wrote:
> On Sat, 26 Aug 2006, Sinister Midget wrote:
>
>> From: Sinister Midget <phydeaux@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> Subject: Re: [News] $100 Linux Laptop (CM1) is Improved, Gets a Name
>> Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
>>
>> On 2006-08-26, Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> posted
>> something concerning:
>>> OLPC Gets a New Name, New Features
>>>
>>> ,----[ Quote ]
>>> | "The laptop will now come with a 400 MHz AMD processor, 512 Megs of
>>> | Flash storage, an SD card slot, mic and headphone jacks, a built in
>>> | camera, built-in wireless, and an 8-inch LCD at a 1280x900
>>> | resolution."
>>> `----
>>>
>>> http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/26/002217
>>
>> Now it's even /more/ worth the $300 I pledged toward getting one. With
>> those specs it'll beat the pants off the machine I'm using now (even
>> though /it/ only cost $50 at the time).
>>
>> Portable, easily powered, novel. It all adds up in my book.
>
> It's specifically not for consumer use, but for children in the developing
> world. Does include inner city detroit, for example, though, I wonder?
>
Will OLPC spin-off a commercial subsidiary?
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Our_market#Will_OLPC_spin-off_a_commercial_subsidiary.3F
"The idea is that a commercial subsidiary could manufacture and sell a
variation of the OLPC in the developed world. These units would be marked
up so that there would be a significant profit which can be plowed into
providing more units in countries who cannot afford the full cost of one
million machines. The discussions around this have talked about a retail
price of 3× the cost price of the units."
To my eye it looks like a wonderful machine, with an inspired choice between
the trade-offs that have to be made with a device like this. As far as I
can see, it would fulfill my portable computing needs admirably. Not only
is it a very neat portable e-book reader, it's also a fully capable and
user programmable computer with WiFi, which I can use to write my documents
and use the Internet on the move.
I see no other commercial device on the Western market that meets my
requirements the way this would - I don't want a smaller-than-OLPC e-book
reader that runs proprietary software I can't easily replace and isn't a
fully programmable computer anyhow. Nor do I want a "desktop-replacement"
style luggable laptop that takes up half a table when I'm in the pub; I
want a OLPC that's a convenient e-book reader and also a fully
user-programmable computer, that can edit documents with SD cards for
storage, connect to WiFi, and run real net tools (browser, telnet, etc).
When I was showing my wife the pictures she liked it, but asked me why are
these only for developing countries; shouldn't we be getting them for kids
in the United Kingdom as well? And I think I completely agree; they look
like a fantastic learning tool. Not only can the kids use it as an e-book
reader, and a mobile internet device, but because it's hackable and
modifiable the kids who are interested in computers can get programming and
modifying.
Could this lead to another generation of computer whizz-kids, just as came
out of the 1980's "hacker culture" that arose round the C-64, ZX-81,
Amstrad, Amiga, Atari and so forth systems? It would be a great change to
see, kids getting computers they can modify and program themselves, rather
than the culture we seem to have had in more recent times with PC's
where "computer skills" means learning to be a data entry clerk on software
someone else has written. Like the way kids imagine "milk grows in bottles"
kids are seeing a world where doing anything with a computer means first
spending money on software licenses, and then being instructed on how to
use that software the way you're told to - without being able to modify it
and adapt it to your needs.
I want kids to learn that milk doesn't grow in bottles, it comes from a cow
or other animal. And software isn't a magic secret activated by a license
key you buy and which has to be used as supplied, according to an imposed
EULA. Software was and is written by people and guess what? you're a person
too and if the software doesn't do what you need *YOU CAN CHANGE IT* so
that it does!
--
JPB
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