__/ [ The Ghost In The Machine ] on Tuesday 29 May 2007 16:21 \__
> (I have no idea what to make of this piece.)
>
> http://www.madpenguin.org/cms/?m=show&id=7833
>
> [...]
>
> Our interest here is on the operating system, so
> in a laptop that is supposed to open up mainstream
> technology to kids for the first time, what kind
> of OS would you expect to be in use? Windows is the
> worldwide standard, so you might expect Uncle Billâ??s
> operating system to make an appearance, but youâ??d
> be wrong. OS X is gaining in popularity, and Apple has
> always been a leader in education, but even so, Uncle
> Steveâ??s operating system isnâ??t on this laptop.
> Surprisingly, a trimmed down version of Fedora Core
> Linux has found a home on this laptop.
>
> (Well, unless one wants to play "toggle the program
> in", something's got to go in there. I'm old enough to
> have built an ELF so know how painful that could be.
> I hardware-hacked in a hex keypad at one point, which
> made it a lot easier. :-P This was back in the early 80's,
> before the IBM PC took over the world.
>
> At that, toggling in was an improvement over plugboards.
> Thankfully, I missed that era.)
>
> The Top 5 Things I Hate About Linux
>
> (What an odd place to put a link. I'll be reviewing this separately.)
>
> Just to clarify, I donâ??t think the decision to have
> Linux on this computer is a bad idea to begin with,
> but I do believe the Sugar GUI that the students see
> and use will be very limiting. The interface basically
> involves a number of big icons that allow students
> to do various things, and while there is some nice
> Internet functionality, it doesnâ??t resemble anything
> that weâ??re used to with desktop computing. Simple
> can be good, but this looks more like one of those
> interfaces from a LeapFrog product that you can buy
> at Toys "R" Us.
>
> (It appears that the Sugar GUI is his primary complaint.
> This isn't Linux, any more than IE is Windows. It's not
> even that widely used *within* Linux distros -- I for one
> have never seen it, though I might have seen a pic or two
> of it. Since I'm not a WiFi nut, I'm not sure it'll be
> all that useful to me personally.)
>
> Donâ??t get me wrong - I know that stuffing a full
> version of Windows or OS X on one of these machines
> is difficult due to the hardware thatâ??s contained
> within, but with that said, light embedded versions
> of these products could have been a possibility, and
> Steve Jobs even offered OLPC free usage of OS X on
> the laptop! Instead of taking him up on the offer,
> theyâ??ve opted to go completely with open source
> software, which is a rather gutsy move if you ask me.
>
> (Windows CE (or perhaps now it's Vista Embedded Edition?)
> is already available -- though I've no idea how good it
> is, and how well it will fit within the machine specs,
> though Orange Phones have been using a variant for years.
> Presumably Symbian might play in this space as well.
> Of course, Linux can be made with a *very* light footprint,
> which is one reason why it might have been picked here.
> That, and its relative openness.)
>
> Open source has its time and place, and its time and
> place isnâ??t on the $100 laptop for students. Students
> need to learn about technology with the primary tools
> that are actually used by other people. They may
> "learn" about computers and technology on this laptop,
> but if you sat them down in front of a real OS, they
> wouldnâ??t know what to do. Shouldnâ??t we teach them
> computer skills that are actually going to help them in
> the future? Unfortunately, this Sugar isnâ??t so sweet.
>
> (An interesting subpoint, though one could counterargue
> that Linux, or Open Source, will be the wave of the future;
> certainly it's been hyped up (and ramped up) for more than
> a decade now, since its somewhat inauspicious beginning in
> 1991. Of course, what 8-year-old kid (African, European,
> Asian, or American) is going to know about interrupts,
> monitors (the software kind, that is), and spinlocks? One
> might envision a playable Flash game based thereon, but
> that's about it -- and it will lose quite a bit in the
> translation.)
He has already been slammed over this in many place, including COLA. It's a
Mac fanboi. I suspect he never even used Linux for more than an hour.
--
~~ Best regards
Roy S. Schestowitz | Open Source Reversi: http://othellomaster.com
http://Schestowitz.com | Free as in Free Beer ¦ PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
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