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Colombia Signs Up For OLPC Laptops With Windows
Posted by
timothy
on Tue Nov 11, 2008 09:42 AM
from the buncha-the-green-ones-hold-the-sugar dept.
from the buncha-the-green-ones-hold-the-sugar dept.
Reader Cowards Anonymous writes with this excerpt from Good Gear Guide: "Colombia will become the second country to use the One Laptop Per Child Project's (OLPC) XO laptops running Microsoft Windows XP in schools after signing an agreement for pilot programs in two towns. Schools in the towns of Quetame and Chia will be outfitted with the small green XO laptops developed by the OLPC. The pilot programs are expected to expand over time."
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Submission: Colombia signs up for OLPC laptops with Windows by Anonymous Coward
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Tragedy (Score:5, Funny)
Isn't there enough pain and suffering down there?
Re:Tragedy (Score:5, Funny)
Windows XP requires [microsoft.com], a 233 MHz CPU and 64 MB of RAM.
I can just picture Microsoft suggesting that the XO is overpowered for the job, and that they should run Vista instead!
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
- 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
- 512 MB of system memory
- 20 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space
- Support for DirectX 9 graphics and 32 MB of graphics memory
- DVD-ROM drive
- Audio Output
- Internet access (fees may apply)
No way in hell that they're going to force that upon Micro-Laptops. If anything Microsoft are shooting themselves
Re: (Score:2)
- Audio Output
Uhhh... Why?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Kinda odd considering that King Crimson have always been an under-the radar cult band and using their sounds on Linux would be a more fitting match. Microsoft should have instead had Fall Out Boy or Puff Daddy record the sounds, those'd be much more appropriate to Vista
Deskchairs raped with napalm fire (Score:2)
The real question: (Score:2, Funny)
Will they be reinforced to stop a 9mm round?
=Smidge=
Re:The real question: (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
What I find more funny is that he started out at -1.
gentlemen (Score:3, Funny)
Too bad it's WIndows (Score:4, Insightful)
This is a blip. (Score:4, Informative)
A.) This is TWO TOWNS. I'm finding all the teeth gnashing here a bit sad. The real deployments are already underway and most are using Linux.
If you RTFA you'll find that: .several towns in Colombia were in the process of buying or deploying its XO laptops, most of which use a Red Hat Fedora Linux OS... An initial 20,000 laptops will be handed out . . . in . . . Bogota. Another 90,000 laptops will be deployed in Cartagena.
. .
Around 1,000 XO laptops have been earmarked for schools in regions where the Revolutionary Army of Colombia rebel group remains active. The XO is already used in Marina Orth, former home to drug lord Pablo Escobar.
B.) And what makes you so sure that in a few years they won't eventually switch the OS on the M$ boxes when the press and suits go away? Quite a few Latin American countries are framing the switch to Linux as a nationalistic thing, as a chance to use Spanish-language optimized versions from Mexico instead of the Norteamericano corporate beast.
In short, dudes, relax.
Parent
F*ck "justice". Let's stick to concrete tools. (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, waddayaknow? A visitor from the past. 1973, perhaps.
Take off your beret, put down the joint, and join the twenty-first century. Those of us living in the real world have long since figured out that projects like OLPC are among the cheapest, fastest ways per child to, say, increase literacy.
You want clean water and reductions in child mortality? Then you need people who understand basic concepts of biology so that they understand *why* they need to track what is upstream versus down from a latrine.
You
failure for Sugar, not for Linux? (Score:4, Interesting)
I have to wonder what role Sugar plays in the decision to go with XP.
You get one choice that looks like a computer, windows and menus and the like; and you get one choice that looks like nothing you've ever seen, that doesn't give kids experience with a typical computer internface and is based on unproven ideas about how children learn.
OLPC w/ XFCE FTW.
Re:failure for Sugar, not for Linux? (Score:5, Insightful)
and you get one choice that looks like nothing you've ever seen
Oh, this old, tired line again. When I was at school, sure there was MS and Word, but it was DOS 3.2 and Word 2.something which ran in text mode only. If I remember correctly. So frankly what I had at school was NOTHING like what I have now. The point is, it doesn't matter what you teach kids today, since it will be nothing like what is in the office when they turn 21, even if you teach them MS products, they won't be the MS products of 2020.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Windows 3.1 and multimedia PC's are about two decades apart.
--Toll_Free
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually, you did learn something. You learned about memory-mapped I/O, something that most programmers of higher-level OSes are never exposed to (because they use APIs instead). Later, when you get down in the dirt and have to write a driver or something, your C64 general programming experience has prepared you for something that normally
Re: (Score:2)
You get one choice that looks like a computer, windows and menus and the like; and you get one choice that looks like nothing you've ever seen,
Have you actually used Sugar? The difference between Sugar and Windows is really no different then between Gnome and Windows or KDE and Windows or any other GUI. Sugar really only has two main differences to a normal GUI: every application is started in fullscreen (just like on lots of PDA, mobile phones, etc.) and you don't have a normal filesystem, instead you get a Journal which really is not much different from Gnomes Beagle or other desktop search applications. Other then that its really just cosmetic,
Don't they know? (Score:2)
hmmm. (Score:5, Insightful)
Installing Microsoft software in OLPC's laptops has been controversial. OLPC started out offering Linux on the devices because the OS costs nothing and organizers believed it made the device run more efficiently. Some open-source software advocates hoped the XO would spread the use of Linux and the open source philosophy to the 5 billion people living without computers in the developing world.
Microsoft hopes to capture these 5 billion people for its future market potential.
Re:hmmm. (Score:5, Insightful)
As opposed to the equally blatantly stated "Spread the use of Linux and the open source philosophy"?
They're both attempting to do the same thing... but apparently, Microsoft has more money to throw at the problem.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Spreading free and open access to information is a bit nicer goal than getting the kids young so we can rape them with licensing fees when they get older.
Re:hmmm. (Score:5, Insightful)
Possibly. I'm not necessarily convinced that free and open access to information is necessary... or even useful.
However, IMNSHO, that's not what Open Source is about anyway. Open Source has really never been terribly important for your average person; all of its important freedoms relate to developers. The freedom to sprout wings and fly away is irrelevant to people who have no ability to sprout wings and fly away, and in the same manner, the vast majority of computer users (and this percentage is growing, not shrinking) are not developers. Open Source, arguably, does not strive to protect them or provide open and free access to them.
Microsoft's tactics are primarily profit-driven, of course. But Microsoft is no longer a booming growth organization like it once was; it must shift its goals toward long-term sustainability and medium growth, and this it has tried to do. You'll notice this in the fact that Microsoft's licensing fees are not terribly high. The vast majority of users, in fact, do not pay these fees on anything but an irregular basis, and the fees they do pay, which are rolled into OEM machines, are so low when spread across the time involved that Microsoft's 'raping license fees' work out for your average user somewhere between $20-$30 per year, I would imagine.
Is free cheaper? Certainly! But it's patently obvious that Microsoft hardly rapes their customer base with license fees. This is especially true in developing countries where copyright infringement runs entirely rampant. Huge numbers of people would rather pirate Windows in the developing world than run Linux, and I think that says something about Microsoft's sustainability strategy.
Ultimately, I think Microsoft's attempts here, and in various other places across the globe is merely an attempt by the organization to replace its pirated software with licensed software, by making it clear what benefit partnership with Microsoft brings, including huge rebates and funding sponsorships. The problem is that Linux doesn't bring huge wads of cash with it. The value of open source software is intangible and arguably non-existent to a lot of these people.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Why, as a consumer, can I not buy Windows for a similiar low price, or a low multiple? Why is it in the hundreds of $$$? Why are there over 6 versions of Vista now? Why not just 2?
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
For much the same reason as large organizations get deep, deep discounts on anything else and individuals don't. Economies of scale.
As for the versioning, it's worth nothing that while there are... six? versions of Windows, Microsoft has not attempted, nor expects, that all of those versions of windows can be bought by all people.
Re: (Score:2)
For much the same reason as large organizations get deep, deep discounts on anything else and individuals don't. Economies of scale.
Economy of scale refers primarily to production. The savings come from manufacturing 1 million identical widgets, whether you sell them to 1 million individuals or 100 large companies is not as important. It's how Ikea can offer cheap furniture, even though most of us buy one table at a time.
Now, sure, there are some savings in delivering large orders, but discount bulk pricing is more an issue of marketing and leverage than 'economy of scale'.
Re: (Score:2)
> of users, in fact, do not pay these fees on anything but an irregular basis, and the fees they do pay,
> which are rolled into OEM machines, are so low when spread across
> the time involved that Microsoft's 'raping license fees' work out
> for your average user somewhere between $20-$30 per year, I would imagine.
It's not just about the Microsoft tax but the fact that Microsoft
conspires against you in order to make it nearly impossible to
use anything else. It doesn't matter what your requirement
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Firstly, it's linguistically incorrect to call it a tax. A tax, by definition, is a charge imposed by a government.
However, that point aside, your argument is n
Re: (Score:2)
So what you're saying is that things like libraries aren't useful? Please explain that statement in clearer terms...
How Open Source benefits consumers (Score:3, Interesting)
I hate getting into internet arguments, and I'm only replying to this comment because Atlantis seems like a thoughtful person who has presented a reasoned, but off-mark perspective here.
The freedoms that Open Source brings to developers directly impacts users. Support for hardware and software provided by corporations can only last as long as there is a commercial interest in p
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, but the linux option will benefit the kids more...
Linux gives them a system which is open, allowing those kids who are technically minded to learn about it in depth and provide support to their peers. When they grow up, those kids will be able to sell such services to others, while the non technical kids will be able to buy support services from the others. So you end up with an IT industry that's locally based, rather than having to pay for expensive foreign services and additional software (what seem
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Perhaps, but you certainly haven't proven such a claim.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I call bullshit.
Accordingly, your theory would say that nobody in IT today would have learned on MS platforms.
I did.
And most people in the industry, outside of *nix and OS/400 types, also did. Or migrated from other machines to PC based hardware when the other machines (Commodores, etc) disappeared.
So saying that open source will breed tech types is complete bullshit. Tech types will figure out how to work on their machines as well as modify them, no matter what the operating system is.
--Toll_Free
Re:hmmm. (Score:5, Insightful)
The funny part is, it's the OSS advocates referenced in the article who have been pushing "get 'em while they're young" under the guise of "offering a better etc..." as a feature while insisting the same behavior by Microsoft is a bug.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
It doesn't matter that they don't have a financial motivation - it matters that they have a political agenda they've been pushing under the guise of a charitable effort. If you haven't seen any "under the guise of" type posts, all I can think is that you haven't been reading the coverage of the OLPC here on /. - because those posts have been abundant.
Cool (Score:3, Funny)
Now they won't need drugs mules anymore because they can simply email us the cocaine!
Even in Colombia, Microsoft is trying to catch up (Score:5, Informative)
The groups did not say how many laptops would be handed out as part of the trial nor when it would start.
So it's an unspecified number of laptops at an unspecified point in the future. In the mean time, the linux version of the OLPC is a step or two ahead, and will be deploying 110,000 laptops running sugar:
Last month, OLPC announced that several towns in Colombia were in the process of buying or deploying its XO laptops, most of which use a Red Hat Fedora Linux OS core customized by OLPC and a graphical user interface aimed at kids called Sugar.
An initial 20,000 laptops will be handed out at schools in the capital, Bogota, thanks to several Colombian foundations and private donors. Another 90,000 laptops will be deployed in Cartagena.
Why will this pilot use windows laptops? easy, because Microsoft is paying for a big chunk of it:
Microsoft and OLPC will donate the XO laptops
This is quite interesting, after Bill Gates said the OLPC project was the wrong thing to spend charity money on, which should be spent on more fundamental things like food and healthcare. Clearly, this is not charity, it is fighting for the marketshare of the future.
The official excuse:
The decision to put Windows on the laptops came about because officials in some countries feared a non-Windows laptop would ill prepare students for the real world, in which Microsoft software dominates.
..is totally retarded. Anyone who has had a decent education can learn to use basic office programs in a day if needed. And anyhow, by the time these kids will enter the workforce, windows will be on version 15 (we're talking primary school kids!) and anything specific they learn about the system would be totally useless.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
"...totally retarded"? Right. Don't take your "decent education" for granted. Only about half the Colombians go to high school and it may not even be free down there.
I don't take decent education for granted. I just don't think "using *office" (microsoft's or any other version) should be anywhere near a kid's education, at all, except as a tool to write reports essays and stuff (and for that, OLPC-sugar offers abiword). Just like you don't teach them to operate a cash register, or to build walls, just because that's the work they might end up doing. Education (especially early education) is NOT about giving pupils the tools for today's job market. It is about giving the
What a mistake. (Score:2)
What a waste. Very sad.
Re: (Score:2)
You're seriously trying to compare ANY Chevy to ANY german car?
What are you smoking?
A volkswagen engine is bound to be an IMPROVEMENT.
Over there across the pond they don't just try to paint a turd a pretty color and try to sell that to you...
weopenlatest (Score:2)
I'd like to invite some of the government officials who balked at a commie OS to my office where they can see that real business is done with open source products all the time.
Columbia did NOT choose Win-OLPC (Score:3, Informative)
Interesting that it is a right-wing nation like Columbia that chooses to get it's OLPC laptops with Windows installed.
Colombia (not Columbia) made no such choice. This is a future pilot program of unspecified size that microsoft is at least partially paying for. In the meantime, 110000 sugar-base OLPCs are already scheduled for deployment in Colombia (according to TFA). Summary is totally misleading.
Re:...and the slavery begins. (Score:5, Interesting)
Unless you look at the aspects where Linux is inferior to Windows.
They'll all be dependent on us! ... assuming you mean the Windows OS on the XO laptops. Microsoft is based in the US but the company exists around the world so finding support shouldn't be hard from any country. You're too Microsoft focused. Your perceived entrapment case is larger than you think if you broaden your scope beyond only the OS:
OLPC is funded by member organizations, including AMD, Brightstar Corporation, eBay, Google, Marvell, News Corporation, SES, Nortel Networks, and Red Hat.[2][3] Each company has donated two million dollars. While OLPC is 'not for profit', the XO-1 manufacturers including many members are expected to receive 5-10% profit from sales of the unit. [wikipedia.org] Companies are profiting fiscally and Microsoft isn't mentioned...
How did Microsoft becomes "us"?
crippling developing nations with Windows, future generations are gonna hate us more than you can ever imagine...
Nothing is being forced on them. It's the developing country's choice what to deploy. There's no reason for "them" to hate "us" over their decision about these laptops.
Dammit the incessant arguing gets tiring. Ultimately these countries are getting set up with hardware and software. Learning can be achieved on any of these platforms. Many techies are putting their OS arguments as priority over real people in developing nations. This is why things slow down. But this is tech news, and maybe we shouldn't expect to find many altruistic nerds.
Parent
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
How did Microsoft becomes "us"? ...
Agreed. But also remember that the US government allowed that company to get away with its questionable practices. And the government was chosen by the people (isn't that supposed to be a democracy?) so you can't really say people are 0.000% innocent on this.
Nothing is being forced on them. It's the developing country's choice what to deploy.
On the immediate situation you're right.
On the other hand, most (perhaps all?) of the countries in Latin America had their history heavily changed by the U.S. thanks to its Cold War policies.
Things changed for better, for worse? Dunno. I used to be a le
Re: (Score:2)
The US is NOT a democracy.
It's a democratic republic.
BIG difference.
You voted?
--Toll_Free
Cite, please (Score:2)
Link, please?