News On Laptops For Education

AdamWill notes a Mandriva press release with the news that the government of Nigeria has selected Intel-powered classmate PCs running Mandriva Linux for educational use in a nationwide pilot. About 17,000 machines will be involved at first. We can only wonder at the maneuvering and negotiations that went on with the OLPC project. The latter had its first announced order for 100,000 XO machines, from Uruguay, with a potential for 400,000 over time. The bigger news out of OLPC is that Microsoft is porting XP to the platform, and chairman Nicholas Negroponte says that's fine with him: "It would be hard for OLPC to say it was 'open' and then be closed to Microsoft. Open means open."

Re:Why not Vista??

[MikeUW]

Add to this the problem that XP on a low cost laptop becomes the initial hardware price, plus $X for the OS, plus $Y for useful productivity software (assuming MS pushes that too), plus $Z for who knows what else. I know there's no reason anyone would be forced to buy extra software just because their machine runs Windows, but you have to admit that it helps reinforce the mindset that software should be purchased from a company like MS. Try to imagine that mindset combined with the perspective of new users in developing regions where computing is still not so ubiquitous as it is in more developed places. OTOH, Linux (BSD or whatever) on a low cost laptop is the initial hardware price, plus $0 for the OS, $0 for useful productivity software that is often pre-installed, plus $0 for whatever else...and of course, it opens up greater possibilities for for those that move past the point-and-click stage of the computing learning curve.

Re:Open

[DragonWriter]

But 'open' DOESN'T mean that the XO project should have doubled the specs and cost of the OLPC so Microsoft would have an easier time porting to it.

It didn't double the specs or the cost to do that. The cost is still less than double the $100 target, and it was projected to be over that target in the early production runs even before they increased the specs to meet the needs that the countries looking into buying it had communicated. Yes, some of that was probably related to ability to run Windows, but so what? The OLPC project isn't working to advance the interests of developed-world Linux fans, its making a machine to meet the needs of real people in the real world. And if the countries aren't going to buy it if it isn't capable of being repurposed to run Windows (which, if nothing else, gives the countries more options if they buy the machine and later change their mind about the software/content provided by OLPC and its partners), then OLPC needs to make a machine that addresses that concern.

Re:Why not Vista??

[Pyrion]

Why Pro?

Cuz Home can't join a domain.

Open???

[kgskgs]

"OLPC" stands for "One Laptop Per Child", open or not.

If Negroponte said open, only because it made it easier to deliver the envisioned product. If it makes sense to go "Close" and get one laptop per child, then so be it.

You care about "Open" only when you have enough of "Closed". For those who have none, what matters is having something.

K

Re:Open

[Anonymous Coward]

If they're concerned about the real world, they would have used an ARM processor (less expensive, faster, less watts, better durability, etc than the piece of shit AMD geode (rhymes with choad) they're using).

Open for everybody

[xzvf]

XO is an innovation in software as well as hardware. What I would like to see is the laptop in the hands of "rich" nation's school children. Yes, we can afford normal computers, and some school districts have deployed them, but not in an innovative way like the XO project proposition. With a truely open distribution model and relatively rich customers we might find the economies of scale that allow the laptop to cost $100.

Re:I thought open refered to the software

[ISurfTooMuch]

How will an XP port kill the project? Does it precent Linux from being run on it? No. Does it raise the cost of the laptop? Only if MS charges for XP, and it's mandatory that every machine include it.

People would be screaming bloody murder if the OLPC folks had initially selected Windows for the laptop and then refused to allow Linux developers to have a look at it so they could port Linux to it. I fail to see the difference here. Fair is fair.

Flash Drive? Swap File?

[Plekto]

I noticed that it has a 2GB flash drive. I wonder how long it will take for windows to burn it out with with its swap file.

Why not Win2k?

[eniac42]

Wouldnt Win2k be a better target for conversion than XP? It was *designed* in the days of 2Gb HDs, and can actually do useful work from 64Mb RAM..

Has anyone out there managed to get it to boot and run off Flash?

Re:OLPC open?

[the_brobdingnagian]

On the olpc wiki site, there is a page called "Core principles" (http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Core_principles/lang-en). This page lists five "principles" that, judging from the page titles seem to be the core principles of the project. The fifth "core principle" is titled "Free and Open Source", from wich I got my quote. Maybe they should create a page called "things that would also be nice" and put "Free and Open Source" on that page. My opinion is that the page of core principles is actually correct, but they could not find a practical solution that fits all their needs and decided too loosen their principles.

Re:OLPC open?

[FranTaylor]

Ironically enough, rms got the idea for free software when he couldn't get at the source code to the printer in his lab.

I do agree with you, though. You can think of the blob as some microcode for controlling the hardware. It could have been integrated into the hardware, but it would be slower and harder to work with. If it were in the hardware, nobody would be clamoring for its source. If we are really paranoid about drivers, perhaps they too could be boxed-in like SELinux does with applications.

Given that the wireless radio must be constrained differently in different countries, and the regulatory agencies of said countries don't want people to muck with certain radio settings, you can put all those constraints in hardware, which seems like it would be difficult to maintain, or you can do it in a binary blob.

Re:Open

[sssssss27]

Reminds me of a quote by Chuck Palahniuk, "Why have I sold out? You think I'm supposed to grow old, beating some trite old protest drum that people don't hear anymore? Please; protest is now just a backdrop for a Diesel clothing ad in a slick fashion magazine. My goal is to create a metaphor that changes our reality by charming people into considering their world in a different way. It's time -- for me, at least -- to be clever and seduce people by entertaining them. I'll never be heard if I'm always ranting and griping."

It's better to "close" the OLPC a little bit then it is for it to never take off.