大象传媒

I wonder if they're including a touch screen in order to force Microsoft to remove that clause from their licencing for the low-cost XP versions?

The way I'd see it, Microsoft won't want to be left out of this game (as they don't like to be left out of any) so they'll rub their chins and think, "hmm... we'd rather be able to sell XP on these machines than not... so let's relax the licencing if it'll mean we make money rather than it run Linux..."

just a thought....

Negroponte is even more of a magician than Steve Jobs. Watching the video you can hear the audience go "ooh wow". Hey, this thing doesn't even exist yet!

Good luck with that. I guess it'll be running Windows 7, so that'll be keeping the guys at Redmond busy developing the new drivers for warp drive.

Cool.

Just a curious thought about the lifespan of XO2. Did they mention how long it can last?

My sense is that, more important than the planned redesign, there has been a change in attitude. Negroponte's quote that the "agenda" is now to get other people to "copy" the design seems very significant. Bender and others have had positive opinions of competition, in the past, but this acknowledgement by Negroponte that encouraging imitators can be part of the strategy makes the project sound more like an education project than what it has become.
Also, marketing an attractive device to a U.S. audience seems like a new approach for Negroponte and his team.
As for the device concept itself, I think it takes part in a new category of portable electronics. It's a bit sad that Negroponte should remain so close-minded about potential uses for some of these tools ("a cell phone is not a learning device") but, at least, there's a recognition that the keyboard-centric "laptop" (or subnotebook) may not be the best choice in multilingual contexts which give no specific value to touch typing.

The inclusion of Windows is simply down to one reason: Various governments want it as an option:
This should be a message to the Linux community.

I have used both OS but the simple reason why I dont use Linux is down to its difficulty.

Windows on the other hand is alot more simple .

However education is also important. At my school the simple reason why they would never use open source is because they fear that someone who knows the source code could have snuck soething malicious into it.

Linux I am afraid in its current form is doomed to the niche market.

@tech3475

Windows is simpler then Linux? I suggest you have a look at Ubuntu. A beautifully simple operating system that could teach Vista a trick or two.

And your comment on mallicious code being snuck into open source software just smacks of ignorace. It's because of this open source nature of Linux that makes it so secure. If anyone did insert something in there or if there was a security flaw, then it would get spotted and fixed immediately. For windows you have to rely on the large anti-virus companies or Microsoft themseleves to spot flaws in the code and then wait for a fix.

If anyone did insert something in there or if there was a security flaw, then it would get spotted and fixed immediately.

Unless they inserted it into OpenSSL, of course :-P

Really the choice is starker than that - we already know that Windows contains malicious code, there's just nothing anyone can do about it.

A message to tech3475:

Doomed to 'the' niche market?



Snuck something malicious into e.g. the Linux kernel? You'd be lucky if the maintainers gave you the opportunity to snuck something useful into it.

"Six schools also thought that the reliability and security of OSS was an advantage."



Too difficult to use? Perhaps a mentor could help you out:

From Gizmodo:
"Negroponte says that part of the reason they're unveiling the design so early is that they're hoping people will copy it"

Makes me think that the XO2 may never itself go into production. This could be little more than a sales pitch for all those underlying technologies that could find their way onto lots of other low-cost ultra-mobile computers.

Maybe that's a better strategy anyway: get every one else to knock out their own $75 laptops. The XO2 looks more like an attempt to set a benchmark for stuff like
- power consumption and availability
- really usable screen/keyboard
- size/portability
- local internet connectivity (Mesh etc.)
- operating system and applications (Sugar/Windows)

On the final point, i hope the web experience is included in all of that. XO/Sugar did not deliver the web anywhere as good as its contemporary Windows PCs. XO2 will need to fix that.

"Windows is simpler then Linux? I suggest you have a look at Ubuntu."

This is a common thing spouted by Linux fans. I use XP, Vista, OSX and Ubuntu every day. XP, Vista and OSX are all a lot simpler than Ubuntu. *Every time* I run software updates under Ubuntu my install breaks and I have to resort to a whole load of command line voodoo that I have to google for hours to find the answers to. That simply isn't the case for XP, Vista and OSX in my experience.

The subject is OLPC and not linux vs windows. From what I can see, XO2 isn't much of a laptop but an e-book reader and a different ball game than XO.

I presume the computing architecture in it would be based on mobile technologies like ARM processors, which are rather efficint and low-power. So having a full-blown bloated OS is out of question, and all the arguments about XP vs linux do not apply. However, for XO2 Linux kernel has the upper hand because it's already been deployed in countless embedded systems and chipsets. MS on the other hand, would have to modify its Win Mobile to make it suitable for this tiny device.

OS wars again!

I don't think Vista or XP or any less or any more complicated than most of the user-friendly distros of Linux. I can't actually think of anything that is harder in Linux other than WiFi connections (I don't use WiFi but I know it is a problem. The one time I did try WiFi in Kubuntu it worked well though and to be honest I've always had WiFi trouble in Windows as well using adapters. I've only had success with routers and laptops as far as WiFi is concerned) and dual-monitors (I've never been able to get dual-monitors working properly in Linux although I've yet to try the Xinerama solution) and that's it. I've never had any trouble installing them, most hardware works out-of-the-box in my experience, drivers can be downloaded from the repositories where they are necessary, automatic updates, not just OS updates but software too, if you need them. A lot of software is also there out-of-the-box; media players, office suites, browsers, P2P clients, it's all there. For the average user who has very basic needs, the best user-friendly distros are hard to compete with. Microsoft and Apple are constrained by monopoly laws, proprietary software licensing and the shareholder. Microsoft cannot distribute its own software, are reluctant to do so on the basis that it can otherwise make money from software sales and cannot offer alternatives from other vendors as this would give them an advantage over themselves. GNU/Linux has none of these problems meaning it can freely distribute masses of competing software. They can distribute several office suites, several browsers, several media players. It gives the user a lot of choice, it's certainly not a choice if Microsoft/Apple or nothing at all.

This is not to say that all GNU/Linux distros are easy. Some like Slackware and other purist distros almost pride themselves in being difficult so that the user can learn the kernel and compiling and using command-line. The difference is that Linux offers you the choice. If you want something that is purely based on free software or designed for learning and performance you can choose a distro which suits your needs. However if you want things to be simple in distros like Ubuntu/Kubuntu and PCLinuxOS/GNOME they can be incredibly simple and, in fact, faster and easier to set-up than either Vista or XP due to its out-of-the-box hardware support and pre-installed software and the drivers and software that are available in the repositories and can be installed with just a few clicks.

On the XO2, I like it, it looks good. I'd like something similar. It is a great shame the OLPC has turned to the dark side though.

I have spoken to people who have worked with children in Africa, from what they saw a laptop is the last thing they need. There are more basic needs like tables, chairs, buildings, food, clean water and teachers.

All the money, time and effort in designing the XO2 could have been better utilised towards these more pressing needs.

Leave the cutting edge designing of new form factors to the Apple/Dell/Asus of the world with their cash mountains who can afford to design new technology to support the new casing.

In my opinion, the OLPC project should be focusing on delivering existing technology at a cheaper price (or even free by running as a charity), "one computer per school" would be a more realistic and wider reaching project.

Also, it is not the developed worlds place to debate which OS should be installed on the OLPC, the children should be taught all the major OS`s to give them as much information and a head start as possible.

There will never be a winner of the OS debate and it has been going on for 30 years, just give it up and stop preaching your favorite OS's to everyone else, its a free world, we can all choose, the recipients of the OLPC should also be allowed to try out and choose which OS they want.

Recyling projects already exist that send our old computers to developing countries, this has already reached more people than the OLPC, so the 大象传媒 should publicise these projects.

Even in a developed world a laptop is way down the list of needs of child at school.

I hate not having a keyboard or tactile feedback on my phone. I think this is a step backwards for common sense.

Having seen some talks by Prof Negroponte from 1984, he is a man driven by touch-screen interfaces. However, I think rely completely on a touch screen for user input is pretty tough.

I don't know if it's possible, but if the 大象传媒 tech guys (and gals) could spend a day writing their journalism using only touch-screen devices, I'm sure by lunchtime (if not sooner) they'd agree with me.

#13
"Recyling projects already exist that send our old computers to developing countries, this has already reached more people than the OLPC, so the 大象传媒 should publicise these projects."

That is a very good point but one that needs being very specific about.

Sending very old computers amounts to waste dumping. e-waste is a growing issue in the developing world. PCs in particular need to be broken down and rebuilt to ensure they still have a good life ahead of them. Some components "age" in technology terms more rapidly than others, when taking into account running current operating systems and the latest applications software. There needs to be strong consensus over what constitutes a viable PC spec, one that will give 3 to 6 years of operability.

Essentially what is needed then is an OLPC style programme for refurbished PCs. Its important that the developing world has access to a user experience consistent with the rest of us in the developed world. To do otherwise is like insisting that the developing world must have inferior books or education. it would amount to technological subjugation.
Delivering refurbished PCs to a developing world environment is every bit as challenging as delivering OLPC though. Consider power and internet connectivity, for example.

I take the point about priorities other than delivering computers, but education should never be ignored because of those things. It is natural for people to accept sacrifices to advance themselves. It is an essential part of our human dignity. For the developing world today, computers are as important as the railroad in the 19th century, as motor vehicles in the 20th century. Once an effective computer and information infrastructure is in place this will soon be realized.

XO2? More like NBT (Next Big Thing). It's typical of this useless project that it descends into OS/Browser/Licencing squables and development of a new version having utterly failed to put the version one product into the hands of chidren in anything more than "PR" quantities.

Will version 2 fare any better? No.

The project will stumble on and always fail in it's goal because kids in developing countries don't need a PC, they need water, tractors, pumps, immunisation, electricity etc. before access to YouTube and iTunes.

#16
"The project will stumble on and always fail in it's goal because kids in developing countries don't need a PC, they need water, tractors, pumps, immunisation, electricity etc. before access to YouTube and iTunes"

Go on take away the PCs. It won't make any damned difference to the water, tractors, pumps, ...etc.

Take away dignity and you take away even the will to live. You don't get how this works do you?

Education, computers need power and communications. Build programmes and organise people. Organised people do other stuff to. Programmes that ship computers provide trucks which ship other stuff too. Its all about being part of a solution instead of part the problem.

Access to knowledge, information and education changes people. Offers them alternatives to guns and destruction.

The OLPC was never fated. It works because people made it work. Against the odds. X02 has to be ambitious because nothing short of impossible will do. You still don't get it do you?

I wonder if the timing of this was calculated to preempt something from Apple - there have been rumours of new multi-touch, touch screen, devices at WWDC...