MESSAGE
| DATE | 2008-04-23 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Re: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] How to really mess up something good Part II
|
The Inquirer says so.
OLPC, the educational project which purportedly aims to provide small,
cheap laptops for kids has, since its inception, been running its
home-made Sugar application, run on Linux, but on Tuesday, OLPC
chairman and founder, Nicholas Negroponte, told AP that this was
all about to change.
In an attack on pro open saucers, Negroponte slammed “the
fundamentalism in some of the open-source community†and reckoned
that by pushing the free, open-sauce software on OLPC XOs, the
company was scaring people away. “One can be an open-source advocate
without being an open-source fundamentalist†he snarled.
Which deeply outraged Edward Cherlin at OLPCNews:
Oh? We somehow ran away with your project that you were in charge
of? Is that because you never talk to the workers? And is that because
we would have quit and forked Sugar if you had told us this before?
OLPC is an education project, not a laptop project. And the purpose
of education in the OLPC project is to put an end to poverty. So the
economics of the project matter. You have to pay attention to where
the money comes from and goes to, both. It has been estimated that
aid to African nations has amounted to more than a trillion dollars
in the last century, and that theft of government assets in these
countries has also reached a trillion dollars or more.
Microsoft’s monopoly position in the industry is the issue here. The
children of the developing nations can have software freedoms and
no-cost software, or can become Microserfs, having to pay an annual
tax to Microsoft for software updates to have the privilege of using
their own computers. It would cost developing nations many billions
of dollars annually to buy proprietary software to match what the
children can access for free in Linux. Many times more than the cost
of the computers.
I have run the numbers. For casual users, there may be enough software
bundled with the system, but for power users and secondary school
students needing the latest software technology in their textbooks,
the ratio can easily reach 10 to 1 on conventional laptops, and even
more on XOs.
--
http://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff
http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
"Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME"
"The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers to our own cultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own society."
"> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be damned.<
You must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have been attached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess you missed that one."
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