MESSAGE
DATE | 2008-04-24 |
FROM | From: "Michael L. Richardson.com"
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SUBJECT | Re: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] How to really mess up something good
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Sounds like "You can have a Ford any color you want so long as it is Black". ***** Check this out: www.globalabundanceprogram.com/mlr52 *****
********************* Check this out: www.globalabundanceprogram.com/mlr52 **********************
..... Original Message ....... On Wed, 23 Apr 2008 21:06:58 -0400 Ruben Safir wrote: >This just turns my stomach > >OLPC Switch to Windows on XO Is 'muddled,' Developers Say > > >Find a Review Wednesday, April 23, 2008 2:30 PM PDT > >Open-source developers should stop bickering, unite and jointly develop >a Windows user interface to make XO laptops more appealing to users, >One Laptop Per Child Chairman Nicholas Negroponte has urged in a public >note to that community. > >Developers in the open-source community did not take lightly to >Negroponte's comments, expressing outrage and questioning the judgment >of OLPC's shift from Linux to Windows for the XO laptop. Developers >called Negroponte's appeal "vague" and "demoralizing" for the future >development of Sugar, the user interface that currently works with Linux >on XO laptops. > >In a note on OLPC's community site, Negroponte wrote that Sugar is less >than perfect and needs to be developed for Windows to expand the laptop's >appeal. The nonprofit has engaged in discussions with Microsoft to load >Windows on dual-boot versions of the XO laptop. > >"I attribute our weakness to unrealistic development goals and practices," >Negroponte wrote. "Our mission has never changed. It has been to bring >connected laptops for learning to children in the poorest and most >remote locations of the world. Our mission has never been to advocate >the perfect learning model or pure Open Source." > >Sugar needs to be separated from the OS core and made platform agnostic, >Negroponte wrote. "To do that, we need to hire more developers, work >more together and spend less time arguing." > >This week developers began debating XO's possible shift from Linux to >Windows after Monday's resignation of Walter Bender, OLPC's president >of software and content. Bender gained a following in the open-source >community by promoting open-source software for the XO despite growing >efforts to load the laptop with Windows XP. > >In a note posted Monday at OLPC's community news, Bender said that he >was leaving to advance the quality open-source software for learning and >would continue to work with the OLPC community "by adopting the spirit >and methodology of the open-source movement." > >Observers contend that Bender left because he was less than happy with >OLPC's move from open source to Windows on the XO laptop. Some developers >saw it as a sign that OLPC is scaling down Sugar's development. > >Drawing that conclusion from Bender's departure is incorrect, Negroponte >wrote: "We are scaling Sugar up, not down." > >Developers replied that his vision of Sugar for Windows is muddled and >that he is further dividing himself from OLPC's developer community. > >"If you are not serious about Sugar on Windows within the next year, >please continue to avoid 'now' and use 'might' and 'someday' when you >talk about it, and we'll continue to try to make Sugar-on-Linux achieve >its potential," wrote C. Scott Ananian in a community posting at the >OLPC site. > >"I approve of keeping OLPC's options open, in case your current >development team (myself included) cannot deliver on Sugar's potential, >but setting vague (and demoralizing) goals for future development -- >without actually devoting the resources to achieve those goals -- is >madness. You have only succeeded in alienating the developers you need >to make Sugar-on-Linux work, without actually achieving any progress on >Sugar-on-Windows," Ananian wrote. > >Porting Sugar, which runs on multiple Linux distributions, to Windows >shouldn't be hard, but the question is whether users will have the same >experience on both OSes, wrote Tomeu Vizoso. > >Negroponte wrote that Sugar needs to be changed from an omelet to a >fried egg "with distinct yoke and white, rather than having the UI, >collaborative tools, power management and radios merge into one amorphous >blob." > >Vizoso wouldn't chew on Negroponte's vision of a fried egg. "My >understanding is that the Sugar UI is composed of inseparable components >because we wanted to give an integrated and coherent experience. In >which way are you suggesting to split Sugar?" > > >-- >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." > >© Copyright for the Digital Millennium
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