

OLPC 2.0: One Laptop Foundation Reboots With New Focus and Big Plans - bobbud
http://www.xconomy.com/boston/2009/01/29/olpc-20-after-layoffs-one-laptop-foundation-reboots-with-new-focus-and-big-plans/

======
jimbokun
"This is not a surprise, as OLPC officials last spring announced plans to make
a version of the laptop that runs Microsoft Windows rather than its original
Linux-Sugar software stack."

This reminds me of when Palm started shipping Windows mobile in addition to
Palm OS. That pretty much signaled the end of Palm as a significant player in
the cell phone space, soon after eclipsed by Blackberry and iPhone, both of
which have an emphasis on software. The reason that people are interested in
Palm now is because they are doing interesting software again with the Pre.

Without Sugar, OLPC is just a netbook with a screen readable in bright light,
clever networking, and low power requirements (and I wonder how running
Windows will impact the power requirements and networking). It greatly reduces
the way they can distinguish themselves from being just an underpowered
netbook. I don't see this ending well for them.

~~~
jcl
It sounds like Sugar will be an installation option for the foreseeable
future; most of the Sugar crew is still participating in SugarLabs, and Sugar
is on all the shipped laptops so far. OLPC is just no longer paying people to
develop it.

Technically, there's nothing preventing someone from porting Sugar to another
netbook (some ports are, in fact, underway), so it's a weak differentiating
factor for OLPC.

~~~
arebop
To me, Sugar was the essence of OLPC. The hardware was absolutely necessary
and cool, but I cared about OLPC because I thought that constructionist
learning could significantly improve the lives of persons living in developing
countries. Sugar seems like a good way to advance educational goals, in stark
contrast to the MS Office training that sometimes passes for education. So,
when OLPC seemed to shift its focus from learning tools to Windows machine
production and distribution, it became much less interesting to me.

I gave less to charity this year because of my personal circumstances and the
broader economic condition, but that just means that my giving was more
carefully targeted. I think serious differences in values between OLPC
leadership and the interested public accounted for more of the g1g1 drop off
this year than Negroponte realizes or is willing to admit.

------
jimbokun
'“Going forward, I’m fond of saying, our first four years we behaved like
Apple,” he says. The XO, he says, is “designed beautifully, it’s in the Museum
of Modern Art, it’s the best of breed. In the next four years, we’ve got to
behave like Google and get to lots of people doing lots of things that are
really for learning, for kids and for the developing world.”'

Uh, yeah. Because OLPC is just like Google in the way they...I mean,
obviously, if you compare...

No, actually, I can't think of any way they're like Google whatsoever. Sorry.

~~~
tjweir
"No, actually, I can't think of any way they're like Google whatsoever.
Sorry."

You're right, they aren't like Google. Currently at least. From the quote he
wants to become more like Google and foster a better community.

You're being a bit harsh.

------
pchristensen
Summary: most success has been in Latin America with some potential in the
Middle East. Leaving Sugar development to the Open Source community. Striving
for no-cost connectivity. Trying to build a library of 1 million digital
books. OLPC 2.0 to distribute specs so others can assemble and distribute?

~~~
jimbokun
"Trying to build a library of 1 million digital books."

This one I don't get, relative to what's on the web already. You can probably
find 1 million books that have been made freely available, converted to either
PDF or HTML.

So does this mean 1 million different books? 1 million books specifically
geared for kids in the developing world? Books that take special advantage of
XO features? It's not clear from the article.

~~~
cabalamat
> _You can probably find 1 million books that have been made freely available,
> converted to either PDF or HTML._

In which case their job is to catalogue them and put them up in a common
format so they are easy to get at.

