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Negroponte Says Windows 'Runs Well' On XO Laptop
Stony Stevenson alerts us to comments from OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte indicating his approval of Windows' performance on the XO laptop. Negroponte said in an email, "Sugar needs a wider basis, to run on more Linux platforms and to run under Windows." The full email is available at OLPC News. He was also quoted by the Associated Press as saying that Sugar "didn't have a software architect who did it in a crisp way," and cited the lack of Flash as an example. Negroponte continued, "There are several examples like that, that we have to address without worrying about the fundamentalism in some of the open-source community. One can be an open-source advocate without being an open-source fundamentalist."
Well, first off for such a bland-looking GUI, it's certainly slow. Xubuntu on the same hardware runs a good bit faster than Sugar/fedora. The wifi neighborhood view is nice, except that when WPA doesn't work you're left out in the cold. Once they fix the WPA issues that'll be satisfactory. The activities are ok, though the activity frame can get annoying when you accidentally hit a corner with the cursor and make it pop up.
The biggest problem is the Journal. Personally I find it far more confusing than a hierarchical file system. More often than not I find myself using the terminal which, by the way, doesn't seem to allow copy and paste.
A conventional computer isn't hard to figure out, even for the very young. Beyond basic functionality, I think sugar will hinder learning more than anything, given how tough it can be to do even very basic things.
but Linux can support flash, what's your point?
IranAir Flight 655 never forget!
The problem is the resolution. A standard XP window will not fit and you will loose the bottom buttons or the top buttons/menu.
The performance is fine. He even plays a few fps games on it.
Gone!
Flash Player: OLPC FAQ:
Quote: "Adobe makes the official Flash plugin, but OLPC cannot ship it on the XOs because it is legally restricted and doesn't meet the OLPC's standards for open software. Instead, the XO ships with Gnash, an open source Flash plugin that can play some (but not all) Flash content. As shipped on the XO, it cannot play YouTube videos. Skilled users can rebuild it to include that functionality."
The Sugar distribution's exclusion of Flash, and only shipping a crippled version of Gnash, is all about open source politics, not technical performance limitations.
Test your net with Netalyzr
The G1G1 was largely a disaster in logistics and customer support. Reportedly things are going much smoother in the actual countries outside the US.
WPA has been working for me - but only with the 703 releace candidate build (which kindly removed all my Activities, including Browse because it was a "clean" release. Whatever -- it was easy enough to restore them.
Returned Peace Corps IT Volunteer
Hidden essids still don't work from the GUI (lack of GUI handles, not lack of ability) check the OLPCNews.com/forum for detailed instructions (also I think wiki.laptop.org has some), but essentially:
/sbin/iwconfig etc0 mode managed essid ESSIDNAME /sbin/dhclient eth0
open a terminal
su (sudo doesn't exist)
(wait a few seconds usually)
it'll then try for a DHCP IP and either work or not.
Yeah, it sucks, but hey -- it's probably not a common use case for their actual target market.
Returned Peace Corps IT Volunteer
From the Urban Dictionary http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=fartknocker
A generic insulting noun, coined by Butthead of MTV's Beavis and Butthead.
While they were watching the premier of GWAR's "Saddam a Go-Go" video, Beavis got in Butthead's line of view of the TV. Butthead shouted "Move it, fartknocker!"
True; and Walter Bender (whose recent departure and the hubub around it caused this Negroponte email in the first place) said that most of the failings of the Gnash implementation were due media codec licenses, not failings of gnash itself.
That being said, if you really need flash, install it! It works! It's even listed in the laptop.org wiki, as well as multiple threads and howtos at OLPCNews' forums; including a good tip on improving flash video performance: http://olpcnews.com/forum/index.php?topic=845.0
(sidenote: I just got back from a trip and used a custom mplayer build to watch movies for the whole flight - woot)
Returned Peace Corps IT Volunteer
There are no bushmen in Nairobi. Bushmen are hunter-gatherers in southern Africa. Nairobi is a modern metropolis in east Africa.
Free the Quark 3 from asymptotic confinement! Bring your charm! Don't get down! All colours and flavours welcome!
The Bayless "Freeplay" radio began with many of the same ideals as OLPC. But it is tough to hold your ground when the OEM giants see opportunities in the same market.
It would be easy for OLPC to go the same way as the Simputer.
You can't hold the line on costs. Your sales projections are unrealistic.
You have a solid platform for development but not much else. The mass-market alternative is leaping ahead of your own technology and is compatible with an enormous library of existing software.
I generally share your annoyance at the misuse of words.
You can be an open source fanatic, but you cannot be an open-source fundamentalist.However, you can be an open source fundamentalist, and it might be exactly what he meant. A fundamentalist is someone who stresses strict and literal adherence to a set of basic (fundamental) principles (see Merriam-Webster's second definition - the one that doesn't specifically refer to modern American Evangelical Christianity). So, an open-source fundamentalist would be a person who stresses strict adherence to the basic principles of "open source." I suppose what principles those are is somewhat debatable, but if they include the idea that all software should be open source (or at least a preference that it should be if not a mandate), then his use of "fundamentalist" could be appropriate, if what he means is that they advocate strict adherence to these principles.
A "fanatic," on the other hand, is a person "marked by excessive enthusiasm and often intense uncritical devotion." An "open-source fanatic" would be someone who is very enthusiastic about open source, and is uncritically devoted to it, not necessarily someone who advocates strict adherence to its basic principles.
Stop. Think about the meaning of the words you are using. Select correct words. Continue.Exactly.
However, since you're pointing out flaws in others' vocabulary, I hope it will not be rude of me to point out a flaw in your own: an open source fundamentalist without the hyphen between open and source would be a "source fundamentalist" who is open. With the hyphen, "open-source" modifies fundamentalist. Without it, "open" modifies "source fundamentalist."
The counter-argument to your statement is that the very act of wanting to sell chips|software for the purpose of selling chips/software is contrary to the aims of the OLPC project. It undermines the educational objectives that lie at the heart of Negroponte's original sales pitch.
So even there is no overt conspiracy to destroy the OLPC ( Just like politicos do not really want to undo democracy ) , the tactics that Microsoft/Intel use implicitly aim to damage it.
Living in a third world nation, I want to convey that it is not difficult to come across a computer. However, It is next to impossible to find one that acts as anything but an impenetrable black box.
Jane you ignorant slut, I was referring to the Thai project for cheap laptops for adults. The one HP was the supplier for and later had to add Dell because HP couldn't keep up with demand, and which happened a few years ago. Not any OLPC project.
IIRC, it is the project which spawned Microsoft creating Microsoft Windows XP Starter Edition.
LoB
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus