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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."
I find the Sugar interface a bit clumsy, but what exactly does that have to do with "open-source" (god forbid anyone use the term "free software")?
These sound like bullshit excuses for pushing M$ crapware and throwing proprietary plugins on the OLPC. Is Gnash really not sufficient? Is Flash that important for the target users, many of whom will only connect to a local mesh network? Or did the focus of the OLPC shift to U.S. consumers when I wasn't looking?
Since when is the international community afraid of FOSS? The reality seems quite the opposite (and that resource is a bit dated, I know FOSS adoption has gone up since).
Geeks like to think that they can ignore politics, you can leave politics alone, but politics won't leave you alone.-rms
Bill Gates has done more to help the poor in Africa than any other human being in the U.S., by a factor of billions of $. You would do well to remember that before you start in with the tired old "M$" and the "evil empire" bashing.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.