I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the impact on the homebrew scene. I don't really think of backup as neccessary for cartridges, but AFAIK these devices are the only way to make a http://www.littlesounddj.com/lsd/ or http://www.nanoloop.de/ cartridge. I don't know much about the DS/Wii scene, but I bet they are also targeting stuff that affects thriving GBA and GBC homebrew projects.
The problem here seems to be that console makers don't offer any legitimate means for users to create software for their platforms without forking over lots of cash for a developer license (and a machine that runs unsigned code).
I'm a hobby musician, by no means a pro, but I'm in no way disappointed by the musical options on linux. I wouldn't recommend it to someone who is a *nix newcomer (as the article says, you still have to compile your own apps sometimes, you have to fiddle with qjackctl to get the best performance, etc), but it's not terribly hard to get your DAW up and running.
However, it's ridiculous to judge Linux as a "musician's platform", because that's far too general. Do you want to work with MIDI? Seq24 is great. Do you want to mess with synths? Amsynth and ZynAddSubFX are easy and powerful. Do you want to record your live performances and do some quick editing/mastering? Audacity and LAPDSA plugins. Using a $1000+ software suite to record your amateur musical ideas seems like overkill to me.
That said, if you do want to run a professional studio, you have a bit more configuration to do and a new learning curve. After you get qjackctl tweaked, patch a kernel for realtime (or whatever installation method is fashionable these days), and learn the basics of Ardour, you would have a professional quality DAW. Once Ardour gets full midi capability (thanks to Google SOC), it will probably be the All-In-One environment for Linux.
Oh yeah, don't forget EnergyXT2!!! It's only $50 and runs on Windows or Linux.
The first time I heard about this was after Bill Gates (and the intel ceo) blasted the OLPC project. After a quick google, here is an article from a year ago about the subject: http://www.windowsfordevices.com/news/NS2619367620 .html
Negroponte's publicly challenged the criticisms, reminding Gates and Intel that this is NOT a consumer machine. "We're going to help them make a Win CE version, so geez, why criticize me?"
"The project's operators say the price should fall to $100 apiece next year, when they hope to produce 50 million of the so-called "XO" machines, before dipping below $100 by 2010 when they aim to reach 150 million of the world's poorest children.
"We're pledging to always drive the price down," Walter Bender, the group's president of software and content, told Reuters. "Rather than continuing to add features to keep the price inflated, we're keeping the feature set stable and driving the price down.""
just wanted to respond to some other comments people made...
This is not just "last year's laptop." At the very least, it uses a pretty interesting new wireless card design for integrated mesh networking stuff. I remember that because there was all this controversy about the card having some binary blob in it that Quanta or whoever didn't have the rights to open source.
To the comments about surfing the web, dangers of online predators, etc...I'm pretty sure that in many of the target regions, there is NO WEB ACCESS. That's why the mesh networking stuff is so important. The XOs really rely on community interaction and group participation to give students the educational benefit.
Note that Quanta's mobile laptop, even if the underlying hardware and most of the software are the same, is NOT the OLPC machine. AFAIK OLPC has always wanted their project to exist outside of commercial markets. One of the main reasons for this was to help prevent a black market trade in these machines. If you have an XO, and you are not a child registered to use it, it will be very obvious that it is stolen.
As far as the governments taking the laptops and doing something evil or keeping them from their intended users, does anybody know how far OLPC is going to step in with the education and support issues? Negroponte has said many many many times that OLPC is not a hardware project, it is an education project based on decades of research with children and computers. It would seem odd if they didn't send their own people out in the field to provide support and guidance to the teachers and students who get to experience the XO. I would love to be one of them!
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I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the impact on the homebrew scene. I don't really think of backup as neccessary for cartridges, but AFAIK these devices are the only way to make a http://www.littlesounddj.com/lsd/ or http://www.nanoloop.de/ cartridge. I don't know much about the DS/Wii scene, but I bet they are also targeting stuff that affects thriving GBA and GBC homebrew projects. The problem here seems to be that console makers don't offer any legitimate means for users to create software for their platforms without forking over lots of cash for a developer license (and a machine that runs unsigned code).
However, it's ridiculous to judge Linux as a "musician's platform", because that's far too general. Do you want to work with MIDI? Seq24 is great. Do you want to mess with synths? Amsynth and ZynAddSubFX are easy and powerful. Do you want to record your live performances and do some quick editing/mastering? Audacity and LAPDSA plugins. Using a $1000+ software suite to record your amateur musical ideas seems like overkill to me.
That said, if you do want to run a professional studio, you have a bit more configuration to do and a new learning curve. After you get qjackctl tweaked, patch a kernel for realtime (or whatever installation method is fashionable these days), and learn the basics of Ardour, you would have a professional quality DAW. Once Ardour gets full midi capability (thanks to Google SOC), it will probably be the All-In-One environment for Linux.
Oh yeah, don't forget EnergyXT2!!! It's only $50 and runs on Windows or Linux.
The first time I heard about this was after Bill Gates (and the intel ceo) blasted the OLPC project. After a quick google, here is an article from a year ago about the subject:0 .html
http://www.windowsfordevices.com/news/NS261936762
Negroponte's publicly challenged the criticisms, reminding Gates and Intel that this is NOT a consumer machine. "We're going to help them make a Win CE version, so geez, why criticize me?"
Second, in response to complaints about the price, they have said for a long time that the $100 price point is the eventual goal, not the initial cost. From http://www.olpcnews.com/prototypes/olpc/olpc_xo_10 0_dollar_laptop.html
"The project's operators say the price should fall to $100 apiece next year, when they hope to produce 50 million of the so-called "XO" machines, before dipping below $100 by 2010 when they aim to reach 150 million of the world's poorest children.
"We're pledging to always drive the price down," Walter Bender, the group's president of software and content, told Reuters. "Rather than continuing to add features to keep the price inflated, we're keeping the feature set stable and driving the price down.""
This is not just "last year's laptop." At the very least, it uses a pretty interesting new wireless card design for integrated mesh networking stuff. I remember that because there was all this controversy about the card having some binary blob in it that Quanta or whoever didn't have the rights to open source.
To the comments about surfing the web, dangers of online predators, etc...I'm pretty sure that in many of the target regions, there is NO WEB ACCESS. That's why the mesh networking stuff is so important. The XOs really rely on community interaction and group participation to give students the educational benefit.
sorry for the double post
As far as the governments taking the laptops and doing something evil or keeping them from their intended users, does anybody know how far OLPC is going to step in with the education and support issues? Negroponte has said many many many times that OLPC is not a hardware project, it is an education project based on decades of research with children and computers. It would seem odd if they didn't send their own people out in the field to provide support and guidance to the teachers and students who get to experience the XO. I would love to be one of them!
Summary:
Quanta != OLPC
OLPC != hardware project