Is the olpc a sellout?

[days_of_ruin]

What with all the putting xp on it, etc...

[pluviosity]

I'm just amused that Microsoft is keen on keeping XP around for that.......what about Vista, shouldn't its value be just what the kids need?

[Bakon Jarser]

Nogroponte is dead to me. Not that he even knows I'm alive, but still, he's dead to me.

[bufsabre666]

theyre only a sell out if they start charging more, if they can now provide it cheaper theyre doing a service, it seems alot of people are conflating this to linux vs xp, where the mission of the program is to provide a computer to help educate kids

[cardinals_fan]

They only qualify as a sell-out if they charge the kids/schools/charities/whoever more for XP. As long as the price doesn't rise, the OS is irrelevant.

[days_of_ruin]

They only qualify as a sell-out if they charge the kids/schools/charities/whoever more for XP. As long as the price doesn't rise, the OS is irrelevant.

They are.Adding windows takes more space so the price DOES rise.

[Bakon Jarser]

They only qualify as a sell-out if they charge the kids/schools/charities/whoever more for XP. As long as the price doesn't rise, the OS is irrelevant.

The XP version is $3 more. If you want to dual boot both OS's then you have another $7 charge for an extra SD card for a total of $10. This whole thing goes against their original goal of not having limits on what kids could do with the laptop. With XP you have lower limits of what you can do. With no source code you can't change it at all like you can with Sugar.

[OmegaBLK]

theyre only a sell out if they start charging more,

Wrong. The OLPC project and Mr. Nergoponte are sellouts because they are compromising their core values to accommodate a corporation who's only concern is not the children of these developing nations, but only in keeping competition (Linux is this case) from gaining a foothold in a market which they really never gave a damn about until now. Funny now the OLPC project's core values is now more inclusive of proprietary crap when before they led the world to believe that they were all about an open platform and children would be hamstrung with proprietary products.

if they can now provide it cheaper theyre doing a service,

So why not give Windows XP away for free if they (Microsoft) were really genuine about helping kids in developing countries?

it seems alot of people are conflating this to linux vs xp,

No they are not. Support from the FLOSS community for this project had more to do with the openness of it then which FLOSS os was being used. Now with XP, there is no more openness--just a black box that is crippled and closed from the start.

where the mission of the program is to provide a computer to help educate kids

Except we now learn that wasn't really true:

From Ivan Krstic's blog (he is a former security developer for the OLPC)

In fact, I quit when Nicholas told me — and not just me — that learning was never part of the mission. The mission was, in his mind, always getting as many laptops as possible out there; to say anything about learning would be presumptuous, and so he doesn't want OLPC to have a software team, a hardware team, or a deployment team going forward.

source

They only qualify as a sell-out if they charge the kids/schools/charities/whoever more for XP. As long as the price doesn't rise, the OS is irrelevant.

Bzzt. Wrong too. The project compromised their core values by dealing (capitulating) a company that produces a proprietary OS and that has no desire to educate the children of developing nations, but only to get them as new customers.

For the bamboozled or those that do not understand that OLPC has sold out, read: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Core_principles/lang-en

and compare it to this:

XO is built from free and open-source software. Our commitment to software freedom gives children the opportunity to use their laptops on their own terms. While we do not expect every child to become a programmer, we do not want any ceiling imposed on those children who choose to modify their machines. We are using open-document formats for much the same reason: transparency is empowering. The children—and their teachers—will have the freedom to reshape, reinvent, and reapply their software, hardware, and content.

source

Now answer the question again. Do you think they sold out? Sure looks like it to me. How can you state this:

Give me a free and open environment and I will learn and teach with joy.

but then adopt a proprietary os as the base?

[smoker]

i totally agree with OmegaBLK

sell out

[uraldinho]

this is the biggest disappointment of the week for me.

I've been following OLPC news since the project was first conceived. $100 was always too ambitious, although I do think it's possible in the near future.

Not long ago they had problems with Intel launching similar devices, and now this. Big companies simply use their financial muscle to ensure their monopoly continues. I don't like MS's marketing strategy when it comes to schools. In the name of education they give cheap licenses to schools, but in reality they are tying the next generation to a proprietary software.

On a positive note. I've just read, the total orders of OLPC are more than 600,000 and they expect another 400,000 orders in 60-90 days to reach the first million. 1 million laptops is not a big number considering the fact that there are currently around 1 billion PCs worldwide, but it's a start.

I wish them good luck....