[olePigeon]

(Posting the hole thing cuz the damn URL thing won't parse it correctly.)

http://online.wsj.com/public/article...f_main_tff_top

There's a program going on to develop a $100 laptop that can be used by developing nations to get their school children on technology.

Steve Jobs, Apple Computer Inc.'s chief executive, offered to provide free copies of the company's operating system, OS X, for the machine, according to Seymour Papert, a professor emeritus at MIT who is one of the initiative's founders.

But unfortunately:

"We declined because it's not open source," says Dr. Papert, noting the designers want an operating system that can be tinkered with. An Apple spokesman declined to comment.

Awe shucks. But hey, it's better than what Microsoft did. "Donate" Windows and Office to a small school in a country in Africa (forgot which), then collect $20,000 in CALs at the end of the year.

[besson3c]

There were a lot of people criticizing this decision when it was posted to the MacNN front page, and belittling open source.

As much as I love the Mac and recognize the value of proprietary software in some cases, I don't criticize this decision.

[The Godfather]

Papert, a genius extremus, invented Logo and the Lego Mindstorms, but this rejection of OSX is a big flop. Unless he turns it around into a big success that couldn't be done with the Apple OS.

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by The Godfather

Papert, a genius extremus, invented Logo and the Lego Mindstorms, but this rejection of OSX is a big flop. Unless he turns it around into a big success that couldn't be done with the Apple OS.

If they are restricted to older, slower hardware, OS X is just not going to cut it.

[rickey939]

[triskele]

If they do end up running on anything less than today's standard hardware Linux is definately the best way to go. There are plenty of linux distros out now that are optimized for older hardware and actually run comprable applications just as fast if not faster than some newer hardware with the latest version of OSX or Windows. So I think they were right to go with RedHat.

[besson3c]

An operating system is just a vehicle to run applications.

If they have access to all the apps they need in Linux (native apps, apps provided via Wine/Crossover Office, CLI apps, whatever), +1 for Linux.

If the OS will run quickly on their hardware +1 for Linux.

+1 for a free license, and OSS software that can be tweaked to suit their needs


I just want Microsoft out of the picture.

[Salty]

OK I'm sorry but these are going to be AMD systems my guess would be over a Ghz at least. My 1Ghz PowerBook runs GREAT! This is a moronic decision. And why exactly is it best for African school children to be able to tinker with their OS? For many this is going to be their first computer. How many of them are ever going to want to tinker with this thing?

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by Salty

OK I'm sorry but these are going to be AMD systems my guess would be over a Ghz at least. My 1Ghz PowerBook runs GREAT! This is a moronic decision. And why exactly is it best for African school children to be able to tinker with their OS? For many this is going to be their first computer. How many of them are ever going to want to tinker with this thing?

What about the video card?

If the machine is pre-configured and ready to go, no tinkering required. Really, it doesn't take much to operate a Linux window manager, it's point and click just like any other GUI.

[triskele]

Who said anything about tinkering? Chances are it'll come preloaded with whatever software they come up with. Probably just the basics: Window Manager, Word processor, File Browser, Web, Mail, a basic media viewer/player(possibly built into the file browser), and some utility for filesharing between machines(but that could also be handled in the file browser). You're looking at a minimum of 6 apps if you throw in some sort of Dock/Panel/Taskbar thing, but in some Linux distros there's a tendency to have smaller faster apps that only do a single task which could bring the count into double digits. And I wouldn't be surprised if it was in some form of a kiosk mode where the user has no admin powers. As for a videocard they'll probably go wityh onboard being as it's only $100.

[11011001]

I can see some merits in this decision. Such as OpenOffice. It's not a standard Quartz app, and so requires X11. It might be confusing to see a totally different interface than the conventional interface in the rest of the OS among other things.

I don't like the comment about tinkering though. Obviously they have ignored the fact that everything under the hood is still Unix, and very "tinkerable". Most of the services, such SMB, web sharing, etc, are all based on open source software. Furthermore, the kernel is also open source. Meh, what do I know.

I really doubt that RedHat is going to be very intuitive or friendly to these kids. It would have been better to go with a company that has been tackling this usability issue for the last 20 years.

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by 11011001

I can see some merits in this decision. Such as OpenOffice. It's not a standard Quartz app, and so requires X11. It might be confusing to see a totally different interface than the conventional interface in the rest of the OS among other things.

I don't like the comment about tinkering though. Obviously they have ignored the fact that everything under the hood is still Unix, and very "tinkerable". Most of the services, such SMB, web sharing, etc, are all based on open source software. Furthermore, the kernel is also open source. Meh, what do I know.

I really doubt that RedHat is going to be very intuitive or friendly to these kids. It would have been better to go with a company that has been tackling this usability issue for the last 20 years.

Good luck finding people who are into PPC Mach kernel hacking.

Parts of OS X are open, but if you want to be a part of the OSS community, in many ways OS X is the "also-run". A lot of stuff will compile in OS X now, but if you want to go where the action is at, you need to be a part of the Fedora, Ubuntu, Gentoo, FreeBSD, etc. communities.

[GSixZero]

Originally Posted by Salty

... This is a moronic decision. And why exactly is it best for African school children to be able to tinker with their OS? For many this is going to be their first computer. How many of them are ever going to want to tinker with this thing?

I 'tinkered' my first computer to pieces. Maybe that's why it's my career to work with them all day.

[triskele]

I'd actually ditch Open Office for Abisuite it's much lighter and faster. I ran both on my pIII laptop and I'd only use Open Office when absolutely necessary. As I've said before "tinkering" can easily be avoided by setting the computers up in kiosk mode, and this will still allow for updates by admins. As to intuitive and friendly, these are people that have probably never seen a computer before so they're not gonna freak out when they don't see a start menu. All you really need for a small number of apps is an OSX style dock with intuitive icons and descriptive tooltips. The great thing about linux is that there's a dozen or so desktop environments and each one is markedly different from the next. You can have one that looks indentical to windows or OSX, but I'm not sure what they'll do because the two they predominantly use tend to be pretty bulky in comparison to others.

[moonmonkey]

Jobs offering this is about as kind as McDonalds offering free birthday parties for kids.

[rickey939]

[ironknee]

imagine if they said yes to OSX...the Mac market share would surpass windows overnight!

[JoshuaZ]

I can see both sides. The guys behind the laptop program want something that is free, and always will be free. Plus they want a system that will allow for constant tinkering by its users. Which would be better for the kids, giving them legos or giving them an action figure?

As much as I love apple, there is an upside to not running OS X on these computers.

[besson3c]

Moreover, Apple's target audience is not people looking for open widgets and tools, it is people interested in the "Rolls Royce" of computing.

[Sarc]

It's a 500MHz AMD CPU, I'd go for Linux.