Will Microsoft be compelled to open source its Windows operating system? Yes, says Charles Babcock in his informationweek.com article, Why Windows Must Go Open Source. He posits that Microsoft is facing serious competition from Linux on netbooks and other low-end computers, such that if it wishes to protect its application market (mostly Office), it had […]
Negroponte vs. the Open-Source Fundamentalists
Rumblings of discontent within the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project erupted to the surface last week with the resignation of chief software architect, Walter Bender. A split has formed between those, like Bender, who see the project as primarily educational, and OLPC leader Nicholas Negroponte, who wants to push as many laptops into the […]
Resistance is futile
A while ago, I wrote a piece outlining why the One Laptop per Child’s XO computer was not for the average user. It essentially boils down to the fact that the XO uses a graphical environment, Sugar, which is totally tailored to classroom use and eschews anything outside that narrowly defined context, including what most […]
Brando Lives! (I’ll drink to that)
This post is being written on the OLPC XO laptop. Why, didn’t I already make the point that it could be used to do actual work here? Yes, but I’ve got a new, small, usb keyboard for it (yes, I am keyboard obsessed), small enough to fit into a laptop bag accessory pocket, yet big […]
The XO Laptop: Not for you
My One Laptop per Child (OLPC) XO laptop arrived last week, and I have been playing with it since. For those who haven’t heard of this little beasty, intended to be given to children in the Third World, here is a video introduction by David Pogue of the New York Times. The Give One Get […]
One for me, one for the kid
Here are a couple of things from the top of my Xmas wish list. The GlobalLink The GlobalLink was a device used by the characters on the TV series Earth : Final Conflict. The show had one good season before it was dumbed down and limped on for four more before being cancelled. The GlobalLink […]
