This glass is half-full

This glass is half-full

Posted Jan 10, 2008 22:41 UTC (Thu) by dhess (guest, #7827)
In reply to: Why Microsoft Must Control One Laptop Per Child (Technocrat.net) by BrucePerens
Parent article: Why Microsoft Must Control One Laptop Per Child (Technocrat.net)

I think you're a good prognosticator, Bruce, but I hope you're wrong on this one.

Don't get too down on OLPC just yet! The amount of negative press it's received in the last 12 months has been really disappointing. Unfortunately, few journalists are writing about the incredible job the OLPC team has done getting this far. OK, so the XO-1 costs more than the initial projection, the project has been delayed and the software hasn't quite caught up with the hardware yet... but if you've ever worked on a pioneering computer system project of this scale before, or read about one, anyway, you know that these problems are par for the course. In an era where only one of many multi-billion dollar personal computer companies still specs, designs and builds end-user systems, all the way from motherboard to GUI, I think it's incredible that a non- profit organization has managed to deliver a system at all, let alone one that blazes a trail with as many innovations as the XO-1.

It was easy to predict that if OLPC got to the point of shipping production systems, Microsoft was going to get their nose in it. I'd be more worried about OLPC's future if they weren't interested at all. But with all due respect to Dr. Negroponte, who cares what side deals he's making with Microsoft? We've got better things to do now with our attention and our efforts. The OLPC program is the best chance the free software community has had to change the world; not in some personal, "GiantCorp can't tell me what to do with my own hardware" sense, but in a far-reaching, life-altering way.

We have real hardware now and at least a few thousand eager children with machines in their hands, and thousands more to come. Let's stop complaining about all the things that OLPC has done wrong, stop worrying about Microsoft's insidious plans and concentrate on giving kids all over the planet a reason not to boot into Windows: by writing some great free software that will fundamentally change their education and introduce them to the unbelievably fascinating world of computers that we all love so much!

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Only responding to the last paragraph:  I think these "Stop worrying about politics and get
back to coding!" calls are what get us into these messes.

If money is going to a charity, and a corrupt company is redirecting that money into its own
pockets, the solution is not "Quick! Increase the money!".  The solution is that someone has
to care about that money helping the people it is intended to help.

The years of anti-software-patent campaigning taught us that programming doesn't solve all
problems.  Companies like Microsoft have realised that politics and advertising are two of the
free software community's weak spots.  They can't tackle us in terms of producing good
software, so they're tackling us where we are weak.  We have to beef up our work on public
policy and awareness.