I begged and begged. The purity of Linux wasn’t enough by itself for the One Laptop Per Child‘s XO-1 laptop. As a literacy-promoter, it also needed apps such as a simplified version of FBReader. OLPC’s current PDFish approach is a disaster.
Now guess what? Although Linux will still be an option, OLPC’s leadership is rushing to embrace Win XP, with September set as the date for general availability of Microsoft-tamed XOs.
Win and the e-reading mode
“Windows now supports the laptop’s e-book reading mode, standard Wi-Fi networking, camera, writing pad and custom keys, as well as the power-saving and other features of the XO hardware,” says the OLPC-Microsft announcement. Just what does this mean? Screen drivers? Also DRMed Microsoft Reader books on the XO? Or other Microsoft e-reading software? Almost surely, Bill-blessed readware will be running on the XP. If so, what about e-book standards such as ePub? Having backed off on Linux, OLPC could well do the same on readware and 
DRM.
DRM and related tech could potentially be rather dictator friendly. Toe the line or we’ll cut access to your books. Oh, and as long as things are closed, we’d like to do an Amazon Kindle act and be able snoop on what you’re reading and how you’re using the machine. We’re the government. We care.
Open source community partly to blame
Yes, I’m disappointed mainly at the OLPC leadership. But the free and open source community didn’t help, either. In e-book terms, an XO-ized FBReader could have made a world of difference in the ease of use and flexibility of the XO-1 as a reading tool—and thus have helped to make the open approach more appealing. Weren’t e-books to be among the XO-1’s main apps?
Question: Anyone know if/when existing XO-1 owners in the Give One Get One program will get access to Windows? I’m tempted to go that route myself on my G1G1 box. Right now—maybe things will change—I really don’t see that much of a future for my XO as an evolving Linux machine, given the OLPC community’s less than full support of e-reading needs. On the XO-1’s small screen, as I see it, PDF and other nonreflowable formats won’t cut it even for adults, much less K-12 students. While XO-adapted PDF will be available, users won’t enjoy the full range of font choices they would with FBReader, which, by the way, can read not just ePub but also HTML, nonDRMed Mobipocket and a bunch of other formats.
The positives: Granted, the OLPC hasn’t reached the $100 price goal, and the use of Microsoftware on future machines could stretch out the time needed. But OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte deserves praise galore for popularizing low-cost hardware, despite his major bungles (such as refusal to push the machine aggressively in the U.S. and other wealthy countries—which could have meant greater economies of scale). Asus owners should bow down three times a day in his direction. Even though I’m POed, mightily, over the XO decision, I remain convinced that the world is a better place as a result of OLPC’s existence. If nothing else, remember the amazing high-res display that the OLPC developed.
Suggestion to Negroponte: At least try to get Microsoft to do ePub-compatible software. Related: Techmeme and Google roundups and OLPC News and CNET. Also see Groklaw articles from earlier this month and before and a December post in a Microsoft blog.
Related: Techmeme and Google roundups and OLPC News and CNET. Also see Groklaw articles from earlier this month and before and a December post in a Microsoft blog.
“Yes, I’m disappointed mainly at the OLPC leadership. But the free and open source community didn’t help, either. In e-book terms, an XO-ized FBReader could have made a world of difference in the ease of use and flexibility of the XO-1 as a reading tool—and thus have helped to make the open approach more appealing. Weren’t e-books to be among the XO-1’s main apps?”
The XO isn’t a commercial device so chances are there aren’t that many in the hands of opensource developers anyway. As it isn’t (and can’t be) a commercial project I doubt there’ll be much effort put into DRMed e-books by MS, particularly as it’s going to be hard enough to squeeze XP onto an XO as it is.
What you’re REALLY looking forward to is the 2nd generation of licensed and commercialized XOs which should be coming any day now (hopefully). I’m sure those will come with the option of XP – it wouldn’t make any sense for them not to. Using the UMPC XP license that’s now been given the greenlight by MS should let them run most Windows software.
All theoretical, of course.
Just to clarify what I said there. I’m not suggesting that the OLPC project themselves are going to release a commercial version. It would jar with them being a charity.
However the technology behind the XO can be licensed so the screen could surface in other tablets. In fact I’m pretty sure the lady behind the screen tech (too lazy to look up) left the project with a view to commercializing the technology, possibly in the e-book area but I can’t remember the specifics.
The problem isn’t with the open source community. OLPC essentially “closed” the XO-1 by requiring everything to go though the Sugar interface. If OLPC had made it easy to integrate existing Linux apps into the machine then they could have leveraged a much wider community. Instead their solution is to switch to another OS and (presumably) not tie it to Sugar. Then Linux can be blamed for the problem, instead of OLPC’s poor design choices.
Bill and Alan…
B: Actually there is the risk of DRM ending up on the XO because of pressure from misguided educational publishers. As for commercial vs. noncommerical, I still maintain that economies of scale would be more achievable without sharp lines between the two. Then we’d see more apps created. A bunch of open source people did get XOs as developers, and I just wish one of them had gone to the trouble to Sugarize FBReader.
A: Couldn’t agree with you more about the barriers that Sugar threw up. Remember, though: OLPC itself was supposedly part of the open source community. So the mistake happened within it.
Thanks,
David
David asks:
I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you. By all accounts OLPC has huge infrastructure problems, and I seriously doubt that software upgrades for devices they’ve already sold are anywhere near the top of their priority list. My guess is that you’ll have to wait for the Give Another One, Get Another One program to be announced.
And that’s assuming OPLC manages to stay afloat. Key members of the project team have been dropping like flies recently, and if this scathing rant is representative, OLPC may well be on its last legs.
That assertion certainly made for good propaganda, but I suspect that in reality it was Double-N’s baby all the way. The open source community doesn’t usually warm to benevolent despots.
Hmmm. It appears that the Dobies now remove hypertext links from posts. The “scathing rant” to which I referred above can be found at “radian.org/notebook/sic-transit-gloria-laptopi”.
Todd: I’m not getting my hopes up, but I did see the following just now in an FAQ in an OLPC Wiki:
“Can I load Microsoft Windows or my own software onto the XO laptop?
“At this exact moment in time, no, but possibly in the near future.
“OLPC maintains a firm and unequivocal commitment to open source software. Having an open system is fundamental to OLPC’s mission, please see: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Core_principles/lang-en
“Any software developed by or for OLPC is released under GPL v2. The open source community remains a critical success factor in the one laptop per child mission.
“Microsoft is developing a version of its XP operating system that runs on the XO laptop. OLPC will continue to develop its Linux-based OS and distribute it on all its XO laptops. Future distributions may include both open and proprietary software; however, the choice of what to use will remain the child’s and the default will remain open source.”
Still ambiguity here, but who knows? Perhaps the support would come from Microsoft (seller of the XP) rather than OLPC.
Thanks,
David
David,
Another possible factor, from an article that appeared yesterday on Ars Technica:
Dunno what this business about “extra hardware required to support Windows” is all about, but it may preclude installing XP on existing XOs.
Thanks, Todd. I wonder if “extra hardware” means a 2G SD card–which would be no big deal. David