Wilson Rothman—no known relative, although gadget-love might just be in the Rothman genes—has the details at Gizmodo. Also see AP/Chicago Trib.
The TeleRead take: I’ll worry less about the price increase—sooner or later the $100 laptop will live up to its name—than about the darker side of the growing closeness to Microsoft. Will Redmond-style DRM follow in time? Will linux suffer, given all the money that Bill G can throw in?
On one hand, if publishers insist on DRM, it would be good for the OLPC machine to have this “feature” via software. I’m not a DRM cheerleader and rejoice in the music industry’s experimentation without “naked” songs. Then again I want to see commercial books displayed on the laptops, not just public domain and Creative Commons titles. So if the machines can run DRM-infested software, I actually see a positive if publishers continue their unfortunate love affair with “protection.” As much as I dislike DRM, I’m more interested in a wide range of books being available, especially for young people.
DRM as a part of hardware
On the other hand, what if DRM becomes an integral part of the hardware in a truly obnoxious way? Ideally this won’t happen, but like nuclear war, it’s something to watch out for—even if the odds aren’t the greatest. Remember, Nicholas Negroponte, OLPC leader, is a tops-down guy.
One possibility: Maybe, with OLPC’s philosophy of low hardware costs, Microsoft will pick up a few lessons and start pricing its OS and apps more sensibly for mobile machines. That could hurt embedded linux.
A positive: Not just to diss Microsoft. Flaws aside—such as problems with implementation and too much of an emphasis on bundling in constructivism—the OLPC project is a noble cause worthy of funding. Ideally as much of the money as possible will come from rich countries, rather so that the project doesn’t suck up scarce funds from the existing K-12 efforts of developing nations.
Related: OLPC New’s take. Also see an IEEE Spectrum article on the Sugar user environment (found via Peter Brantley). Let’s hope that Microsoft’s new interest in the OLPC project won’t diminish interest in Sugar development.
