Ian Lewis' Blog

I have been reading the OLPC News blog for a while now and frankly I'm kind of tired of hearing about how American geeks are complaining that it's hard to get an XO or that it has taken a while for them to get their XO laptop or that the box was empty when it arrived. Here's a clue for those who are wondering why OLPCs service is sub-par. The XO laptop is was not made for American gadget addicts.

Nothing irks me more than seeing staged photos of playful American geeks fighting over their new gadget that they have no business having in the first place. And then at the same time they complain that OLPC's service is not good. Boo hoo. My shiny toy is broken. I can't believe the silliness. The last person who needs an OLPC laptop is an American computer geek and yet they complain about OLPC and having to wait a long time on the phone to get service. Think about it. OLPC is not DELL. Grow a brain.

If you will be doing OSS development (seriously, not just pretend) on the XO that will be used in developing countries, fine. But most will not. This guy even says that it's a toy and he doesn't know how he'll even use it. Most recieving an XO laptop would say that they are OLPC enthusiasts and that they think that OLPC is a great idea and that it would help the developing world a lot. I agree. But I am not itching to get an OLPC laptop. I will not do any development on one and I'm not a child in a developing country so I have no business having one. OLPC may have instigated the Give 1 Get 1 program themselves but think about it, Nicholas Negroponte said that having an XO if you aren't a child should be a badge of shame. I think that's true, whether you stole it or got it from the Give 1 Get 1 program.

Those recieving an XO laptop might say they are donating to OLPC out of the goodness of their hearts and recieving an XO is just icing on the cake. BULLSHIT. If they cared about children in the developing world they would donate the the laptop they were going to recieve too. Forget the Give 1 Get 1. How about the Give 2 program? American geeks would drop OLPC like every other passing fad that crosses their impatient minds. THEY ONLY CARE ABOUT OLPC BECAUSE THE LAPTOP IS COOL. Period. No other reason.

I just read this post over at the One Laptop Per Child News site on the user interface that they use with the OLPC called Sugar. It's a GUI designed to work on the OLPC X0-1, which is what they call the laptop, and also be user friendly for 3rd world children. No crazy complicated explanations about why you don't have enough memory or swap space or whatever, just a nice little circular bar that shows what applications are using your memory and how much. You can also load and close applications "like toys" by pulling them out of the toybox and putting them back in from the play area, so to speak.

Update: By the way, this is not the real UI for the OLPC. It's just Sugar. The video is "translated" into a Mac UI using a theme (or it's actually running on a Mac) for those who don't like to look at the real UI for the OLPC. Basically I think the author wanted to show off the ideas behind the UI without having to deal with comments about the UI being ugly and plain. If you want to see what people are talking about when they say they don't like the interface for the OLPC check out this video.