Wayan at OLPCNews.com commented on my earlier rant post about the WankerPC OLPC.
I wanted to reply to his comment, but it grew into this post.
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Be for real!
The OLPC OS is better than whatever Microsoft has today?
Child, puhleese! Toss the crack pipe away!
Right there and then, you totally lose credibility.
Moreover, the technology, Linux, is at best suspect, and unproven as a teaching tool for students. Anywhere.
A form, actually any form, of Windows would not only be better than that crap, but also allow the students to become familiar with what 90 to 95% of the rest of the world uses.
That, not the Flava’ of the Day should be the goal of any such program.
On your webpage, which I had never heard of before today, you commented on a review of the OLPC UI by saying that the developers were being 'brave', and that they had problems learning the Windows UI.
That also is a huge crock!
Everyone has problems with anything new, since it requires a learning curve. Your statement is insulting to all kids in developing countries since it propagates the belief that these kids are somewhat stupid, or slow learners, or worse: that they are somewhat intellectually inferior, a very insidious inference that can be made from the purposely simplistic interface of the wanker PC.
The kids are poor, not imbeciles, OK?
Thought like that is very colonial, and totally counterproductive.
With adequate training, anyone can do anything, from computing on a PDP-8, MicroVAX, VAX, Intergraph Clipper workstation, to whatever I want to use today.
I did it, and straight from Nigeria too!
So please stop that kaka about ‘brave new UI’. Use a UI and operating system consistent with what the rest of the world uses and they have some of my support.
My total support would be given if there is a clearly-defined plan to integrate the OLPC into curricula of the countries that have purchased it, a point noticeably absent in all the flack releases and ink from the OLPC gang, as your website very accurately notes. I guess possession of the OLPC by the kids creates a Vulcan-style mind-meld with all knowledge (T’Pau?), whereby the kids become instant geniuses.
Go figure!
Looking over the biographies of the principals of your site, I see a dedication to the advancement of knowledge and in helping through your various associations with help foundations, and I am impressed. Very impressed!
Your mission in trying to expose the chimera that is the educational integration goal of the OLPC in the syllabuses of the receiving countries is more than commendable, it is truly inspired. Please keep it up.
However, my position does not waver regarding this issue as it stands today.
FYI, I am a first-generation American of Nigerian origin.
NOTE: At my home, Windows Vista, OS X, a VM of Kubuntu Linux, and Open Solaris are installed for whatever environment I need to compute in.