Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Monday, 19 May 2008 12:59
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 3
The man who once was the president of OLPC, the initiative to provide
“one laptop per child” to some of the world’s poorest and digitally
divided children, has joined Sugar Labs. Why? To do what Nicholas
Negroponte won’t – providing open source opportunities for learning,
instead of being just another laptop seller.
Ever since OLPC ditched its original mission to provide an open source way for children to learn about anything and everything through the power of a US $100 laptop, a laptop which was eventually launched at the much higher price of at least US $188, things have changed at OLPC central.
Now it’s all about selling laptops, with Windows XP pre-loaded. The open source side of things seems to have gone out the window, with plenty of the original OLPC open source advocates either being pushed out, or jumping ship.
One of those is the former president of OLPC, Walter Bender, who has now joined
Sugar Labs, a new foundation that aims to take the unusual Sugar interface, seen on the original Linux powered OLPC XO laptops, “to the next level of usability and utility”.
Sugar Labs reminds us in their press release that “Sugar is the core of the XO laptop's human-computer interface; it provides a fun, easy-to-use, social experience that promotes sharing and learning”.
Or, at least, it was the core of the XO laptop’s interface – whether it will be the same story on the Windows XP powered version is yet to be seen, although Nicholas Negroponte has called for Sugar to have an XP version developed.
But seeing as OLPC seems to be ditching its Linux, open source foundations, Sugar has perhaps seen the writing on the wall, and says in their press release that they will “focus on providing a software ecosystem that enhances learning on the XO laptop as well as other laptops distributed by other companies, such as the ASUS Eee PC.”
Even more telling is their quotation of what must have been the original OLPC mission, saying that they are further developing the Sugar interface “consistent with the OLPC mission to provide opportunities for learning, an independent Sugar Labs Foundation can deliver learning software to other hardware vendors and, consequently, reach more children.”
Sugar Labs says they will take a “proven learning concept to the next level of refinement, stability, and cohesiveness, and will be a unifying catalyst for free and open-source learning systems across multiple distribution and hardware platforms” – which certainly sounds very noble, although if some reviews I’ve read of the Sugar interface are accurate, the project definitely needs the extra work done to it to truly take it to that next level.
And, in true open source style, Sugar Labs says it will “provide support to a community of developers focused on learning as well as support for the learners”, with the “Sugar platform [already] bundled with the most recent release of the Ubuntu and Fedora GNU/Linux distributions” – which makes me think, if it’s in Ubuntu, I should fire up Hardy Herron and have a look for it – I didn’t know it was there!
So, what is Walter Bender’s involvement? Please read onto page 2.
