February 21st, 2007 Benjamin Horst
Network World reports that Quanta has received orders to produce the first million OLPC XO laptops for the One Laptop per Child project.
One million computers is just the beginning:
“Quanta said it could ship between 5 million to 10 million units this year because seven nations have already signed up for the project. That may be enough to reduce the costs and meet the $100 goal sooner than expected.
The governments that have committed to buy laptops for their schoolchildren include Argentina, Brazil, Libya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Thailand and Uruguay.”
Posted in Free Culture, GNU/Linux, OLPC, Open Source | Comments Off on Production of One Million OLPC XOs to Begin
February 20th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
Government-supported efforts to get low-cost desktop computers into the hands of Brazilians has led to 50,000 Linux desktops deployed so far, growing by 10,000 a month.
“The Computers for All project is part of the Brazilian federal government’s “Program of Digital Inclusion,” initiated in 2003. The project’s objective is to provide low-cost computers to the population and to boost technological development, EnabledPeople said.
Linux XP Desktop is described as a user-friendly desktop operating system for home and office users. With a preinstalled version, a user gets an application set that includes the OpenOffice.org office suite, the Evolution email client, the Firefox web browser, and the GAIM multi-protocol instant messenger, among other software. According to EnabledPeople, Linux XP Desktop is a Red Hat-compatible operating system, and is compatible with Red Hat’s application set.”
Posted in GNU/Linux, Open Source, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on 50,000 New Linux Desktops in Brazil
February 19th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
On Friday I attended UbuCon 2007, an “unconference” held at Google’s offices in Manhattan.
Joey Stanford posted some pictures and his summary on his blog. (I took no photos; it’s not permitted anywhere in Google’s office except the lobby.)
Besides learning more about my favorite Linux distro, I also saw a number of attendees carrying Nokia N800s (there were three in the morning, and then someone returned from lunch with a freshly-purchased one in a box that he opened), Mako Hill brought a prototype of the OLPC project’s XO computer, and we had a quick tutorial on using GIMP, Inkscape and Blender.
A fun and informative conference, and my first visit to the inside of a Google office complex.
Posted in GNU/Linux, Maemo, Open Source | Comments Off on UbuCon 2007 on Friday
February 15th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
DesktopLinux.com reports that eight countries will receive a share of the initial 2,500 OLPC machines in February.
“The experiment is a prelude to mass production of the kid-friendly, lime-green-and-white laptops scheduled to begin in July, when 5 million will be built.
State educators in Brazil, Uruguay, Libya, Rwanda, Pakistan, Thailand and possibly Ethiopia and the West Bank will receive the first of the machines in February’s pilot before a wider rollout to Indonesia and a handful of other countries.”
With a goal of 150 million delivered by 2010, OLPC will alter the landscape of computing around the world. Further, it could help Linux marketshare reach 20% or more globally, entirely as a side effect of the project’s primary purpose. No wonder Bill Gates can’t stop trying to critique it!
Posted in Free Culture, GNU/Linux, OLPC, Open Source | 1 Comment »
February 7th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
Our friends at In Pictures have helped a school in Durban, South Africa, set up a computer lab running Linux Terminal Server with Ubuntu and OpenOffice.
Inpics’ role was to provide a local installation of its online tutorial for student use, while a local group, eTux, found the recycled hardware, set up the machines as thin clients, networked the systems and installed the OS and applications.
“Craig Adams, the leader of eTux, wanted to use the free online OpenOffice tutorials at inpics.net, but the lab had no Internet access. He contacted In Pictures, who provided the tutorials to him as a download. He then installed them on the lab’s server.”
Posted in Free Culture, GNU/Linux, Open Source, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on Inpics Helps South African School Adopt Linux
February 6th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
Gregory M. Lamb of the Christian Science Monitor has reviewed the concept and prototype of OLPC’s XO, the “$100 Laptop”.
“It’s an astonishing experiment: Design a cool computer, unlike anything on the market, loaded with innovative features. Manufacture it for not much more than $100 apiece, a fraction of what other computers cost. Persuade government officials in developing countries to buy millions of them, and hand them to schoolchildren. Then stand back and see if you’ve done what you hoped – created a revolution in the way kids learn.
The next step in turning this techno-dream into a reality begins in February when prototypes of the XO laptop go out to be kid tested in a dozen or so countries from Brazil to Rwanda, Libya to Pakistan.”
Mesh networking, extremely low power consumption, and water- and dirt-resistant construction are some of the interesting and important hardware features being pioneered by the XO machine. However, the distribution and usage models are where the most unique innovations will occur.
Posted in Free Culture, GNU/Linux, OLPC, Open Source | Comments Off on CS Monitor on the OLPC XO, the “$100 Laptop”
February 3rd, 2007 Benjamin Horst
Solveig explains why MS Vista is being ignored by educators. No surprise, really: the high cost, upgrade headaches, and lack of compelling features form the biggest trifecta since George W. Bush’s (audio plays at this link).
Solveig writes, “One public organization with 3,000 employees is saving 2.8 million dollars over the next six years, just by switching to OpenOffice.org. That’s a lot of money.”
She also quotes a piece by Wesley Fryer that delves into the same questions and concludes that Mac OS X or Linux, running OpenOffice.org, provide better value propositions.
Posted in GNU/Linux, Mac, Open Source, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on Educators Ignoring MS Vista
January 31st, 2007 Benjamin Horst
Infoworld reports on an enormous corporate migration to desktop Linux in Peugeot Citroën revs up 20,000 Suse Linux desktops:
“As part of a multiyear contract with Novell, the French company will install Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop on up to 20,000 computers in addition to 2,500 servers, the U.S. software vendor said Tuesday.”
The announcement came yesterday, which happens to be the day that Microsoft’s Windows Vista was made available for sale to the general public–I guess Peugeot wasn’t impressed!
Meanwhile, Miguel de Icaza, major open source contributor, also chimes in with some additional information.
Posted in GNU/Linux, Open Source | Comments Off on Massive Migration: Peugeot Moving 20,000 Desktops to Linux
January 30th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
I’d better post these before they get stale!
Chris Duckett writes Will OLPC Change Linux?
He examines the OLPC project’s ability to rethink a lot of entrenched computing paradigms, because it’s a new platform without legacy dependencies:
“The OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) project is in the enviable position at the moment of being able to change technologies and directions as they choose, with no rollouts and a lot of the work still to be done software wise. Free of the inertia that an existing product presents, OLPC can be fresh in its thinking and be a trend setter…
Another interesting choice was that of using application bundles, like OS X, and not a standard Linux packaging system. The reasons for this were that it is easy to install and delete, it is easy to share, there is no need for dependencies (because it is all in the bundle) and has an added benefit of removing the need for a centralized repository. If you think about children trying to use apt-get in the sub-Sahara, it makes sense to choose an application style that is decentralized and simple to use.”
Some very interesting thinking here!
Meanwhile, O’Reilly reports Groklaw Team Exposes Serious Flaws in Microsoft’s OOXML Specification. The original Groklaw analysis can be found here, carefully cataloging a long list of errors in the Microsoft spec. This analysis is an impressive piece of work.
Posted in GNU/Linux, OLPC, Uncategorized | Comments Off on OLPC’s Paradigm Shift, and OOXML’s Flaws
January 17th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
Engadget posts a photo gallery of the new Nokia N800, the successor to Nokia’s 770 Debian-based internet tablet.
Also, ThoughtFix continues his coverage of the N800 with an interview with Ari Jaaksi of Nokia and plenty more.
Many good points come from the interview. One of the most interesting is this (paraphrased) quote from Dr Jaaksi: “Linux, Gnome, gstreamer, and other open-source choices were a BIG contribution to the success of this device.”
Of course they were! The 770 reached out to open source developers and gave them a real voice in its development. A community naturally formed around it, Nokia treated the developers as they ought to be treated, and the product became a success. This is a really good example of the way companies and developer communities can work together well.
Posted in GNU/Linux, Maemo, Open Source | Comments Off on More on the new Maemo