PrePackaged PC Fails Miserably! Shamefully! Again!
Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on May 27, 2007 05:19 AM
Firstly, thanks for this article. There aren't nearly enough articles pertaining to the specifics of the hardware and software in these rugged--low powered-self powered--children's computers.
Having said that, it never ceases to amaze me that these soup to nuts solutions (hardware-and-software bundled) never work right/properly out of the box. Linspire, for one, has marketed a rash of these BOOB PC's (Broken Out Of Box). How incompetent or uncaring do you have to be to ship a product where you have, in hand, every single component, but it still won't work as intended without senseless niggles to work out, and around? This is shameful! How can anyone in the enviable position of cherry picking all of the hardware and software, not get it perfect? At that point, the product is very nearly an appliance, in stead of a PC. I simply don't understand.
Any reasonably skilled Mandriva/GNU/Linux power user could have done a better job of setting up these Classmate PC's before they shipped than the so-called professionals. Perhaps the primary purpose isn't that these Intel Classmate PC's should work properly OOB. Maybe acquiring huge government contracts and competing with the AMD processors found in the OLPC is.
Then again, I am not sold on the whole OLPC concept in its present incarnation. Negroponte et.al. could have simply designed a freely (open) licensed Laptop form factor that specifically addressed portability, ruggedness, mesh networking, free/open drivers, and low resources/price issues etc. Add to that, designing the Laptop shell so it has at least the possibility of adding an internal optical drive, or hard drive, to attract broader appeal in the first world domestic markets for child proof, ultra cheap, and portable computing. As it is, they didn't meet their $100.00 price point. If they opened up this platform for everyone to build/purchase, then the price target could then be more easily reached. Benefiting all consumers wherever they may be, as a result.
Also, I am personally opposed to the elitist collectivist concept of the government preempting consumers choice, and free markets, by buying computers for these children, in lieu of some type of a cash technology allowance that the schools and local communities would decide how to best spend for their needs. So too, and in particular, I am opposed to the Sugar UI. This user interface is apparently not (IMHO) designed to help teach these third world children how to read and use a computer. This interface is designed to teach a child to learn to use a computer and become a connected global consumer in lieu (instead) of teaching them to them the three R's. It's a UI experiment, that if successful, can be exported into, and as part of, the first world students educational curriculum, to further dumb-down, and churn out, functionally illiterate future generations of acquiescent consumers, globally.
Quit the third world lab rat experiment! Get a real, recognizable, yet pared down, user interface on these student computers.
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PrePackaged PC Fails Miserably! Shamefully! Again!
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on May 27, 2007 05:19 AMHaving said that, it never ceases to amaze me that these soup to nuts solutions (hardware-and-software bundled) never work right/properly out of the box. Linspire, for one, has marketed a rash of these BOOB PC's (Broken Out Of Box). How incompetent or uncaring do you have to be to ship a product where you have, in hand, every single component, but it still won't work as intended without senseless niggles to work out, and around? This is shameful! How can anyone in the enviable position of cherry picking all of the hardware and software, not get it perfect? At that point, the product is very nearly an appliance, in stead of a PC. I simply don't understand.
Any reasonably skilled Mandriva/GNU/Linux power user could have done a better job of setting up these Classmate PC's before they shipped than the so-called professionals. Perhaps the primary purpose isn't that these Intel Classmate PC's should work properly OOB. Maybe acquiring huge government contracts and competing with the AMD processors found in the OLPC is.
Then again, I am not sold on the whole OLPC concept in its present incarnation. Negroponte et.al. could have simply designed a freely (open) licensed Laptop form factor that specifically addressed portability, ruggedness, mesh networking, free/open drivers, and low resources/price issues etc. Add to that, designing the Laptop shell so it has at least the possibility of adding an internal optical drive, or hard drive, to attract broader appeal in the first world domestic markets for child proof, ultra cheap, and portable computing. As it is, they didn't meet their $100.00 price point. If they opened up this platform for everyone to build/purchase, then the price target could then be more easily reached. Benefiting all consumers wherever they may be, as a result.
Also, I am personally opposed to the elitist collectivist concept of the government preempting consumers choice, and free markets, by buying computers for these children, in lieu of some type of a cash technology allowance that the schools and local communities would decide how to best spend for their needs. So too, and in particular, I am opposed to the Sugar UI. This user interface is apparently not (IMHO) designed to help teach these third world children how to read and use a computer. This interface is designed to teach a child to learn to use a computer and become a connected global consumer in lieu (instead) of teaching them to them the three R's. It's a UI experiment, that if successful, can be exported into, and as part of, the first world students educational curriculum, to further dumb-down, and churn out, functionally illiterate future generations of acquiescent consumers, globally.
Quit the third world lab rat experiment! Get a real, recognizable, yet pared down, user interface on these student computers.
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