PR0N FOR ALL!
Posted on 11/15/2005 10:26:21 AM PST by Golden Eagle
The open standards of Mac OS X have been trounced by open source software in a project to develop a $100 computer to help bridge the digital divide.
An organisation, One Laptop Per Child, is developing the machines to bridge the gap between the developed and the developing world. (The link goes to the MIT website, the organisation that got the project off the ground).
The project team want to develop a low-cost computer to distribute to millions of school-age children.
OS X spurned for Linux
The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple CEO Steve Jobs offered to furnish the project with free copies of Mac OS X for each machine, but the project team elected to choose open source rather than proprietary solutions.
The proposed $100 machine will be a Linux-based, full-colour, full-screen laptop that will use innovative power (including wind-up). It will be WiFi-enabled, will carry USB ports and host a 1GB drive and a 500MHz processor.
Project co-founder and MIT professor Seymour Papert said: "We declined because it's not open source".
(Excerpt) Read more at macworld.co.uk ...
So much for getting the world's poor hooked on Macintosh.
Ping. Can you imagine how much more popular and capable those machines could have been if OSX had been allowed?
It will only work at $100.00 if you inject tax dollars. Someday soon they might be that cheep and without Chinese slave labor. We are not there yet.
Look at the machine specs. The drive proposed is too small for Mac OS X. Linux is the only the solution for such a basic machine.
Though a mainstream operating system would make more sense logically, if their machine specs are accurate, then they're purposefully hampering the systems to keep them utilitarian.
PR0N FOR ALL!
1. Not everyone has electricity
2. Corrupt governments will hijack shipments.
3. Internet connection may not be available.
4. Food and pencils and paper are sorely lacking in many poor countries.
Maybe the UN could start a Oil for Laptops program.
If this project ever actually lifts off, many of the devices will be used in US schools which historically has had a large Apple component. It's too bad to see our long time US businesses threatened into extinction by free software clones.
Hardly.
Who is joe schmoe in souther uganda going to get to support his MAC OS when it crashes in the middle of the jungle? A true opensource solution is clearly a better solution in this situation over any proprietary one.
Who's he going to call to get CD's for a new install etc etc etc???
Clones?
Free distributions of UNIX have been around for decades... long long long before Mac OS X existed.
You won't need electricity. It will have a crankshaft, which circumvents the need for it
This is such a bad idea. How are those kids in Bangladesh going to get iTunes music onto their iPods now?
So basically a $100 etch-a-sketch... sounds like a profit to me.
Jobs offered OSX and there would be no reason to if it wasn't compatible. You could without question use Windows CE or Palm as well, Linux is far from the only choice of O/S on any laptop or handheld device.
Who's he going to call to get Linux install CD's? Who "supports" Linux? No one, unless you pay. The "free" open source software scam isn't fooling anyone. Linux is barely useable for the average user. OS X is far superior in user experience. Linux on the desktop will never take off, despite what the Linux fanboys have been saying since about 1998.
I love that crank on the side. I have a radio with a crank. You crank it for a minute or so, and it works for half an hour.
What an idea!
Which is what Apple uses. Yep, there's plenty enough already, no need for any clones from Finland that threaten our existing and superior products.
I don't know about you, but I hate OSX. Way too much beeping and flashing.
Better than my computer at home. :(
We must be using different versions, because I don't get any beeping and flashing that I don't want.
Could it be that you accidentally downloaded Microsoft's "Roadrunner Pervert" OS?
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