[Its.an.education.project] untangling constructionism

[Bernie Innocenti]

forster at ozonline.com.au wrote:
>> Although I don't want to impose my own view of what is relevant to this
>> list, I think discussing the validity of constructionism is not on-topic.
> 
> I hope we can discuss constructionism here. Its an Education Project.
> That means we should discuss why Sugar is better for education than
> Windows or Sugar on Windows.

Have you seen Christoph nice draft statement on this?  I'm posting it
again below for those who may have missed it.

By the way, Christoph, I thought it went without saying that I
endorse it.  Whoever wants their "signature" appended to it when
Christoph finally publishes it, please say so.


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [Its.an.education.project] A comprehensive text on why Windows   XP on the XO isn't good for the mission...
Date: Thu, 01 May 2008 08:03:21 +0200
From: Christoph Derndorfer <e0425826 at student.tuwien.ac.at>
To: Bernardo Innocenti <bernie at codewiz.org>
CC: Tomeu Vizoso <tomeu at tomeuvizoso.net>, Aaron Kaplan <aaron at lo-res.org>


Hey guys,

I've reworked the piece based on Bernie's feedback and polished some 
other parts.

Please let me know what you think!

Cheers,
Christoph
P.S. I'm off to New York City until Sunday so I'll only have limited 
access to the internet.

---

***Windows on the XO considered harmful***

Allow us to start this entry by admitting that our heads are spinning 
just as much as yours. The events that unfolded over the past two weeks 
or so and all the responses, articles, comments, blog-posts and e-mails 
discussing them have been simply mind-boggling. So some if not most of 
the things we're going to discuss here have probably been already 
mentioned elsewhere. However we do feel that an attempt to write a 
comprehensive text on why Windows on the XO isn't good for the 
educational mission at the heart of the project has to be made. And if 
only to help ourselves put things into perspective.

The first thing we want to discuss and a point that surprisingly hasn't 
received as much attention one would expect is *translation and 
localization*. It really shouldn't be necessary to explain while 
translated and localized software is important when it comes to an 
educational project. Now let's look at some facts: According to 
Microsoft 
(http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb457045.aspx#ECAA) "there 
are 24 fully localized versions of Windows XP Professional", 6 1/2 years 
after the operating system was introduced. Compare that to OLPC's Pootle 
server (https://dev.laptop.org/translate/) and you can find more than 40 
languages in there. Admittedly, many of these translations haven't 
gotten very far, however everyone with an internet access can contribute 
to these translations. Or you handle it like OLPC Nepal did and organize 
a Translation Nite-Out 
(http://olpcnepal.blogspot.com/2008/03/yaay-translations-over.html) 
which resulted in them finishing the translation of 7 different packages 
in one go. All it took was some motivated people, pizza and a Saturday 
night. The barrier to entry is very low indeed and this will certainly 
add in making the software available in many different languages. 
Compare that to Microsoft's approach, does anyone even know whether it 
is possible to translate it to languages such as Nepali? Are we going to 
see Translation Nights in Microsoft HQs around the world?

Next point, performance. Now this is somewhat of a tricky issue since 
few people have actually seen the tailored Windows XP running on the XO. 
Based on experience with the Geode LX800 platform running Windows XP it 
is however clear that it will run Windows XP just fine. As Christoph 
previously commented 
(http://www.olpcnews.com/software/operating_system/microsoft_code_olpc_xo.html): 
"Moderate multi-tasking does slow it down a bit but in general it's a 
very usable system for e-mails, browsing the web and office 
applications." Plus admittedly Sugar doesn't quite offer the fastest 
user-experience at the moment either. However, and we feel this is a 
vital aspect, over time open-source software tends to improve in both 
performance and stability through an iterative development process. 
Windows XP on the other hand tends to become slower after after just a 
few months of usage.

Moving right along to the question of long-term support. With the XO 
being designed for an estimated lifetime of ~5 years one might wonder 
how Microsoft is going to support their product a couple of years down 
the road. While Microsoft recently announced that "Extended Support" for 
Windows XP will be available until April 2014, it can be assumed that 
the overall level of support in terms of security and maintenance 
updates will gradually decrease. The thing here is that once Microsoft 
decides to terminate its support for Windows XP there's very little that 
customers and developers can do to change that. With an open-source 
operating-system, on the other hand, any country could simply hire a 
bunch of knowledgeable developers and maintain their code-base until the 
end of time.

Another key advantage that Sugar has over any other software solution, 
be it Linux or Windows based, is the tight integration of collaboration. 
Now some might argue that this feature isn't or shouldn't actually be 
part of "Sugar", however the fact remains that re-engineering 
traditional systems to enable this level collaboration would take a long 
time. As Walter Bender recently put it in an interview 
(http://www.xconomy.com/2008/04/24/one-laptop-per-child-foundation-no-longer-a-disruptive-force-bender-fears-qa-on-his-plans-for-sugar-interface/3/): 
"...if you are going to collaborate with people, we need to make it a 
first-order experience." Again, none of us has seen Windows XP on the XO 
however it would be very surprising to see Microsoft offer anything even 
remotely as capable and versatile as the collaboration features in 
Sugar. Things aren't working perfectly just yet but we're definitely 
moving into the right direction. The 'write'-activity on the XO is still 
by far the simplest way to collaborate on a text compared to any other 
solution that we're aware of.

Other technical advantages that the Linux + Sugar combination can offer 
is the tickless kernel that aggressively reduces CPU power requirements 
where we don't see Microsoft catching up anytime soon. Often Windows's 
power-management seems to be more effective than what even the latest 
Linux kernels offer however adapting Windows XP to deal well with all 
the suspension / resume cycles that are happening on the XO is probably 
not that trivial. In fact it is our understanding that Microsoft will 
not modify the kernel for the XO but rather only make use of tailored 
drivers and software. Another aspect to consider is that a lot of 
thought has gone into the overall design of the Sugar UI, especially 
when it comes to colour selections and the contrast between them, to 
ensure that the interface remains usable when relying on the XO's black 
and white display mode.

One last point that does get mentioned a lot is cost. We can only assume 
how much Microsoft would charge per license but it will probably be in 
the $6 to $10 range. That means that for a country deployment such as 
Peru the cost would suddenly increase by at least $1.5 million dollars. 
We believe there's many more useful things that can be done with that 
amount. Especially since the early reports from places such as Uruguay 
and Nepal indicate that Sugar works well once you actually let children 
use it.

Last but not least the argument of "countries would buy XOs if it came 
with Windows XP" is also questionable. It is more likely that many 
countries are waiting to see how the current deployments work out before 
deciding to invest their own resources into such an initiative. The real 
issue here isn't money but the lack of conclusive research into just how 
effective a tool an XO really is - but that is a discussion for another day.

In the end we hope to have given a quick overview of some of the real 
reasons why we believe Windows on the XO is a bad idea. In our opinion 
an open-source operating system on the XO offers a vast array of 
advantages compared to any proprietary solution. Some of these 
advantages might not be so visible at the moment but in the long run 
they're going to make a huge difference.

This comment was co-authored by Bernardo Innocenti, Christoph 
Derndorfer, Aaron Kaplan and Tomeu Vizoso.

By the way, think twice before you start calling us names such as "open 
source fundamentalists". Most of this comment was written on Christoph's 
laptop which runs, guess what, Windows XP SP2...

---

Bernardo Innocenti schrieb:
> Christoph Derndorfer wrote:
>
>> Okay, here's a first draft that I just hacked together, it will 
>> probably need a fair amount of polishing so please let me know what 
>> you think...
>>
>> Looking forward to your comments, suggestions and feedback!
>
> My comments and proofreading inside.  Please edit and republish if
> you endorse them.
>
>
>> ***Why Windows XP on the XO is a bad idea***
>
> Windows on the XO considered harmful
>
> (it's an old joke on Dijkstra's famous saying)
> (also, why just XP?  I took it away)
>
>
>
>> Allow us to start this entry but admitting that our heads are spinning 
>
> s/but/by/
>
>> just as much as yours. The events that unfolded over the past few 
>> days and all the responses, articles, comments, blog-posts and 
>> e-mails discussing them have been simply mind-boggling. So some if 
>> not most of
>
> /So /d
>
>> the things we're going to discuss here have probably been already 
>> mentioned somewhere else. However we do feel that an attempt to write a 
>
> s/somewhere else/elsewhere/
>
>> comprehensive text on why Windows XP on the XO isn't good for the 
>> educational mission at the heart of the project has to be made. And 
>> if only to help ourselves put things into perspective. We are Bernado 
>
> s/Bernado/Bernardo/  (but you can also say Bernie.
>
>> Innocenti, Christoph Derndorfer, Aaron Kaplan and Tomeu Vizoso.
>
>
> Note that you'd burn my secret identity if you say I'm with you.
> Maybe not a good idea.  Let's ask Walter Bender first.  We can
> add plenty of other people to the list of course.
>
> And I'd put the names at the end, as if they were underwriters.
>
>
>> The first thing we want to discuss and a point that surprisingly 
>> hasn't received as much attention one would expect is *translation 
>> and localization*. It really shouldn't be necessary to explain while 
>> translated and localized software is important when it comes to an 
>> educational project. Now let's look at some facts: According to 
>> Microsoft 
>> (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb457045.aspx#ECAA) 
>> "there are 24 fully localized versions of Windows XP Professional", 6 
>> 1/2 years after the operating system was introduced. Compare that to 
>> OLPC's Pootle server (https://dev.laptop.org/translate/) and you can 
>> find more than 40 languages in there.
>
>> Admittedly many of these translations haven't gotten very far however 
>> everyone with an internet access can contribute to these translations.
>
> More punctuation needed here: after "Admittedly" and before "however"
> maybe.
>
>
>> Or you handle it like OLPC Nepal did and organize a Translation 
>> Nite-Out 
>> (http://olpcnepal.blogspot.com/2008/03/yaay-translations-over.html) 
>> which resulted in them finishing the translation of 7 different 
>> packages in one go. All it took was some motivated people, pizza and 
>> a Saturday night. The barrier to entry is very low indeed and this 
>> will certainly add in making the software available in many different 
>> languages. Compare that to Microsoft's approach, does anyone even 
>> know whether it is possible to translate it to languages such as 
>> Nepali? Are we going to see Translation Nights in Microsoft HQs 
>> around the world?
>>
>> Next point, performance. Now this is somewhat of a tricky issue since 
>> few people have actually seen the tailored Windows XP running on the 
>> XO. Based on experience with the Geode LX800 platform running Windows 
>> XP it is however clear that it will run Windows XP just fine. As 
>> Christoph previously commented 
>> (http://www.olpcnews.com/software/operating_system/microsoft_code_olpc_xo.html): 
>> "Moderate multi-tasking does slow it down a bit but in general it's a 
>> very usable system for e-mails, browsing the web and office 
>> applications." Plus admittedly Sugar doesn't quite offer the fastest 
>> user-experience at the moment either. However, and we feel this is a 
>> vital aspect, open-source software tends to improve in both 
>> performance and stability through an iterative development process. 
>> Windows XP on the other hand tends to become slower after extended 
>> periods of using it 
>
> s/using it/usage/
>
>> (we're talking about months here, not hours;-).
>
> Cut it short and say "after just a few months of usage..."
>
>
>> Moving right along to the question of long-term support. With the XO 
>> being designed for an estimated lifetime of ~5 years one might wonder 
>> how Microsoft is going to support his products a couple of years down 
>> the road.
>
> s/his/their/
>
>> While Microsoft recently announced that "Extended Support" for 
>> Windows XP will be available until April 2014 it can be assumed that the 
>
> comma after 2014
>
>> overall level of support in terms of security and maintenance updates 
>> will gradually decrease. The thing here is that once Microsoft 
>> decides to terminate its support for Windows XP there's very little 
>> that customers and developers can do to change that. With an 
>> open-source operating-system on the other hand a country like Peru, 
>> Uruguay or Nepal 
>
> Commas around "on the other hand".  Listing 3 countries is
> questionable (why not Nepal and not Mongolia?).  Just say "any country".
>
>> could simply hire a bunch of knowledgable developers and maintain 
>> their code-base until kingdom come.
>
> s/knowledgable/knowledgeable/
>
> Kingdom come?  I don't think americans know this expression.
> Maybe you mean "until the end of the days".  And it's more neutral
> with respect to other cultures.
>
>
>> Another key advantage that Sugar has over any other software 
>> solution, be it Linux or Windows based, is the tight integration of 
>> collaboration. Now some might argue that this feature isn't or 
>> shouldn't actually part 
>
> s/part/be part/
>
>> of "Sugar" however the fact remains that collaboration is a key 
>
> Comma before however.
>
>> ingredient of Sugar.
>
> This is badly put: we should say: the fact remains that re-engineering
> traditional systems to enable this level collaboration would take a
> long time.
>
>
>> As Walter Bender recently put it in an interview 
>> (http://www.xconomy.com/2008/04/24/one-laptop-per-child-foundation-no-longer-a-disruptive-force-bender-fears-qa-on-his-plans-for-sugar-interface/3/): 
>> "Because if you are going to collaborate with people, we need to make 
>> it a first-order experience." Again, none of us has seen Windows XP 
>> on the XO however it would be very surprising to see them offer 
>> anything even 
>
> a/them/Microsoft/  (calling them "them" gives the impression
> that we hate "them").
>
>
>> remotely as capable and versatile as the collaboration features in 
>> Sugar. Things aren't working perfectly just yet but we're getting 
>> there. Christoph for example recently discovered how much he misses 
>> the search function on the XO because it makes connecting to a WiFi 
>> in a crowded wireless-neighborhood so much easier.
>
> It's put in a way that could be interpreted with the opposite
> meaning
>
>
>> And what's up with having to enter the same key phrase twice on a 
>> Windows XP machine when connecting to a secured network?
>
> This is too subtle... and they could get along by fixing it.
>
>
>> Other technical advantages that the Linux + Sugar combination can 
>> offer is the tickless kernel where we don't see Microsoft catching up 
>> anytime soon.
>
> Be less technical or give more explanations: "tickless kernel that
> aggressively reduces CPU power requirements..."
>
>
>> Often Windows's power-management seems to be more effective than what 
>> even the latest Linux kernels offer however adapting Windows XP to 
>> deal well with all the suspension / resume cycles that are happening 
>> on the XO is probably not that trivial. Another aspect to consider is 
>> that a lot of thought has gone into the overall design of the Sugar 
>> UI, especially when it comes to colour selections and the contrast 
>> between colours, to ensure that the interface remains usable when 
>> relying on the XO's black and white display mode. Again, Microsoft 
>> might have something in the works but at the moment a black/white 
>> Windows XP desktop and start menu probably wouldn't be all that 
>> pleasant to use.
>
> Never base criticism on speculation: our use of words such
> as "probably" may be counterproductive.
>
>
>> One last point that does get mentioned a lot is cost. We can only 
>> assume how much Microsoft would charge per license but it will 
>> probably be in the $6 to $10 range.
>
> I don't think so: Microsoft officials said $1 for Windows and
> $2 for Office at a dinner I had with them.  And they could even
> give it for free if they had to.
>
> We should instead tell the drug dealer metaphor instead.
> Maybe in a less direct way...
>
>> In the end we hope to have given a quick overview of some of the real 
>> reasons why we believe Windows XP on the XO is a bad idea. In our 
>> opinion an open-source operating system on the XO offers a vast array 
>> of advantages compared to any proprietary solution. Some of these 
>> advantages might not be so visible at the moment but in the long run
>
> I would add that when NN says the current system is "badly executed",
> people may think that Linux is the problem.  Many very successful
> consumer products on the market are Linux based, including the EEE PC,
> and the Nokia N800.
>
>
>> By the way, think twice before you start calling us names such as "open 
>
> s/By the way/Nicholas/
>
> Call him by first name: it's an old trick to reduce someone's
> credibility ;-)
>
>
>> source fundamentalists". Most of this comment was written on 
>> Christoph's laptop which runs, guess what, Windows XP SP2...
>
> :-)
>

-- 
   \___/
  _| o |  Bernie Innocenti - http://www.codewiz.org/
  \|_X_|  "It's an education project, not a laptop project!"



-- 
   \___/
  _| o |  Bernie Innocenti - http://www.codewiz.org/
  \|_X_|  "It's an education project, not a laptop project!"