[IAEP] Sad

[Albert Cahalan]

Microsoft probably deserves to win. :-(

Problems can't get fixed unless you admit that they exist.
This may require the loss of a few sacred cows.

Responding to several people here...

I fear it was not a joke to suggest that "Sugar on MIPS"
would somehow be compelling. Let's not be totally out of
touch with planet Earth. People rightly ask what an XO
with Sugar can actually do, and the answer is "not much".
It's simply nuts to think Sugar is competitive with XP.

Within the Sugar community, certain activities are adored.
They hold privileged positions, generally being installed
be default despite not being of a utility (shell, browser)
nature. They even get to hide their bloat by being allowed
to require RPMs that are of no use to anything else. They
are terribly slow. They are terribly complicated.

It's really offensive to insist that other people (children,
the poor, dark-colored people, them foreigners...) be forced
to use stuff which you yourself find to be inadequate for
your own daily (exclusive) use.

Performance issues start here:
http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/gp4/benchmark.php?test=all&lang=all

Why should we rally around Sugar? Microsoft is getting a
chance because of Sugar. When something doesn't work, and
you just keep insisting, how is that going to get anywhere?
A truly amazing opportunity (Linux-only laptops for kids)
has been squandered.

Tweaking GNOME for the small screen and unreliable pointer
would be a workable plan to save Linux on the XO. Those of
you without a Linux background might not know it, but the OS
can actually be rather easy to use! It can even perform well
and allow you to find your files.

Right now we're looking at an awkward environment that eats
most of the RAM to provide a level of attractiveness similar
to that of GEM, GeOS, Apple GS/OS, Microsoft Windows 1.0,
and Apple LisaOS. (more pixels, less polish)

It comes down to this: do you want to be "right" about Sugar
so badly that you would rather let XP win than support any
alternate Linux GUI? If you're that stubborn, XP wins without
a fight.