[IAEP] Sad

[Eben Eliason]

On Wed, Sep 17, 2008 at 6:50 AM, Albert Cahalan <acahalan at gmail.com> wrote:
> In my previous email I probably strayed too far from my main
> point: as long as we remain oblivious to deficiencies and
> insist on staying the course, we're handing kids to Microsoft.
> It's damn hard to step back and see things as others do,
> especially after spending tons of effort on cool new ideas.

I don't think any of us are oblivious.  For one thing, despite some
obvious deficiencies, kids are actively engaging with the software and
exploring new ways to learn.  That's a Good Thing. That aside, the
reason you don't hear us whining every chance we get is because we're
actively focusing that energy into improving the code, the design, the
OS, and the experience for all (including us) using the software.
Yes, there are bugs.  Yes, there are unimplemented features. Yes,
there are some aspects of the design, all the way through the stack,
that we might have to adjust.  But we're working on it.  If you think
any of us are content with the software we're presently shipping,
you're dead wrong, so please don't incessantly shout at us from the
sidelines as though we're all blind.

You insinuate that staying the course implies we are oblivious to
deficiencies, which is simply untrue.  If our only goal was to ship a
non-MS OS, that might be the case,  but as Bert stated, that is not
the goal.  There is presently no other OS designed from the ground up
for kids, for exploration, for collaboration, for learning.  Our only
course of action is to do everything we can to make that vision a
reality, and we're working darn hard at it.

 - Eben