[Sugar-devel] Private vs Public conversations

[Tony Anderson]

Hi, Sameer

I've tried to sit on my hands in this discussion. I agree with your 
assessment
completely.

I had the opportunity to talk with Ruben Rodriguez at the sprint. He has
Sugar running (under Ubuntu) on a Nexus 7 and on a standard PC. I have
one of each to test this. The Nexus 7 together with a bluetooth keyboard 
and
holder makes a reasonable physical package. I found a refurbished 
Gateway identical to my netbook at less than $200. I plan to use that 
also for testing.

My previous netbook (Asus eeepc which has since become unable had
Ubuntu installed on top of Windows (using the D: drive space). I 
installed it
with wubi which enables Windows and Ubuntu to be dual-booted (by grub
which pushes Windows down to the slot below the memory test).

I hope this setup will work with Sugar.

In effect, it is possible that deployments can use Classmates or Android 
tabllets
(with a keyboard) as alternatives to XOs going forward.

Yours,

Tony


On 10/31/2013 07:04 PM, sugar-devel-request at lists.sugarlabs.org wrote:
> So, with regard to the points above, several concerns along these
> lines were voiced at OLPC SF Summit. Most of these were in private
> corridor/coffee conversations, but I got to hear a bulk of it, being
> the lead organizer. Opinions and concerns varied from "I'm confused by
> what OLPC is doing", to "Are we not doing XOs anymore?" to "What about
> Sugar?" to "It was good ride, but it's over. Time to move along". Two
> other points to note for this year's meeting: The attendance was the
> lowest it's ever been, and we barely saw anyone pull out their XOs to
> work with. Neither observations were encouraging, to put it mildly.
>
> My understanding of the XO Tablet project was that it was designed as
> a revenue generator ($x per unit sale goes to OLPC A) so that work on
> the XO-4 could continue. In my own conversations with OLPCA, I was
> always reassured that the XO continues to be the pedagogical machine.
> However, I'm not seeing the evidence to that end from OLPCA. Pretty
> much all the staff that worked on the XO are either laid off or have
> quit.
>
> There were other conversations at OLPC SF Summit, where the concern
> was that OLPCA is quietly trying to convert requests for XO-4
> purchases into XO Tablet purchases. I've raised this issue of device
> cannibalization with OLPCA. If the real plan is to keep both lines
> going, then the devices should have separate marketing and sales
> plans. Keep in mind that the XO4 has had close to zero marketing, and
> all the media I see about OLPC these days usually positions the XO
> Tablet as the new thing.
>
> Today's Wired article makes the intentions clearer:
> http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-10/31/olpc-and-datawind-tablet
>
> So, is the XO-4 dead? My first reaction would be "No", although I'm
> still to very confident of my own assessment. We are seeing continued
> adoption of the XO in Rwanda (I hear Rwanda is 1.75, but not 4) and
> Australia. They must see some continued value in it, and perhaps that
> will help in continuing to foster the ecosystem around it. We also
> have the approx. 3 million machines around the world, and many are
> still chugging away. Personally, the move within the Sugar community
> to web services and HTML5 is very encouraging.
>
> However, if all that OLPC remains is a vendor of cheap, proprietary
> Android tablets wrapped in green silicone, then what motivation
> remains to continue to plug for it? We all have different motivations
> for working on this project. I'd like to hear more from others.
>
> Here's OLPC's mission, as a reminder:
>
> Mission Statement: To create educational opportunities for the world's
> poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost,
> low-power, connected laptop with content and software designed for
> collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning.
>
> Does the current stance at OLPCA help in furthering this mission?
>
> Sameer