[Sugar-devel] The future of Sugar on XO-1s

[Dave Crossland]

Hi Adam!

On 1 April 2016 at 01:24, Adam Holt <holt at laptop.org> wrote:

> In Haiti XO-1s will be dominant across many schools for years and year to
> come.  Similar to Tony's description, but these typically will be using
> 32GB SD cards -- thankfully these are incredibly affordable.
>

What is the typical price the XO-1 units you are prepping for Haiti? Cost
of postage + 32Gb SD card + repair (volunteered labor?) + distribution to
Haiti?


> The resilience/repairability of the XO-1 laptops is the absolutely
> fascinating part. Regardless if historians of technology will look down
> their noses from the Rich West's / Rich East's de facto preference for
> one-upmanship (throwaway cute gadgets).  Or conversely if they will look
> back from Poor/Southern Nations' de facto environmentalism/repair
> principles -- purposefully appropriating and re-appropriating a
> technologies beyond their intended use.
>

I think idea of the extra screws in the lids was a good one :)


> Generally if the mouse issue is solved on early XO-1 laptops (where early
> 2007/2008 touchpads were overly annoyingly erratic) then these laptops
> continue to long outlast their projected 5-year-lifespan -- if the culture
> of learning & electricity are real -- not just adding a USB mouse!  I was
> one of several who did not believe in 2007 that a 5-year-lifespan was at
> all feasible.  But I turned out to be completely wrong.  And then some~
>

Having played with an XO-1 more over the last weekend than I did when I got
one in 2008, I must say that I think the interaction with the XO in eBook
reader mode seems an interesting opportunity. A non-pointer based computer
could still have a lot of life in it.

You later said,

Repair of keyboards/ears and occasional screens is of course also an issue
> when usage is very physical among those who won't give kin(esth)etic
> learning a break, as every librarian for the last hundred years has known
> ;-)
>

I also wonder what can be done with a XO-1 without ears, or without
keyboards :D



The 5 year lifespan idea is interesting!

Later in the thread Tony said,

It will be difficult, but essential for the community to find people who
> are willing to take on the challenge of maintaining and, where possible,
> expanding the educational experience that the XO can offer.


Okay, sure, but for how many years does this make sense for XO-1s? I think
probably another 10. That is to say, the actual lifespan of the XO-1
product is not 5 years but 20, that we are now at year 10, and there's
another 10 years to go.

I'm pretty happy with that as an answer to my original question: "sunset
planning" for Sugar on XO-1s means figuring out a plan for keeping all the
XO-1s out there useful for _something_ for another 10 years.

This planning has to be done in the context is what is expected to happen
in the next 10 years. RMS has categorically given up on thinking about what
might be about to happen, and refuses to answer speculative questions about
the future publicly because it is a sure way to look foolish. But I don't
mind looking foolish, so I'll say that what I think is about to happen in
the next 10 years :)

A lot of the people in the global south are going to get access to cheap
solar electricity, cheap Android computing devices, and some degree of
cheap network connectivity.

I think this will happen because, as the rate of profit continues to fall,
then, to try to survive, all state capitals will seek to create the kind of
pervasive mass surveillance now enjoyed by the richer states; and whereas
the larger asian states have rejected support from western big-capitalist
mass advertisers (great firewall blocks in China for a while, zero rate
stuff recently in India) the poorer states will welcome them (or their
eastern counterparts.) Anyway, my point is not to rabbit hole on historical
materialist futurology :)

What about the other XO models? I expect they also have a 20 year useful
life. When were the last big purchases of XO-4s?

Are Peru and Uruguay still buying XO-4s for each year's new school pupils?
Given what I can peek at from relatively recent videos of schools in those
countries, it seems they are not.

So, another prediction from me that is probably wrong: OLPC will not
produce another hardware design.

Does anyone know why the "XO Infinity" became the "Infinity"?


As usual the real challenges are far more social than technical: deliberate
> right-sizing of content/activity planning for the community in question (we
> are building a more content-rich version of HaitiOS from Sugar 0.108 and
> OLPC OS 13.2.7) while aligning peer-mentoring with adult-mentoring, and of
> course pressure from national testing around Grade 6-or-so in almost every
> country.  These mammoths-in-the-room epic challenges keep eternally popping
> up for a reason (and sometimes even getting answered!!) Human Patterns
> across most all developing world communities, on all continents.
>

I see no problem with national testing. If kids are well educated, they can
pass such tests without much preparation :)

PS Dave, read through http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Reuse_checklist if you want
> to do a time-lapse overhaul refurb like http://youtu.be/daVDrGsaDME
>

Great video :) I'll focus on software for now, but this kind of checklist
is awesome :D


> -- we even got the security guards involved in helping us out in such
> physical repair/upgrades in a restaurant in Haiti less than 2 week ago --
> works far better than Miss/Mister Universe posters I guarantee it :}
>

:D
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