Re: [Marketing] Pro-Con on Netbooks for education
very interesting, thanks Caroline Mr. Bower is I think correct in saying that the crux of educational technology... the applications our children use to learn, but he missed some points: * netbooks are generally speaking hardier than fullsize laptops, and some netbooks such as the Dell Latitude 2100 are *really* solid. Fewer busted laptops=beter uptime * if and when netbooks do break, they can be replaced at lower cost * small hands are OK with small keyboards I found myself agreeing with Mr. Moore... who is currently at Dell where he is Education Practice Executive (Shaping strategy and practice in the K-12 market). Sean On Sat, Oct 24, 2009 at 5:15 PM, Caroline Meeks carol...@solutiongrove.com wrote: http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=61125;_hbguid=d226686c-4ba1-4d15-b9c1-4412d1be5aa3 Neither side talks about what I think is vital for learning; do the kids have access outside of school so they can really follow their own interests and go deep on projects. Both sides seem primarily concerned with what happens inside of school. -- Caroline Meeks Solution Grove carol...@solutiongrove.com 617-500-3488 - Office 505-213-3268 - Fax ___ Marketing mailing list Marketing@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/marketing ___ Marketing mailing list Marketing@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/marketing
Re: [Marketing] Competition for the XO
one of those happy (for me) occasions I can say I told y'all so: Microsoft unwraps netbook Windows 7 upgrade tool http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=8D089C46-1A64-6A71-CE5E2B4B5BE26477 Microsoft has released a tool that lets netbook owners install Windows 7 on their machines using a USB flash drive, sidestepping the usual requirement of a DVD drive... The utility, Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool, creates a bootable flash drive from a downloaded .iso file, or disk image, of Windows 7, and can be purchased from Microsoft's online store. MS announcement: http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windows7/archive/2009/10/22/windows-7-arrives-today-with-new-offers-new-pcs-and-more.aspx The Microsoft Store will be providing a tool called the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool (rolls right off the tongue doesn’t it?) – or WUDT for short. For netbook users without DVD drives, the WUDT will take an ISO image and create a bootable USB device that can be used to install Windows 7. The WUDT can also create a Windows 7 installation DVD from the ISO file as well. For my part, I think LiveUSB Creator sounds a lot more professional than WUDT :D This is fabulous news, because there is now incentive for every OEM, tech site, blogger, etc. to describe how to set BIOS to boot from USB!! Such instructions will become easily googlable, lowering the barrier for booting Sugar on a Stick (or indeed any liveUSB system) Sean On Sat, Oct 10, 2009 at 7:14 PM, David Farning dfarn...@sugarlabs.org wrote: On Sat, Oct 10, 2009 at 5:18 AM, Sean DALY sdaly...@gmail.com wrote: This list from early 2008 is way out of date... for OLPC, they are off by a million machines or so :D Nevertheless, it is useful, thanks Tim I agree that any OEM deal will raise Sugar's profile immensely. However, seeing OEMs is time and travel intensive, difficult with our limited resources. I should add that as we are dependent on an underlying distro, all of which have encountered difficulties inking OEM deals. It's my belief that the most promising OEM deals with GNU/Linux distros and Sugar on top will happen over non-x86 processor architectures such as ARM - in other words, on machines which can't run Windows. This is how EeePC started the retail netbook craze; Windows couldn't run on the lowest-end netbooks, and even where they could, they didn't wish to be price-squeezed at the bottom of the market. Their response has been to pressure OEMs to beef up netbook specs and drop GNU/Linux distros, to rename netbooks as ULCPCs (a total failure), and to insure that Windows 7 will be technically able to run on netbooks. They are claiming this for the launch later this month, but what's missing is how they intend to ease the upgrade path from Windows XP (wipe and install necessary) on machines with no optical drives. Is online update of the whole OS an option? Or requiring price-conscious netbook owners to buy an external optical drive just for the upgrade? I myself believe the rumors that there will be a Windows USB stick SKU, possibly with a tool for saving and reinstalling WinXP data. None of the major tech journalists following Microsoft are talking about this problem which leads me to believe they have been briefed on Microsoft's plans under embargo. Our approach up to now has been to establish our identity parallel to but separate from OLPC, in order to minimize the impact of their bad press, while at the same time supporting OLPC as our primary installed base. OEM deciders need to know about us - Mike Lee mentioned how at NECC in Washington DC a few months back, he showed Sugar on a Stick running on an EeePC to a surprised Asus executive - so we work on raising our public profile and building a meme that Sugar runs on everything. Press launches raise buzz and the news reaches NGOs too. We are also planning promotional work to NGOs with the FSF. Concretely, what this means is I try to add the names of OEM execs to our press mailing list, and we are making efforts to be present at education tech shows and conferences where OEMs can see us. How do you think we could better reach OEMs? There is of course working the phones, which David and Walter do a lot of. Finally, there is the community aspect. OEMs will take risks choosing any GNU/Linux distro and for a Sugar-branded machine in particular. They want to know that our community is vibrant, growing, active in the distro ecosystem, and well-governed. Sean is spot on with this assessment. OEMs are not particularly concerned with the sugar product. They are interested in the Sugar Labs project. If they just want Sugar, they can fork it. The value for an OEM comes from being able to build a competitive product on top of the 'output' from Sugar Labs. As an example, 10 years ago there were dozens of kernels and operating systems for embedded devices. Now we are down to a handful. The quality of the remaining kernels and operating systems is good enough that
Re: [Marketing] [SoaS] Competition for the XO
Woohoo! This is excellent news!! Sent from my iPhone Caroline Meeks 617-395-7966 On Oct 25, 2009, at 5:27 PM, Sean DALY sdaly...@gmail.com wrote: one of those happy (for me) occasions I can say I told y'all so: Microsoft unwraps netbook Windows 7 upgrade tool http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=8D089C46-1A64-6A71-CE5E2B4B5BE26477 Microsoft has released a tool that lets netbook owners install Windows 7 on their machines using a USB flash drive, sidestepping the usual requirement of a DVD drive... The utility, Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool, creates a bootable flash drive from a downloaded .iso file, or disk image, of Windows 7, and can be purchased from Microsoft's online store. MS announcement: http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windows7/archive/2009/10/22/windows-7-arrives-today-with-new-offers-new-pcs-and-more.aspx The Microsoft Store will be providing a tool called the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool (rolls right off the tongue doesn’t it?) – or WUDT for short. For netbook users without DVD drives, the WUDT will take an ISO image and create a bootable USB device that can be used to install Windows 7. The WUDT can also create a Windows 7 installation DVD from the ISO file as well. For my part, I think LiveUSB Creator sounds a lot more professional than WUDT :D This is fabulous news, because there is now incentive for every OEM, tech site, blogger, etc. to describe how to set BIOS to boot from USB!! Such instructions will become easily googlable, lowering the barrier for booting Sugar on a Stick (or indeed any liveUSB system) Sean On Sat, Oct 10, 2009 at 7:14 PM, David Farning dfarn...@sugarlabs.org wrote: On Sat, Oct 10, 2009 at 5:18 AM, Sean DALY sdaly...@gmail.com wrote: This list from early 2008 is way out of date... for OLPC, they are off by a million machines or so :D Nevertheless, it is useful, thanks Tim I agree that any OEM deal will raise Sugar's profile immensely. However, seeing OEMs is time and travel intensive, difficult with our limited resources. I should add that as we are dependent on an underlying distro, all of which have encountered difficulties inking OEM deals. It's my belief that the most promising OEM deals with GNU/Linux distros and Sugar on top will happen over non-x86 processor architectures such as ARM - in other words, on machines which can't run Windows. This is how EeePC started the retail netbook craze; Windows couldn't run on the lowest-end netbooks, and even where they could, they didn't wish to be price-squeezed at the bottom of the market. Their response has been to pressure OEMs to beef up netbook specs and drop GNU/Linux distros, to rename netbooks as ULCPCs (a total failure), and to insure that Windows 7 will be technically able to run on netbooks. They are claiming this for the launch later this month, but what's missing is how they intend to ease the upgrade path from Windows XP (wipe and install necessary) on machines with no optical drives. Is online update of the whole OS an option? Or requiring price-conscious netbook owners to buy an external optical drive just for the upgrade? I myself believe the rumors that there will be a Windows USB stick SKU, possibly with a tool for saving and reinstalling WinXP data. None of the major tech journalists following Microsoft are talking about this problem which leads me to believe they have been briefed on Microsoft's plans under embargo. Our approach up to now has been to establish our identity parallel to but separate from OLPC, in order to minimize the impact of their bad press, while at the same time supporting OLPC as our primary installed base. OEM deciders need to know about us - Mike Lee mentioned how at NECC in Washington DC a few months back, he showed Sugar on a Stick running on an EeePC to a surprised Asus executive - so we work on raising our public profile and building a meme that Sugar runs on everything. Press launches raise buzz and the news reaches NGOs too. We are also planning promotional work to NGOs with the FSF. Concretely, what this means is I try to add the names of OEM execs to our press mailing list, and we are making efforts to be present at education tech shows and conferences where OEMs can see us. How do you think we could better reach OEMs? There is of course working the phones, which David and Walter do a lot of. Finally, there is the community aspect. OEMs will take risks choosing any GNU/Linux distro and for a Sugar-branded machine in particular. They want to know that our community is vibrant, growing, active in the distro ecosystem, and well-governed. Sean is spot on with this assessment. OEMs are not particularly concerned with the sugar product. They are interested in the Sugar Labs project. If they just want Sugar, they can fork it. The value for an OEM comes from being able to build a competitive product on top of the 'output' from Sugar
