On Dec 26, 2007, at 12:34 PM, Matthew Nish-Lapidus wrote:

> If these kids are given access to a hacker friendly system they will
> learn how to make it do what they want.  Pauric is entirely right,
> children learn best by exploring and being "thrown into the deep end."
> I'm sure a lot of us here have stories from our childhood about our
> first computers and how we learned how to use them without
> documentation or helpful interfaces.

This argument doesn't work, logically. To summarize: let's give kids  
sub-standard equipment. They're smart. They'll figure it out.

Now remove kids and put users in there. Or adults. Why would we  
tolerate a lesser product for kids, simply because they can figure it  
out? Adults can figure out Windows 3.1, but I wouldn't want to inflict  
it on them.

The question for me becomes, what is the ultimate goal of giving the  
kids laptops? My guess is that it gives them access to information  
that they otherwise wouldn't have. Does the current device and UI  
support that goal sufficiently, without forcing users to modify it to  
achieve that goal? I don't know the answer.

Dan


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