Negroponte vs. the Open-Source Fundamentalists. Rumblings of discontent within the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project erupted to the surface last week with the resignation of chief software architect, Walter Bender. A split has formed between those, like Bender, who see the project as primarily educational, and OLPC leader Nicholas Negroponte, who wants to push as many laptops into the hands of as many children as possible, even if it means getting into bed with Microsoft. Or so it's been characterized.
But having looked at both sides, I think what it essentially boils down to is that geeks really, really don't like Microsoft. There would be trouble within the organization if Negroponte merely batted his eyelashes towards Redmond, never mind actively blessing Microsoft's development of a version of XP that will run on the XO. Sure, Microsoft is the devil, and of course it doesn't want a generation of kids in the developing world exposed to Linux. But when did promoting Linux become one of the OLPC's goals? more... http://backofthebook.ca/technology/2008/04/negroponte-vs-open-source.html _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
