I received my 2 XO units last night. I must say that I think Puppy Linux would have been a better choice for the OS. Even with the Sugar interface replaced by a more "normal" interface, Puppy under the hood would be more responsive than the tweaked version of Fedora.
Many design decisions of the XO are intentionally "anti-average consumer", like the itty-bitty keyboard and the Sugar interface. This, combined with the lack of availability and support for the average person will continue to limit the XO to the educational realm.
IMHO, work on Puppy Linux is better spent on avenues away from the XO. Puppy is quite possibly the "OS for everyone". The XO is clearly not aimed at "everyone", but only at a limited set of students in a limited set of countries.
Merry Christmas (insert your preferred holiday here) to our Founder and to all in the Puppy Linux community.
Cheers,
robin850
OLPC XO
related discussion about the XO
Thanks for your opinion. I have added it under this thread:
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=24424
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=24424
Puppy user since Oct 2004. Want FreeOffice? [url=http://puppylinux.info/topic/freeoffice-2012-sfs]Get the sfs (English only)[/url].
Sounds as if these are solutions without problems?
Guessing, if BK and DSL could produce really cut down versions able to run on (high end!!) 486 s (386?!) and above, there are probably sufficient redundant boxes in the world already in existence for everyone. [I can donate around an hundred.] BK tells us that his first offering was ~20Mb. Better to spend the time on building cheap solar arrays and inverters or, better, direct dc-dc converters; most kids only attend school when the sun shines. Recall that XT PSU were often rated from 45W upwards and could still run massively power-hungry 10Mb MFM HD s. Think what could be achieved with a PCI USB card and memory stick on that old junk. Think how much more planet could be saved. Everything consumed a lot less amps back then, despite what some folk want to tell. It's always more challenging to resurrect old cr*p, even if only to build futuristic sculptures!
Don't come back at me with arguments against - bring answers how it can be achieved. Even if recompilation/assembler coding in 8/16bit is necessary.....
Guessing, if BK and DSL could produce really cut down versions able to run on (high end!!) 486 s (386?!) and above, there are probably sufficient redundant boxes in the world already in existence for everyone. [I can donate around an hundred.] BK tells us that his first offering was ~20Mb. Better to spend the time on building cheap solar arrays and inverters or, better, direct dc-dc converters; most kids only attend school when the sun shines. Recall that XT PSU were often rated from 45W upwards and could still run massively power-hungry 10Mb MFM HD s. Think what could be achieved with a PCI USB card and memory stick on that old junk. Think how much more planet could be saved. Everything consumed a lot less amps back then, despite what some folk want to tell. It's always more challenging to resurrect old cr*p, even if only to build futuristic sculptures!
Don't come back at me with arguments against - bring answers how it can be achieved. Even if recompilation/assembler coding in 8/16bit is necessary.....
Hi Sage
Re your comment on donating hundreds
I'm wondering about using old PCs in a thin client mode, with one powerful enough Puppyserver & up to 30 odd client boxes [preferably fan free % possibly laptop] running flash memory instead of hard drives, as a green energy efficient system
I was hoping maybe ecomoney's cybercafe idea was similar and/or adaptable
I'm thinking in terms of 'a parcel' of networked PCs hopefully running some form of puppy, but specifically aimed at lo-power, for disadvantaged kids projects, but don't think I could match ecomoney's £30 claim, though I suspect there were a lot of donations
I'm very disappointed with the poor response both I & raffy got to anything mentioning OLPC/education
I firmly believe the big fish merely see this as a potential new market, and
ultimately the kids lose out
http://www.olpcnews.com/commentary/pres ... osoft.html
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl ... 04/0520254
Whereabouts in UK are you, & would you be interested in offering any kit/advice/help?
Do you think this merits a new thread, because PR is not my field?
Thanks
Aitch
edit:
Afterthought, I seem to remember that a version of puppy ran licenced shortwave wireless
Does/can this support long distance networking, since that is a major problem?
Re your comment on donating hundreds
I'm wondering about using old PCs in a thin client mode, with one powerful enough Puppyserver & up to 30 odd client boxes [preferably fan free % possibly laptop] running flash memory instead of hard drives, as a green energy efficient system
I was hoping maybe ecomoney's cybercafe idea was similar and/or adaptable
I'm thinking in terms of 'a parcel' of networked PCs hopefully running some form of puppy, but specifically aimed at lo-power, for disadvantaged kids projects, but don't think I could match ecomoney's £30 claim, though I suspect there were a lot of donations
I'm very disappointed with the poor response both I & raffy got to anything mentioning OLPC/education
I firmly believe the big fish merely see this as a potential new market, and
ultimately the kids lose out
http://www.olpcnews.com/commentary/pres ... osoft.html
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl ... 04/0520254
Whereabouts in UK are you, & would you be interested in offering any kit/advice/help?
Do you think this merits a new thread, because PR is not my field?
Thanks
Aitch
edit:
Afterthought, I seem to remember that a version of puppy ran licenced shortwave wireless
Does/can this support long distance networking, since that is a major problem?
-
PlatonicPimp
- Posts: 34
- Joined: Tue 26 Jun 2007, 21:56
Let me see if I'm following your argument correctly. Puppy linux is for everyone, so we should disclude certain potential users because they are not sufficiently like "everyone."
Did I miss something?
Did I miss something?
I am running Buddapup 4.00 on an Itronix gobook 1 with an intel 85 processer and 256 MB ram, and an old desktop who's stats I completely don't know. In both cases I boot from CD at all times. I'm desperately trying to get this to work on an OLPC.
Ignore that last comment - we are doing OLPC & co in another thread.
Yes, Aitch, I'd be glad to donate piles of kit. I live 90minutes West of you. Puppy, especially in its present incarnation is unsuitable - it doesn't work! Not too sure about your model for a super server, though. Networked (or not) desktops will be simpler. Flash memory is not the answer either - too many issues and doesn't run on old stuff, even with a USB card. Have you looked at Blueflops and Menuet/Kolibri? These are the sort of projects that need major efforts from the clever IT coders rather than chasing the whims of the DWIntel cartel and their CES running dogs. I have piles of ISA NICs and there are distros out there that can run the ISA bus adequately. Thin ethernet might be a better bet? With older kit is it usually difficult to impossible to obtain & install enough memory - in many cases, RAM of sufficient capacity either was never made or cannot be installed.
The problem is that this industry has developed so fast that the cleverest programmers have ended up chasing their tails instead of ignoring the trade and doing something really mind-bending like sending manned missions to the moon in 1K of memory! Speaking to a number of developers who know about these things, it looks as if it's going to be necessary to write in assembler (just like folk did in the olden days!) as per Kolibri. This will sort out the men from the boys, apparently, as, these days, they all use much higher level languages pushing pre-developed blocks of code around with little pictures instead of popping and pushing raw instructions? Tremendous scope for some of the cream of the IT crop.
Apart from which, older HW tends to be much more reliable and robust as well as soaking up substantially less power, excepting VIA ITX and Geode, of course.
There are serious limitations to any help I can give. I know about HW and how to use SW but don't do programming at all. A really worthwhile project for kids of any socio-economic background would be to get them stripping and rebuilding junk HW, getting to grips with the FW including the BIOS and troubleshooting old junk. There is a dirth of folk with HW skills in the electrical and electronics industries because capitalism has made it cheaper to send gear to landfill this last decade or so. That expedient is now coming back to bite. Better that folks learn to fix their failing kit, at least their own. Every skool leever shuld be able to open the box and fix it!!
Yes, Aitch, I'd be glad to donate piles of kit. I live 90minutes West of you. Puppy, especially in its present incarnation is unsuitable - it doesn't work! Not too sure about your model for a super server, though. Networked (or not) desktops will be simpler. Flash memory is not the answer either - too many issues and doesn't run on old stuff, even with a USB card. Have you looked at Blueflops and Menuet/Kolibri? These are the sort of projects that need major efforts from the clever IT coders rather than chasing the whims of the DWIntel cartel and their CES running dogs. I have piles of ISA NICs and there are distros out there that can run the ISA bus adequately. Thin ethernet might be a better bet? With older kit is it usually difficult to impossible to obtain & install enough memory - in many cases, RAM of sufficient capacity either was never made or cannot be installed.
The problem is that this industry has developed so fast that the cleverest programmers have ended up chasing their tails instead of ignoring the trade and doing something really mind-bending like sending manned missions to the moon in 1K of memory! Speaking to a number of developers who know about these things, it looks as if it's going to be necessary to write in assembler (just like folk did in the olden days!) as per Kolibri. This will sort out the men from the boys, apparently, as, these days, they all use much higher level languages pushing pre-developed blocks of code around with little pictures instead of popping and pushing raw instructions? Tremendous scope for some of the cream of the IT crop.
Apart from which, older HW tends to be much more reliable and robust as well as soaking up substantially less power, excepting VIA ITX and Geode, of course.
There are serious limitations to any help I can give. I know about HW and how to use SW but don't do programming at all. A really worthwhile project for kids of any socio-economic background would be to get them stripping and rebuilding junk HW, getting to grips with the FW including the BIOS and troubleshooting old junk. There is a dirth of folk with HW skills in the electrical and electronics industries because capitalism has made it cheaper to send gear to landfill this last decade or so. That expedient is now coming back to bite. Better that folks learn to fix their failing kit, at least their own. Every skool leever shuld be able to open the box and fix it!!