I feel ill
Posted: Thu 01 Nov 2007, 22:37
I feel ill. I hate to be negative about any of the above excitement, really..., and it is excellent that Puppy Linux works on the Intel Classmate and can even be "bundled" with it along with Mandriva Linux. Great. However, let's not kid ourselves here. The Intel Classmate is specifically designed to use Windows XP embedded; that and crushing AMD is what it is all about. Do you really believe that most institutions in most countries will be supplying and using Intel Classmates with Puppy Linux? Nice dream, but it is a fantasy. The Intel Classmate world is a windows world.
The whole point of the Intel Classmate is to steal the market at its seeding stage from the OLPC consortium (which uses an AMD processor in its XO machine, plus open source software). Intel and Microsoft want that identified market too, and they, alas, clearly look like they will get it.
Intel (and Microsoft) laugh, I am sure, as they allow Linux to run on "their" machine, knowing fine that in mass adoption, commercially, it will be running Microsoft closed source software, including Digital Rights Management controls (yes, it comes with that too...). If you buy into this machine, you buy into the closed source model. Here is how Wikipedia compares the two:
"The Windows version [of the Intel Classmate], in contrast to the XO which does not require anything extra, includes a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) to provide any local Windows XP Embedded installation with access to hardware-based DRM. This reflects differing goals between the two projects. The Classmate aims to provide "uncompromised technology" that fits into the larger, primarily Windows-based computing environment.[3] Users in this environment learn about the technologies that currently dominate the computer world, but lose some flexibility by using closed-source software. [One Laptop Per Child's alternative:]XO aims [on the other hand] to provide children with a free and open-source software environment they can modify for themselves at no additional cost and that allows them to "learn through doing". "
Anyway, I don't want to say anything to detract from Hacao's great efforts. He has in fact done a great job producing his distribution, and it is good to fight for its use on Intel Classmates (though he can never really hope for more than a tiny tiny tiny slice of that market) - but, it is much more important for the Free and Open Source Software movement in general to clearly back the model that supports open source; and that is the OLPC machine (whatever you may think of it).
Yes, it's a pity, I suppose, that the OLPC consortium chose Red Hat as their Linux version, and not Puppy Linux (is it?). But there are many good Linux distributions (!); the important factor is that they are all open source, which is a philosophy of living as much as a "free" technical resource.
The OLPC never was about any particular hardware platform, these things change all the time, nor is it really concerned with any particular OS distribution, but it does wholly embrace the open-source community-oriented philosophy.
We should embrace and support the OLPC project and reject the commercial invasion of that territory by Intel and Microsoft.
Of course Intel, and Microsoft will happily BUY everyone's souls by saturating the marketplace with shinier, sweeter tasting candy, thrown into the consuming mouths of the techno-pleasure greedy crowds. More drugs for the already addicted.
I feel sorry for the OLPC team; they had the right idea, and had they succeeded would have created a huge open source alternative to the current monopoly. But you can't beat Intel and Microsoft that easily, especially not when even open source enthusiasts don't realise they are being conned and lap up the offerings of the very same organisations that crush and control them. Conquer and Divide. I despair. Shiny toys for the boys is all that it takes to buy them.
At the end of the day it is irrelevant that Puppy Linux can run on an Intel Classmate; it is irrelevant whether or not Puppy Linux becomes the number one Linux on Distrowatch!!! It is irrelevant that OLPC currently adopts Red Hat Linux rather than Puppy Linux. Buy into the OLPC and give open source a chance, no matter what form that open source takes.
The whole point of the Intel Classmate is to steal the market at its seeding stage from the OLPC consortium (which uses an AMD processor in its XO machine, plus open source software). Intel and Microsoft want that identified market too, and they, alas, clearly look like they will get it.
Intel (and Microsoft) laugh, I am sure, as they allow Linux to run on "their" machine, knowing fine that in mass adoption, commercially, it will be running Microsoft closed source software, including Digital Rights Management controls (yes, it comes with that too...). If you buy into this machine, you buy into the closed source model. Here is how Wikipedia compares the two:
"The Windows version [of the Intel Classmate], in contrast to the XO which does not require anything extra, includes a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) to provide any local Windows XP Embedded installation with access to hardware-based DRM. This reflects differing goals between the two projects. The Classmate aims to provide "uncompromised technology" that fits into the larger, primarily Windows-based computing environment.[3] Users in this environment learn about the technologies that currently dominate the computer world, but lose some flexibility by using closed-source software. [One Laptop Per Child's alternative:]XO aims [on the other hand] to provide children with a free and open-source software environment they can modify for themselves at no additional cost and that allows them to "learn through doing". "
Anyway, I don't want to say anything to detract from Hacao's great efforts. He has in fact done a great job producing his distribution, and it is good to fight for its use on Intel Classmates (though he can never really hope for more than a tiny tiny tiny slice of that market) - but, it is much more important for the Free and Open Source Software movement in general to clearly back the model that supports open source; and that is the OLPC machine (whatever you may think of it).
Yes, it's a pity, I suppose, that the OLPC consortium chose Red Hat as their Linux version, and not Puppy Linux (is it?). But there are many good Linux distributions (!); the important factor is that they are all open source, which is a philosophy of living as much as a "free" technical resource.
The OLPC never was about any particular hardware platform, these things change all the time, nor is it really concerned with any particular OS distribution, but it does wholly embrace the open-source community-oriented philosophy.
We should embrace and support the OLPC project and reject the commercial invasion of that territory by Intel and Microsoft.
Of course Intel, and Microsoft will happily BUY everyone's souls by saturating the marketplace with shinier, sweeter tasting candy, thrown into the consuming mouths of the techno-pleasure greedy crowds. More drugs for the already addicted.
I feel sorry for the OLPC team; they had the right idea, and had they succeeded would have created a huge open source alternative to the current monopoly. But you can't beat Intel and Microsoft that easily, especially not when even open source enthusiasts don't realise they are being conned and lap up the offerings of the very same organisations that crush and control them. Conquer and Divide. I despair. Shiny toys for the boys is all that it takes to buy them.
At the end of the day it is irrelevant that Puppy Linux can run on an Intel Classmate; it is irrelevant whether or not Puppy Linux becomes the number one Linux on Distrowatch!!! It is irrelevant that OLPC currently adopts Red Hat Linux rather than Puppy Linux. Buy into the OLPC and give open source a chance, no matter what form that open source takes.