RSSAn OLPC operating system for grown-ups
By Tim Conneally | Published September 17, 2009, 12:27 PM
The One Laptop Per Child project is certainly divisive. The press has largely presented the project as one of big promises and few results. But the project's signature laptop -- the sturdily built, low-cost, resource-constrained XO-1 -- has never failed to capture the imagination of techies.
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, for example, said last year that he is a huge fan of OLPC, and that its CEO Nicholas Negroponte deserved a Nobel Prize. He said he even intended to switch over to full-time use of the XO-1, but "didn't make it that far."
Similarly, husband and wife founders of free/open source software publishing house On-Disk.com Todd and Karlie Robinson intended to put their XO-1s to more practical use, but found the Sugar OS and its related apps too child-oriented, and the Fedora 10 live boot OS too slow for the device.
"I decided it was just time to have a real, viable, operating system alternative for these nifty little machines," Todd Robinson said this week. "This thought was powered, in part, by my growing frustration watching the Fedora-olpc developer mailing list, and waiting for the promised Fedora 11 release for the XO...a release which appears may never come."
"This isn't really the fault of the Fedora developers who are simply placing the priority where it should be, upon having the new OS ready for the next XO-1.5 hardware version," Robinson continued. "So I had two choices: delegate the XOs we currently have to simply being used for demonstrations, or build something that would satisfy our needs and enable us to actually use our XOs in a meaningful way...obviously I chose the second option."
So he came up with a new live boot Linux OS for adults to run on their unlocked XO-1s called Xtra Ordinary 2009. Built on top of the OLPC base system and Debian 5.0.2, Xtra Ordinary is designed to give the XO the feel of a netbook. Unlike the XO's built-in Sugar OS, Xtra Ordinary is equipped with communications software appropriate for "power use," support for different screen resolutions, a wireless connection manager, and USB Bluetooth support.
In addition to the Synaptic package manager, which lets users browse and install their own battery of applications, Xtra Ordinary comes equipped with Skype, Ekiga, Pidgin, Iceweasel (unbranded Firefox browser) and Icedove (unbranded Thunderbird e-mail client), OpenOffice.org 3.1.0, AbiWord, PDF Viewer, GIMP graphics editor, Pontamus music player, and more.
On-Disk.com is selling 4 GB, 8 GB, and 16 GB SD cards loaded with Xtra Ordinary for between $41-$85.
Lot's of very stupid and ill-informed response to this article. "prndll" and " garretthylltun" are obviously big time MicroSlush/Inhell fanboys and it probably isn't worth responding to them, but I'll attempt anyway.
This software (and many other Linux distros like it) is an attempt by independent third party developers to make this marvelous little computer more useful in the hands of adult
users in the developed world. It is NOT a development by the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) consortium and, hence, does not "seriously undermine the whole point of the OLPC program." Reread the article.
Quite a few XO-1 machines were distributed in North America and Europe through a program called Give One, Get One (G1G1.) in late 2007 and late 2008. Donors essentially paid double price (around $400) and got a machine of there own. The extra money they paid covered the donation cost of another machine that was sent to the third world in their name. I don't know how a charity program like this could be referred to "convoluted."
Most of the G1G1 machines that stayed in the developed world were bought by parents with young children, as the installed Sugar Linux software is just as well suited for them as it is for a child in Africa or Asia. But kids grow out of such software while the machine itself is still very useful. A more conventional Linux distro can bring new life to an old XO-1 and make it an excellent netbook for a bargain price for both a growing child and an adult.
As was pointed out here by a more reasoned poster, there wouldn't be efficient small netbook computers on the market if OLPC didn't push the technological envelope to develop their machine. The reason Microsoft was against it was that their fat bloated software can't run well on low powered and efficient hardware. Linux, of course, does. Intel was approached to be the chip manufacturer for the XO-1 but turned down the opportunity. They felt threatened when AMD said "yes" and Intel eventually countered with their poorly implemented afterthought of a machine, called the "Classmate."
OLPC has not done everything perfectly but their overall mission shouldn't be slighted so callously with the utter nonsense that some have posted here. " . . . a long line of lies associated with stuff like this pushed by government"? God . . . what a bunch of neo-con fascist crap!
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|This is so convoluted. Ok, so each child gets a laptop (which is not a good idea in itself). But, what does that have to do with the OS? Why does this laptop have to have a special OS in order for it to be given to a child (even if a second goes to a parent). It just becomes another one in a long line of lies associated with stuff like this pushed by government.
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|Looks delicious. I can't wait to try mine out on some of the XOs I have at home.
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|This was the inspiration for the Netbook.
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|The mission of this non-profit association (One Laptop Per Child) is to develop a low-cost laptop - the "$100 Laptop" - a technology that could revolutionize how we educate the world's children.
I thought the point of this whole thing was to get computers into the hands of children, not adults. If they're having to adapt the distro for adults, then there's something seriously wrong with the whole operation for OLPC. This news seriously undermines the whole point of the OLPC program.
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|i think it's more for those who originally bought it when OLPC was offering the buy one, get 1 free: You buy one for the child and you get 1 for yourself for free
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|Actually you bought two and got to keep one for yourself.
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|Ah, I was unaware of the get a second one deal.
I also love how someone came along here and gave a thumbs down to every comment here.
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