OLPC Operating System Available to Download 65
ThePopeLayton writes "Engadget is reporting that the operating system made specifically for the OLPC project is now available for download. 'Apparently, the Linux-based Sugar OS from the One Laptop Per Child project is now available via a bootable LiveCD ISO, and according to user reports, works quite well aside from the lack of WiFi capability on a certain MacBook.'"
Re:cool (Score:5, Insightful)
As far as the security, please please break it and tell them what's up. I went to a talk by the project lead recently, and the impression I got is that they could really use more eyes on the project, especially on security. Once you distribute millions of an identical OS to people with low computer literacy in an environment where they may not have access to the latest patches the potential for mischief goes through the roof, so it's very important that everyone goes over the security BEFORE it goes into production. break it!
Just like Microsoft BOB! (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem with the "activity" metaphor is that it's restrictive: you can perform the activitites we've thought of in advance and presented to you. People don't use computers that way, even first-timers or little kids. And the UI programmers never really put together a comprehensive list of activities. No matter how much beta testing, they always leave something out.
Computer UIs and tool sets are the original mashups--I pull out and use tools in different combinations to get tasks done that I think up on the spot. The "real life" metaphor works this way. My kitchen isn't a set of tasks, it's a set of tools. Ditto my closet, my garage, etc.
People get frustrated with the "activity" metaphor quickly. It's not even a useful introductory tool because it wears thin too fast.
Sugar looks cool. But like Bob or the Harmony Remote control's interface, it looks like what a computer scientist thinks looks good to a simpleton user. Nobody ever asks the computer scientist if he thinks he'd be a better computer scientist today if he'd started out on something like that.
Re:Finally, low-end distro? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:OS too restrictive (Score:2, Insightful)
In God's name, why? That proposal goes fundamentally against the entire philosophy of OLPC. They're giving capable computers to school children not so they can "accomplish real work" (shudder), or even so they can "learn to use a typical OS", but simply so they can learn, explore, create, collaborate in general. This machine is targeted at the next generation of world citizens, not the next generation of office drones or elite hackers. Most OS simplifications have been made so that the user doesn't have to think about how it works or how its behavior compares to other platforms, OSes, or applications—not because it's the most the hardware can handle.
Of course you would, but you're not a six-year-old child who's never been within fifty miles of a computer before, are you? Step into those shoes for a moment, and then think about whether you feel restricted by Sugar's multitasking model. I'll bet you're already having too much fun creating songs with TamTam [laptop.org] to worry about it.
And for those students who develop a deeper interest in technology and want to explore the other possibilities of their hardware, as you said, other OSes will surely run on it. I'd imagine there will be plenty of websites dedicated to that once these things start to see real use. Always remember that Sugar itself is an OS with design goals that are very specific and very different from existing general-purpose systems.
I absolutely understand security concerns arising from the lack of a visible address bar in the browser, though I haven't yet tried Sugar out for myself. That sort of thing raises some tricky questions about Internet safety in general. However, I think those questions are better handled by the local administrators of Mesh Portals [laptop.org], which if I understand correctly are the only way for an XO laptop to get onto the Internet. When there is no portal on your Mesh, the address bar really does become wasted space for most purposes.