So I got an Eee 701 last week... I'll be putting either Mandriva or Ubuntu onto it (they both seem to have pretty good netbook versions) but so far I have been playing with the standard Asus custom desktop.
There's no doubt that the Eee was a great step for Linux. It put thhe worlds best OS out there for all to see and purchase, and it encouraged other companies like Acer and Dell to step up and offer consumers real alternatives to Windows over the counter.
That said, the Eee has some real problems. It has a very limited application set and a rather frustrating UI that only allows (most) apps off the Asus repositories to be added to the 'favourites'. Other customisation is very limited. And to get to a console you have to open the file manager (a stripped back Konquerer that crashes when you try to go to / into the location bar).
For a novice, the apps are well labeled to identify common tasks in a similar way to the old Mac Finder. However, in comparison to the WinXP variation, it does come across as a pretty limited toy. Because it is being marketed as a mini-laptop, the comparison is harsh and inevitable.
Meanwhile, in another part of the galaxy...
I had the great pleasure of attending the Sugar Labs presentation by Walter Bender at LCA2009 this week. The passion he displayed towards the Sugar UI was quite impressive and the demonstrations showed a lot of potential.
What the OLPC seems to be doing well is creating a product that is NOT A LAPTOP. It is NOT A NETBOOK. It is being marketed as a learning tool, similar to devices like the Alphamart Neo - or the Mac to a certain degree. There is a real focus on reimagining how computers work, based around 'activities' instead of 'applications'.
So if it is so good, why hasn't it taken off? It would seem to be because there is not a sufficent commercial presence in Australia to properly market and distribute and support the XO locally.
Until very recently I had very little knowledge of the XO. What I had heard was mostly negative newsbytes regarding friction within the OLPC ecosystem. Having seen Sugar in action and heard the vision of Walter Bender and Pia Waugh, I'm excited.
I've downloaded the Sugar iso and will be giving the OS a spin over the next few days. If its as good as it seems, I think a massive shift could possible within the near future.
Info on Walter Bender's LCA09 speech:
http://linux.conf.au/programme/schedule/view_talk/219?day=thursday
A March Slashdot article that looked at Eee vs OLPC:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/03/185205
0 comments:
Post a Comment