One Laptop Per Child: Charity, Prosperity, & Capitalism In The Developing World
by Ryan Smith on August 8, 2007 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
Software
At the end of the day, it's not the hardware that will make or break the XO-1, it's the software that the hardware will be running. Without good software, the device will simply be a cheap but ineffective laptop.
In an unusual twist, it's the software where much of the charity in the OLPC program is found. Every last bit of software is free and open source; no part of the cost of developing the software is being included in the price tag of the XO-1, and the OLPC organization has spent the last two years recruiting developers out of the open source community to design software for the unit. Most of the volunteer man-hours in the program have been spent creating the software.
At the center of the XO-1 software package is a customized version of Red Hat's Fedora Linux distribution. Besides fulfilling the open requirement, Linux is fairly simple to scale down to the tight storage, memory, and processing restrictions imposed by the hardware. Sitting on top of Linux is the custom Sugar GUI, a non-traditional uni-tasking GUI that is intentionally extremely simple, a fitting design for the target audience.
Moving to the applications that will come with the XO-1, we have to admit we're not sure what to think at this point, other than that we're worried about what we're seeing so far. The OLPC organization has floated dozens of ideas for software to include, but the current builds which we've used on the QEMU emulator have a fraction of these programs. With only a scant couple of months left before final production, we hope that there will be more software than what we're seeing today.
In keeping with the focus on education while minding the limited storage space on the XO-1, the centerpiece application of the device is a web browser for accessing internet educational resources. A stripped down version of the full Gecko rendering engine used in Firefox runs the browser, offering high compatibility with modern web pages; notably Flash support is not included because it does not meet the open requirements. As per the current plans the browser will also be the main vehicle for email, handled via webmail. As far as browsers go, they don't come much simpler than this, with only an address bar and buttons to go forwards and backwards.
For offline data manipulation, the XO-1 comes with separate programs for reading and writing documents. Writing is handled by the competent and compact Abiword word processor, one of the many programs on the device pared down and ported over from larger Unix distributions. The OLPC organization has said they're not concerned with teaching office productivity with the unit since it's a learning machine, so Abiword is not joined with any sort of spreadsheet or presentation software. For reading documents (mainly PDFs) an unnamed document reader built from the evince document reader is used.
The second pillar of software, designed to reinforce the "learning to learn" concept, is the suite of edutainment software included with the unit. In what is a very obvious reflection of the interests of the volunteers creating the software, the XO-1 includes several programming environments/languages, such as JavaScript support through the browser, Python support through the operating system, and variations on the LOGO and Smalltalk programming languages. Smalltalk is represented by the eToys application, and LOGO by the Turtle Art application, a variation of the traditional turtle project for LOGO.
Rounding out the edutainment category are the less "edu" and more "tainment" applications. A clone of Tetris is included, as is a painting application. A Connect Four clone is also included, this one utilizing the WiFi abilities of the device. Last but not least is the interesting TamTam application, a music sequencer we're not sure what to compare it to.
The final batch of software for the third pillar is the communication software. As the XO-1 features a camera and microphone, a couple of applications are included to utilize these. This includes recording applications, and a media player to play back recorded media. An instant messaging client is also included; we can't test it on our simulator but we're assuming that it's a local-only client utilizing Jabber.
As we stated earlier, much of the planned software is still missing from our test builds. Key to these is the entire reference library, especially the included version of the stripped down Wikipedia article database. We have heard that there are still technical issues with including Wikipedia due to size constraints, in spite of Wikipedia's own efforts to find ways to better compress the article database. We'd imagine the rest of the reference library, such as the Project Gutenberg and audio/visual libraries, is having similar difficulties with storage requirements.
Given how critical the software and libraries are for allowing use of the laptop away from an internet connection (something we'd imagine is common) it's premature to say much about the software side of the XO-1 at this point. If the software that ends up shipping is as planned we believe the OLPC program could do a lot in reaching its goals, but right now we can only sit and wait.
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thesafetyisoff - Wednesday, August 8, 2007 - link
A few years back there was a scorpion epidemic in a town in South America. The government hit upon the brilliant idea of importing hundreds of chickens, which prey on scorpions, to take care of the pests. One month later there were still plenty of scorpions stinging people, because the villagers had eaten all of the chickens.Providing laptops to people who don't have electricity, can't read, and have no interest in education is a complete waste of money. Six months after this program is launched most of them will be broken, stolen, or sold. And the ones that are left will probably be under-utilized.
Ryan Smith - Wednesday, August 8, 2007 - link
I think you(and everyone else who has made similar posts) make a good point, but are also in the process missing part of the point of OLPC in the first place.It is true that a lot of effort has been made to design the thing for use in extremely rugged/rural/poor conditions, but the fact of the matter is that's not where the XO-1 is going to end up at the beginning. Most of the nations planning on ordering the laptops are all nations in later states of developing, as opposed to being entirely undeveloped. These people have access to the basics such as food and medical care, and a lesser developed power and communication grid(e.g. you have power at school, but maybe not at home). In these situations there's no needs problem to solve, so the only real issue is of education: will the laptops provide the educational benefit the OLPC organization desires?
By the time the organization is distributing the laptops to the poorest nations and poorest children, we should have an answer to that question, which will make going forward a lot easier.
Sunrise089 - Thursday, August 9, 2007 - link
Ok - exactly. The laptop isn't going into the bush or the desert - it's going to places that can't afford $500, but maybe can afford $175. The problem is THE #^%$#& DESIGN OF THE LAPTOP IS BASED AROUND IT GOING SOMEWHERE IT'S NEVER GOING TO GO!Just looking at this thing, it's terribly obvious that some altruistic but naive designer pictured village children in sub-Saharan Africa or SE Asia using this, and then totally missed the point that the internet connectivity and power access just wouldn't exist.
Then people got a clue, and realized that a cheap laptop would work great in Eastern Europe, or heck, even sub-middle-class America. The problem is those markets need power and storage. They don't need wifi webs or waterproof casings.
I would ask one question to the project if I were given the chance - how does this ridiculous laptop actually serve the needs of the people who will actually be able to make use of it better than a used $175 laptop? The answer is it simply doesn't.
headbox - Wednesday, August 8, 2007 - link
These are people that can't even feed themselves. A laptop will be as useful as a space suit. In Zimbabwe they kicked out all the white farmers to give to the "rightful owners" (because racial diversity is only expected when it means white countries) and the end result was mass starvation because they didn't know basic farming. Do we really expect people living in the stone age to make the leap to the modern era? It took thousands of years of social and technological advancements to get to where we are today... and now we expect an illiterate 3rd worlder to watch an animation on a laptop to bring them up to speed? LOL!Lemonjellow - Wednesday, August 8, 2007 - link
Yes, because animated battles and speeches by the people in those battles can teach children about the effect of the Anopheles Mosquito, steam locomotion, or industrialization on global imperialism and/or the effects of capitalism on the developing worlds in which these children live!
Knowing about a battle means nothing if not taken in the context of it's cause, impacts, and there-for, what-for ,why-for, who-for, how-for, and all-fours (oh, wait no that last one is part of the porn feature)...
While a striped down not-quite-laptop is handy it will never take the place of a good teacher and a well written book, but it is better than the alternative......
of nothing at all...
acronos - Wednesday, August 8, 2007 - link
Trying to take notes on a standard laptop is foolish (not quite so bad on a tablet pc.) The advantage of laptops in the classroom is to complement or even replace books. A truly good teacher is rare. However, software written and developed by a truly good teacher and development team scaled across thousands of schools can make a fairly positive difference. Teachers could choose competing software, similar to the way they choose books now, that complement their teaching style. Very few subjects would not benefit from this. Language - practice pronunciation. math - some of the best ways to learn early math already exist in the form of video games, science - see discovery channel, History - animated battles and speeches by participants ... etc. All of these will hold a child attention much better than a book. In addition, teaching how to truly use google could totally change society.slashbinslashbash - Wednesday, August 8, 2007 - link
"the unit can safely be hooked up to any number of power sources, including solar or peddles."peddle = to travel around selling wares
pedal = a crankshaft system designed to be operated by the feet
saechaka - Wednesday, August 8, 2007 - link
i thought i read that using the kids were using these laptops to view porn. i guess it's good we are giving them a way to see them naked ladies or guys.anyways, my point is that i don't think having a laptop will have a big an impact as having books and good teachers. i'd rather see the money on these laptops being spent on teachers and books
Roy2001 - Thursday, August 9, 2007 - link
I agree with you. Good teachers are more important.Verdant - Wednesday, August 8, 2007 - link
As someone who has tried to use a laptop in a classroom, I find the usefulness of each student having one minimal. Input for most subjects is not natural at all with a keyboard (want to sketch a diagram or anything other than basic text and bullets? - takes more effort than doing so by hand)Not to say that OLPC is not a valid project, just that people need to be a bit more aware of the fact that it will not perform miracles, and I don't think they are that valuable in a lecture situation.
The tablet pc is a good step, but the software available is limited, and such systems are clearly not fiscally feasible for something like OLPC.