Re: [Fsfe-uk] Time to boycot OLPC?

[Ian Lynch]

On Thu, 2008-04-24 at 11:06 +0100, Alex Hudson wrote:
> Ian Lynch wrote:
> > The devil is in the detail. Why do they care it runs Windows? Two
> > possibilities, simple brand strength and/or because they want to run (or
> > think they might need to run) software that only runs on Windows.
> > Question is how much they are prepared to pay for either of those two
> > requirements. Many people will pay a premium for "the brand" but then
> > why not just buy a conventional laptop? - Price. 
> 
> Yeah that, but also that OLPC is ruggedised. I know it's in the same 
> price bracket as eeePC et al, but it's not in the same bracket in terms 
> of dropping it on the floor / replacing parts / etc. As a hardware 
> platform, it's quite attractive in some ways which could also attract a 
> premium,

In the West at least, I doubt that will outweigh other factors. Schools
buy lots of conventional laptops and there is not a major issue with
breaking them. Maybe surprising but probably theft, "leaving it on the
bus", deliberate vandalism, battery costs etc are more important issues.

> For OEM Windows sales - I have no doubt MS will sell an OLPC-specific 
> (almost) version which can only run three apps at a time (or whatever 
> their Basic limitation was) and do it for something like $5. I doubt 
> they care about the price too much at this point.

So I transfer that Windows License to my OEM desktop and save 67 quid.
If they produce a special version of Windows they might get round that
issue but it's still a risk. And of course if devices like the EEEPC
have the same they will start to take market from conventional laptops
which are already replacing desktops machines. At best it's a delaying
tactic.

> As for your other points - I couldn't agree more. The hardware will get 
> more powerful, and Windows will slim to fit. The educational apps aren't 
> good enough to shift sales of this thing alone; customers are still 
> going to expect 'standard Office apps' on this thing because most 
> people's computer lives totally revolve around that. At the end of the 
> day, the problem reduces to "selling a free software desktop", and 
> nobody has really made a profit from that yet.

Probably because they need to sell a service of which the free desktop
is part - works for cell phones.

> The GUI is a nice design, but trying to sell it is a complete nother matter.

The one I tried was so slow it was difficult to make a fair judgement
but I didn't see anything in it that was a killer app. And to me the
EEEPC experience seemed far superior. After all RISC OS in 1989 was a
lot better than DOS or Windows 3 and Win 95 "borrowed" a lot of the
ideas but none of that saved Acorn.

Ian
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