[Sigia-l] Salt in Sugar?

[Ziya Oz]

Will Parker:

> In very short order, the OLPC and the Sugar UI is likely to become
> the only accessible computational option for the world's poor.

Not to mention, after Windows, the second largest computing platform, larger
than Mac and all *nix combined.

What I find interesting is that a *commercial* entity would never take such
risks on all hardware, software, integration and distribution fronts all at
the same time. If OLPC is willing to experiment on 100 million kids without
bothering to test, what does it say about them? Is it a matter of
unprecedented genius unfolding? Or boneheaded hubris?

Now, two people emailed off-list with interesting questions. One said, "Your
favorite company Apple does this all the time, why not OLPC?" Well, I don't
agree with the notion that Apple doesn't test. They don't test as publicly
as say Microsoft, but they do test. More importantly, design has been baked
into Apple's DNA from its birth. They *have* popularized the GUI and created
a number of very successful OSes, hardware platforms and myriad apps. What
has Red Hat done to warrant such confidence?

Also, another person asked if, as a designer, I felt "threatened"? I am as
threatened by it as I was of WebTV.

Am I royally pissed off that a bunch of geeks think design is something you
tack on *after* you ship the product to millions of captive users? You bet.

Ziya
Nullius in Verba