I gave the OLPC interface¹ a quick run tonight, and I must say it is… intriguing. I understand, now, some of Robert Graham’s arguments as to why the OLPC may be detrimental to third-world countries instead of helping them get access to more technology. While *I* certainly may find the interface interesting, someone that has never been exposed to computers before will be conditioned by Sugar². Take said person and put them in front of even a GNOME Linux desktop and it will take a bit for them to adjust. Put them in front of something as clunky and bloated as a generic Windows interface and they may actually think you are trying to make fun of them³.

Because while the Sugar interface definitely is an interesting concept, it gives off the impression that the entire population that will be using the XO is unwillingly taking part in some large-scale experiment in HCI. It’s as if somebody in the “rich world” decided to throw off bits and pieces of lesser value in an aim to both satisfy some personal curiosity⁴ while at the same time giving the impression of generosity and thoughtfulness. An educational system that does not educate in terms of real-world systems and/or technology.

I would be hard-pressed to see this as a good thing, were I on the receiving end of one such laptop. Certainly a toy, with the feel of those laptops you buy for your 5-year old brother. Maybe to think that the XO breeds terrorism is a bit on the extreme. Animosity, though, I can see that.

The XO has, however, made an impact locally, by stimulating larger players such as Microsoft and Intel to revise their policies and price-points for developing nations. This may a more useful by-product of the project in the long run than the project itself - though of course we may learn some things from the Sugar interface as well. It is not that I believe the XO to be doomed for failure, but rather that I find it rather inadequate for heavy real-use. Yes, it is easy to get around on Sugar, but I’m wondering how much it does to actually teach technology.

If you want to give it a try, grab VMPlayer and a VM appliance⁵ with OLPC and take a look for yourself. My limited exposure does indicate that the wireless mesh is really an important part of the system, for a lot of applications seem to be aimed towards collaboration - that is a good thing. Think, though, of how it would be like to ‘work’ on Sugar for a longer period of time, then to try and learn a conceptually-different approach to interfaces⁶.

1. The words have been carefully chosen, for I only really analysed the interface thus far [↩]
2. The OLPC’s interface [↩]
3. Though even in the case of GNOME, the shift may be quite strenuous, I am taking into account that the OLPC is a Linux distribution [↩]
4. Graham talks of PhDs amusing themselves through the project [↩]
5. I used the update stream, which I believe to be the most current [↩]
6. For many, think even of using a Mac OS X instead of Windows - or vice-versa - and consider that, in my mind, the gap is far wider between Sugar and any of the matured UIs we have nowadays than between those two platforms [↩]