a brief olpc/sugar review


January 25th, 2008

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.
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  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 []