(Page 2 of 2) The port effort -- and Negroponte's enthusiasm for it -- speaks to a fundamental issue with the XO sales effort. Negroponte's vision is to sell millions of XOs to education ministers in developing countries. "But ministers are conservative," Vota said, "and they haven't noticed anyone getting fired for buying XP." If XP is ported, ministers can buy XOs with the Sugar interface, and if there are complaints, simply switch to XP, Vota said.
OLPC could avoid this scenario, Vota added, "if they had strenuous testing and could show that kids learn and play better with Sugar. The conversation would be moot."
Negroponte 'Selling His Soul'?
Another issue is support. How will millions of young users get help with software and hardware issues once they get their hands on the laptops? OLPC's answer so far has been that the children will learn to support themselves, that they will learn how to write their own programs and how to repair their machines.
That answer doesn't satisfy anyone, and Utzschneider wrote extensively about Microsoft bringing its support organization to bear when XO machines are deployed with XP. "Microsoft has an entire support community and can support software on a global scale. But my dream is for Microsoft to support the XO with Sugar," Vota said.
"Negroponte's dream is to have governments buying XO laptops," he concluded. "I could see him willing to sell his soul to whomever to make that happen."
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