OLPC is a very deserving project, hope they can make it, despite the setbacks.

And nice effort from Cloanto.

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I think the project is deception and deserving of nothing. But It's neat that AmigaForever runs on it.

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Hi Cloanto, thanks for bringing out another version of your emulation package...however....

While the "one laptop per child" initiative has good intentions, I believe there are far more better ways to spend money for those people in need.

Anyway, I am being critical here but let's see some reall innovation if possible. What about the natively booting emulation similar to Amithlon? What about updating the 68k version of AmigaOS which could really use a Boing Bag 3 ?

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I agree with you there.

Although I know little about the initiative there are two things I am not happy with:

1) The sticker. That is from Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall part 2, which in my opinion is not appropriate. I am a massive Pink Floyd fan by the way.

2) I am not sure that giving a crap laptop with a sticker that says to the teacher to get stuffed running Amiga OS3.9 is of any use apart from maybe doing some bitmap graphics and playing the 100 emulated games...I mean if the emulation runs on top of Linux, Windows or Mac who on this planet is going to run OS3.9 if they can run XP, Linux or OS X which, honestly, can do a lot more than 3.9.

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@all.

You are all missing the point. First, the OLPC is not a crap laptop for running Windows and Office. It is a collaborative learning device suited to children without easy access to broadband and mains power. Like many low-power devices, it runs on a version of Linux. Don't express an opinion until you have done the research. BTW, the OLPC cannot run XP and certainly would not be able to run XP, Office and Windows based games. It does allow children to learn with computers in situations where it would be impossible with laptops or desktop computers.

The point about the Cloanto note is that folk (only in the USA and Canada, ATM) who subscribe to the 'buy one, give one free' program can use their own machine to run Amiga programs and do their internet stuff while sitting on a sunny patio. Try that with your laptop.

We just need the OLPC organisation to extend the 'buy one, give one free' to the rest of the world and we will get a smashing portable Amiga. Can we change this to a porting OS4.0 to X86/OLPC thread?

Regards
Roy Leith

>>You are all missing the point. First, the OLPC is not a crap laptop for running Windows and Office. It is a collaborative learning device suited to children without easy access to broadband and mains power.

I see that helps, thanks for explaining but wouldn't be better to help them in a different way instead of giving them laptops? Certainly these children need more important things?

>>Like many low-power devices, it runs on a version of Linux.

So how does Amiga Forever run on it? Also on Amiga Forever website it says suitable for Win, Mac or Linux...I am a bit confused.

>>Don't express an opinion until you have done the research.

Well that's not up to you to decide.


>>The point about the Cloanto note is that folk who subscribe to the 'buy one, give one free' program can use their own machine to run Amiga programs and do their internet stuff while sitting on a sunny patio. Try that with your laptop.

I don't understand...from the picture it looks like the "laptop" is running AF...

From their website: "Amiga Forever 2008 running without modifications on a One Laptop per Child XO laptop."

Last edited by TheDaddy on 06-Jan-2008 at 10:05 AM.
Last edited by TheDaddy on 06-Jan-2008 at 10:03 AM.

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>I see that helps, thanks for explaining but wouldn't be better to help them in a different way instead of giving them laptops? Certainly these children need more important things?


Erm, no. There are numerous charity groups for the other things. What was overlooked was the large gap in education between the west and developing countries. What the OLPC attempts to do is provide a tool to help bridge that gap.

Education is one of the most important things in the world. Without it the developing countries are stuck in a rut with no way out. Thanks to this project, there is a way out of poverty for these nations. Would you deny a third of the world access to the Internet and all its incredible opportunities?

Like royleith said, don't express an opinion until you've done some research. Finaly the Internet has found its soul. Something more than chatrooms and porn. Today the net grows up.

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I recently reviewed a pre-release version of AF2008 for the next Issue of Amiga Future (Issue 70). You must remember this is a new version of AF and apart from the excellent new Player module it has many new features.

The fact that AF2008 runs on the OLPC is excellent news, whether you agree with the OLPC project or not. If AF2008 is running under Linux then we've got the "Amiga Laptop" promised by the KX Light initiative introduced in AF2006. If this is the case then all I can say is well done Cloanto!

TrevorDick

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@SPaceDruid

>>Education is one of the most important things in the world.

I agree with that but books are pretty useful too.

>>Without it the developing countries are stuck in a rut with no way out. Thanks to this project, there is a way out of poverty for these nations. Would you deny a third of the world access to the Internet and all its incredible opportunities?

I have never said that.

>>Like royleith said, don't express an opinion until you've done some research.

Again that is not up to you or anyone else to decide, I can express opinions if I like.

>>Finaly the Internet has found its soul. Something more than chatrooms and porn. Today the net grows up.

LOL!....Sorry I find it funny, call me cynical. You don't need the Internet to educate someone, the Internet it's a useful tool, no more no less. What you need is schools and teachers first.

Also why spend so much money, time and effort in developing such a laptop (developing a new product always puts strain on the environment) when there are millions of laptops which end up in landfills every year and are more than capable of running Linux with Open Office or Windows. Rescue these laptops, refurbish them and give them away, the advantages are: recycled laptops and these children get to use and learn real world applications.

But again just my opinion.

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>> The fact that AF2008 runs on the OLPC is excellent news, whether you agree with the OLPC project or not. If AF2008 is running under Linux then we've got the "Amiga Laptop" promised by the KX Light initiative introduced in AF2006. If this is the case then all I can say is well done Cloanto!

So it DOES run on top of Linux, but just as a sort of layer?

Ok then well done Cloanto!

PS Can it surf the net? I mean with java, flash? Display websites properly?

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Quote:

I mean if the emulation runs on top of Linux, Windows or Mac who on this planet is going to run OS3.9 if they can run XP, Linux or OS X which, honestly, can do a lot more than 3.9.

With a 433Mhz cpu and 256MB I don't think Windows or Linux are "so" useful.

Quote:

I see that helps, thanks for explaining but wouldn't be better to help them in a different way instead of giving them laptops? Certainly these children need more important things?

Of course there are more important things as eating or having healthy water, but these laptops are meant to allow these small children to have a future in this world. Without culture these children won't have the oportunity to become integrated. Just imagine some of these children learnt the basics of computer engineering, they could probably earn more money coding than their entire family working.

Quote:

I agree with that but books are pretty useful too.

There's more stuff on wikipedia and internet than in all the books you can give to them. You also give them freedom to CREATE, to communicate...

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Read the specs......Then you might understand

I think its brilliant.

Imagine the bedroom coders that are about to be created.

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@TheDaddy

Quote:

Also why spend so much money, time and effort in developing such a laptop (developing a new product always puts strain on the environment) when there are millions of laptops which end up in landfills every year and are more than capable of running Linux with Open Office or Windows. Rescue these laptops, refurbish them and give them away, the advantages are: recycled laptops and these children get to use and learn real world applications.

While that is a great idea, it doesn't quite meet the same needs as the OLPC project, as the price point isn't the only consideration. Power is also a major factor as many poor communities do not have reliable power supplies. OLPC is great when it comes to power consumption. Take the screen for example (quote from OLPC website):

"It features a 7.5 inch, 1200×900 pixel, TFT screen and self-refreshing display with higher resolution (200 DPI) than 95 percent of the laptops on the market today. Two display modes are available: a transmissive, full-color mode, and a reflective, high-resolution black and white mode that is sunlight readable. Both consume very little power: the transmissive mode consumes one watt—about one seventh of the average LCD power consumption in a laptop; the reflective mode consumes a miserly 0.2 watts."

They've also thought of a great way to charge the battery off grid:
http://www.potenco.com/products

I agree countries with a good power infrastructure should use the refurbished laptop method you describe, but I hope you can see why this won't be best for every country.

>I agree with that but books are pretty useful too.

You've hit the nail on the head there. Trouble is, books are expensive to keep up to date. The beauty of computers (And this applies in the developed world as well) is the constantly updated nature and translating textbooks into other languages costs very little compaired to doing it in print.

>LOL!....Sorry I find it funny, call me cynical. You don't need the Internet to educate someone, the Internet it's a useful tool, no more no less. What you need is schools and teachers first.

I'm not talking about schoolkids reading the wikipedia. The educational potential of the internet is much more advanced than the www. Distrubution of educational material over the net is what I'm talking about.

Kids in remote communities that have no schools or teachers are able to network with teachers without traveling for days or missing out compleletly on education. Even in Australia the networked classroom has proven to be of huge advantage to remote communities.

>Also why spend so much money, time and effort in developing such a laptop >(developing a new product always puts strain on the environment) when there are >millions of laptops which end up in landfills every year and are more than capable >of running Linux with Open Office or Windows. Rescue these laptops, refurbish >them and give them away, the advantages are: recycled laptops and these children >get to use and learn real world applications

Nice in theory, however the laptops that are part of the OLPC have been designed to work (and last) in harsh enviroments and are low power consumption. Most of the scrapped laptops you describe require a lot of power and are fragile.

A lot of thought has gone into this project. Its not some half ####ed idea. Requirements were asked by those that the machines are aimed at and the OLPC group designed a laptop to meet these requirements.

You'll find a lot more info on their wiki page (http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Home) which should address any of your questions or doubts asto how important this project is.

Edit:

From the FAQ

An old Pentium laptop can do the same thing.

False: The point of this laptop is to keep people connected with the modern computer net-based society. Using a laptop that may be on its way to obsolescence from a second-hand store, or building new expensive Pentium laptops for this purpose isn't feasible. You have to design something specifically to answer all the requirements of the XO laptop. If we could make a reliable $2 laptop that is modern and can do everything required of it in our program, we would absolutely make such a device. Another problem with the "old- or used-computer" approach is that it doesn't scale. The overhead of deployment and support would overshadow any potential economies in terms of the capital costs. A final, insurmountable problem with the "old- or used-computer" approach is power. The XO laptop uses an order of magnitude less power than the typical laptop. It is both environmentally reckless and economically infeasible to power used computers in developing world.

Last edited by SpaceDruid on 06-Jan-2008 at 02:44 PM.
Last edited by SpaceDruid on 06-Jan-2008 at 02:41 PM.

_________________
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@SpaceDruid

Quote:

Something more than chatrooms and porn.

Don't express an opinion unless you've done some research.

People are taking Cloanto's little tech experiment a bit seriously. I thought the sticker was funny too, but if the above is an example of my sense of humour perhaps I should keep my mouth shut.

I think the OLPC is a good initiative and it's quite a unique piece of kit. People are always going to say it's underpowered, but it's working with a different set of constraints. For most of the tech industry, it's "put the highest spec in a cheap disposable box". We've got the wrong mindset at times.

Chris

ps. I wish Cloanto would change that background. Every time I've launched Amiga Forever I've felt like I'm looking through John Major's eyes. Everything is grey!

>>With a 433Mhz cpu and 256MB I don't think Windows or Linux are "so" useful.

I think Linux is.

>>Of course there are more important things as eating or having healthy water, but these laptops are meant to allow these small children to have a future in this world. Without culture these children won't have the oportunity to become integrated. Just imagine some of these children learnt the basics of computer engineering, they could probably earn more money coding than their entire family working.

Bah, it might be so I just think it's more useful to have an "old" Centrino or even Celeron laptop with Win XP and Office taken out of a skip, landfill or tip.

>>There's more stuff on wikipedia and internet than in all the books you can give to them. You also give them freedom to CREATE, to communicate...

Don't they need to be connected to the net for that?

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>>Read the specs......Then you might understand

I think its brilliant.

Imagine the bedroom coders that are about to be created.



I think it's butt ugly and it's got wireless inbuilt!
I could have easily designed a better looking machine.

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www.loriano.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk

>Don't they need to be connected to the net for that?

Which is why the laptops have built in WiFi.

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"Anyone with a modicum of reasonableness may realize that it is like comparing the ride in the world to descend the stairs to catch the milk in the house."

Google Translate

>>While that is a great idea, it doesn't quite meet the same needs as the OLPC project, as the price point isn't the only consideration.

Recycled laptos could be free!

>>>>I agree countries with a good power infrastructure should use the refurbished laptop method you describe, but I hope you can see why this won't be best for every country.

Why don't we concentrate on solving their power problems first then?

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www.loriano.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk

>>You've hit the nail on the head there. Trouble is, books are expensive to keep up to date. The beauty of computers (And this applies in the developed world as well) is the constantly updated nature and translating textbooks into other languages costs very little compaired to doing it in print.

I would still put the book first.

>>Kids in remote communities that have no schools or teachers are able to network with teachers without traveling for days or missing out compleletly on education. Even in Australia the networked classroom has proven to be of huge advantage to remote communities.

So why don't we concentrate on building them schools and a better roads?

>>False: The point of this laptop is to keep people connected with the modern computer net-based society. Using a laptop that may be on its way to obsolescence from a second-hand store, or building new expensive Pentium laptops for this purpose isn't feasible.

I am not talking about old Pentiums 200MHz! The whole design process and production of a new product is a big environmental effort so why not use modernish recycled machines?

Let's just say we agree on our disagreement.

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