Devel Digest, Vol 21, Issue 42

[Ed Montgomery]

 I do not
 believe it
would be compromising the spirit of the program to
help a sovereign
 nation
to do what *they* choose to do. My understanding of
the purpose of the
program is that it is not intended as a platform to
tell developing
 nations
what to do -- but is meant as an offer of a useful
product that they
 can use
how they wish. If a sovereign nation decides that they
are interested
 in
Microsoft Office, and they are on the point of
choosing something other
 than
the xo, for this reason -- then I would respect their
choice, and as an
issue of supporting the end user (not Microsoft), I
believe it would
 still
be legitimate to try and find a back up, as a
development issue, to
 abiword
and google docs -- if this would make the difference
between a country
adopting or not adopting the xo. 

 I certainly believe that any sovereign nation will
choose what they wish, (in many cases, unfortunately
and sadly, and not in the best interests of their
people).  I simply prefer to suggest that the xo is
the best choice, one reason being (among others) that
it is freely available, freely copiable, free to
study, free to modify, etc., and that it is THE best
choice! :-) MS Office is none of these things, but go
ahead and make a bad choice, if you wish ;-)

I do not believe that the project would be ruined by
people choosing to
 do
what they want on the machines. I think it is exactly
that freedom and
openness that makes it very strong. 

Again, I certainly believe in your freedom to make
poor choices! ;-)  However, choosing anything to do
with MS is choosing tyranny and closedness (is that a
genuine word? :-)) over the freedom and openness of
the OLPC.

Typically the first thing I say
 about
OLPC is that it is *not* a panacea, but is one way to
make the world
 better,
and if someone criticizes it, usually I say something
like "that is
 great --
please get involved!" 

You obviously haven't seen B. Gate's criticism of the
OLPC. :-)

And I'm sorry -- I would gratefully accept the
 help of
any Microsoft employee who would be willing to help,
including Bill
 Gates.

And you'd probably accept the help of Burmese military
officials in helping govern a country, perhaps?  Or
accept the help of North Korea to liberate South
Korea?  Sorry, but I choose linux and support of OLPC
for good reasons.  I do not support MS for good
reasons.  If B. Gates wants to help, START with
ethical investments and clean up his act (and
genuinely help people, rather than just PR stunts). 
If B.Gates wants to genuinely help, he can GPL Windows
and Office source code for starters ;-), especially if
he supports what you call 'freedom' and 'openness'. 
It would seem you do not apply ethical standards, and
would accept 'help' from KKK, mafia, criminal
organizations, drug lords, heck, anybody who wants
to!?   An EXCELLENT reason to support OLPC is to
provide people with choices, opportunities, freedom,
etc. that are DENIED by MS. MS products are designed
for something called 'vendor lockin', which perhaps
you are not aware of and should study.  Your
acceptance of 'help' from MS, would be acceptance of
MS ethical standards, which are abysmal, vendor
lockin, etc., to say the least.  Accepting 'help' from
MS, is like accepting 'help' from a drug pusher to get
off drugs.  For a drug pusher, it's 'just business you
know, nothing personal'. 

Sorry developers, I will continue this rant privately,
with any and all concerned.

We now return to our irregularly scheduled
programming...:-)






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