[sugar] sugar roadmap

[Charles Merriam]

>  >  2. Need a really easy way to play music and video files including ones
>  >  w/ proprietary codecs. Kid finds mp3 file on the internet using browse,
>  >  kid double-clicks file. It should open with the activity that supports
>  >  that file type.
>  >
>  >  Use Case:
>  >  The kid should be able to access the same file again later from the
>  >  Journal and open up in the appropriate activity/player (should one be
>  >  loaded)
>  >
>  >  OLPC won't have to pre-load the proprietary codecs for this to work.
>  >  Leave that to deployment people like myself. just make it easy for us to
>  >  load them using mechanisms like the customization key.
>  >
>  >  Yes proprietary is bad but allowing kids to explore on their own -- an
>  >  essential aspect of constructionism -- is more important. We cut off
>  >  many avenues of exploration when we make it hard for them to access
>  >  content that happens to use proprietary codecs -- which is the majority
>  >  of interesting content on the Internet.
>  >
Reverse engineering a proprietary and changing codec is hard.  Most
codecs are protected by patents anyway, so no open source software can
exist that lets OLPC ship it.

>  >  2.1 The XO needs a rock-solid media player. To me this is as essential
>  >  as the Journal.
>
>  Rob Savoye says that if we could provide, find, recruit...a few
>  developers to finish the current Gnash roadmap, we would have it. I
>  haven't heard anybody step up. Why?
>

It's engineering, and it is hard.  And it is doomed.  Flash is in
constant proprietary development; Gnash can never be up to date.  If
you ever talk carefully to engineers, you would understand that they
prefer not to work on doomed projects for no pay.


There exist solutions to the Codec problem, and those solutions are
more in the Ubuntu/Redhat/Sun/Google arena than the OLPC arena.
>  --
>  Edward Cherlin

Charles