Walter leaving and shift to XP.

[Mitch Bradley]

No, I'm saying that giving laptops to all the world's children is a Good 
Thing,
and worthy of being called an "education project", even if they don't 
have the
world's friendliest UI or free software.  And the reason for that is because
the web is so immensely valuable.

The laptops are even more wonderful with a child-friendly UI, loads of fun
activities, and a non-proprietary software stack.  But in the steady 
state, the
web is the high-order bit, sufficient to qualify as education in and of 
itself.



Walter Bender wrote:
> I am not sure what you are driving at Mitch: web browsers are
> available to fundamentalists of both camps. Are you suggesting that a
> proprietary browser will reach more children more quickly?
>
> -walter
>
> On Tue, Apr 22, 2008 at 8:28 PM, Mitch Bradley <wmb at laptop.org> wrote:
>   
>>  I know quite a few children in the US who benefit from laptops running a
>>  proprietary stack.
>>
>>  Web access is the core capability that transforms the computer from a
>>  convenience to a near necessity.
>>
>>  Before the web, most people in developed countries had computers at work
>>  for doing "Office"
>>  stuff, but only a fraction of households had them.
>>
>>  "activities" will hold children's attention for some time, but in the
>>  long term, the desire to
>>  access all of the world's information will persist long after the
>>  activities become boring.
>>
>>  Suppose, as a thought experiment, that someone were to propose giving
>>  every child in the world
>>  a device that could do nothing but access the web.  Would you consider
>>  that a positive
>>  educational step?
>>
>>  I would.
>>
>>
>>
>>  _______________________________________________
>>  Devel mailing list
>>  Devel at lists.laptop.org
>>  http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
>>
>>