A technical assessment of porting "Sugar" to Windows.

[Mitch Bradley]

victor wrote:
>> For sound support, the situation is similar.  I believe that a larger
>> number of basic APIs are used to access sound playback features than
>> are used to access the camera and microphone, making compatibility
>> more difficult.  At minimum, we would need to use the windows port of
>> CSound; it is not clear to me how much work on CSoundXO would be
>> necessary.
>>
>>     
>
> While I have no affections for Windows, I must say that at least
> that end of things should not be a problem. Csound is completely
> multiplatform, runs on Linux, Windows, OSX (and even Solaris).
> So whatever OS is used, we can be there. But I would very much
> prefer Linux (then OSX and Windows is a very far third place).
> Speaking of this, didn't Steve Jobs offer OSX for free to OLPC
> at the beginning, but it was not taken because of the lack of FOSS
> credentials (even though Darwin is FOSS, is it not?). It seems 
> funny that now OLPC considers going Windows...
>   

A general observation about organizational behavior:

Organizations do not act coherently to nearly the same extent as 
individual humans.  Individuals change their minds, act in ways 
inconsistent with their stated goals, respond to different external 
pressures at different times, etc.  With organizations it is even wors, 
and the larger the organization, the more complicated it becomes.  
Organizational leadership changes, goals and external realities change, 
internal groups vie for influence, compete with one another and work at 
cross purposes.  Different people within the organization make 
statements that are attributed to "the organization".

Expecting an individual to behave coherently over time is dodgy at best; 
expecting it of an organization is almost certain to disappoint.

In the OLPC case, the leadership at the very top hasn't changed, but the 
second tier has changed, and the situation and external pressures have 
changed drastically.

> I sincerely hope this does not come to pass...
>
> Victor
>
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