XP on OLPC - a contrarian view

[John R.Hogerhuis]

Sameer Verma <sverma <at> sfsu.edu> writes:
> 
> Yeah, its probably #1. Boot up times become moot if children simply rely
> on suspend and resume with topping up the battery whenever possible. Its
> the actual performance of the environment that really matters.
> 

I would say both are important in a classroom setting, though UI responsiveness
is more important.

Even with Ubuntu on my Thinkpad laptop I do have the occasional lockup or need
for reboot. If a kid is working on a collaborative activity and on top of the
time it takes to notice and react to the freeze/lockup you need to spend another
minute or so rebooting, that time comes directly out of productive learning
time. And, in his frustration he may need help which could stop the whole train
until the issue is dealt with. I think in classrooms full of 20-30 kids, that
happening enough to notice is a significant probability.

-- John.