The XO-1.5 software plan.

[K. K. Subramaniam]

On Saturday 16 May 2009 01:47:49 am Chris Ball wrote:
> We have some good news:  OLPC has decided to base its software release
> for the new XO-1.5 laptop on Fedora 11.  Unlike previous releases, we
> plan to use a full Fedora desktop build, booting into Sugar but giving
> users the option to switch into a standard GNOME install instead.
> (This will mostly be useful for older kids in high school.)
I would like to put in a word for KDE desktop given our long term mission, 
focus on kids' education, and need for small form-factor machines. My 
intention is not to trigger a Gnome-vs-KDE war. I help many remote rural 
schools in my locality work with computers and my choice of KDE was purely 
pragmatic. E.g.
- KDE has a much wider target than Gnome including an interest group for K-12 
education (see edu.kde.org). Why not work together?
 - KDE is highly customizable by users (no programming required). It is easy 
for teachers to use a restrictive profiles (themes) for young children and 
liberal profiles for elder children.
- Sugar can be run as a container Plasmoid (see 
http://techbase.kde.org/Projects/Plasma/Vocabulary). There is no need to 
switch desktop sessions. Zooming and resolution independence are two bonuses.
 - Qt (basic toolkit for KDE) is multiplatform and is available even on mobile 
form factors. It already comes with support for SVG, OpenGL, multilingual 
support that can help keep suites like Sugar small and clean.
- KDE needs lesser RAM leaving more room for apps. All our systems run on 
1.6GHz/256MB RAM. Low base RAM becomes important for swapless systems.

If the decision has already been locked down, please ignore this mail.

Subbu