[OLPC India] Richard Stallman - Why I switched to the OLPC—and why I dropped it .

[Walter Bender]

Sugar, the learning software environment on the OLPC XO-1 laptop and
that runs on almost any computer that runs GNU/Linux, is free software
and will always be free software. Learning demands freedom.

-walter

On Mon, Nov 3, 2008 at 3:33 PM, Saswat Praharaj
<saswat_praharaj at yahoo.com> wrote:
> http://www.bostonreview.net/BR33.6/stallman.php
>
> Snip >>>.
>
> The One Laptop Per Child project, launched by MIT professor Nicholas
> Negroponte in 2003, was supposed to lead millions of children around the
> world to information technology and freedom. The plans aimed for low cost,
> enabling many children to use the machines, and free software, so they would
> have freedom while using them. I thought it was a good idea; I even planned
> to use one myself when I found in the OLPC's promise of free software a way
> to escape the proprietary startup programs that all commercial laptops used.
>
> But just as I was switching to an OLPC, the project backed away from its
> commitment to freedom and allowed the machine to become a platform for
> running Windows, a non-free operating system.
>
> What makes this issue so important, and OLPC's retreat from free software so
> unfortunate, is that the "free" in free software refers to freedom of
> knowledge and action, not to price. A program (whatever job it does) is free
> software if you, the user, have the four essential freedoms:
>
>>>>>>>...
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> Unlimited freedom, unlimited storage. Get it now
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>



-- 
Walter Bender
Sugar Labs
http://www.sugarlabs.org