[Olpc-open] Re dual boot XO: Olpc-open Digest, Vol 23, Issue 18

[Steve Holton]

On Sun, May 18, 2008 at 1:37 PM, Sameer Verma <sverma at sfsu.edu> wrote:
> gnome wrote:
>> I've been running Xubuntu from an SD card since early January.  I have
>> never understood why an Xubuntu dual boot-on-SD option was not available
>> right from the start.  I don't understand why, amid all the talk about
>> Windows, there isn't more discussion of dual booting Ubuntu.  It's an
>> extremely obvious solution for people who need an ordinary filesystem on
>> an XO.
>>
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> The matter of Windows booting off of an SD card came into the picture
> because supposedly some governments have asked for it. However, booting
> XP off the card is half the picture. The stack isn't complete unless
> Windows runs Sugar. Along the same lines of argument, you could boot
> into Ubuntu and then run Sugar. The end goal is to run Sugar (and
> provide a constructionist environment for learning) and not Windows or
> Ubuntu.

There are those who think this is an 'education project' and argue the
end goal is to run Sugar. In this case, any operating system which
supports Sugar is adequate, provided it supports Sugar adequately.

Then there are those who think this is a 'laptop project'. They mostly
couldn't care less if the 'Sugar stack' for an operating system even
exists.

Because there are two schools of thought, it makes sense for there to
be an operating system/application stack to address both of the
diverse needs.

The Sugar/GNU/Linux set seems to be the favorite of the education crew.

Windows seems to be the favorite of the laptop crew.

It is curious the Ubuntu/GNU/Linux set will now also support Sugar.
Clearly more effort supporting this might solve many problems, but not
all.

Not everybody wants Sugar. Sucks, nut that's life.

But I do take issue with those who think offering kids Windows on a
laptop computer is going to be any different from what we've already
seen. OEM's have had the opportunity to put Windows (in one form or
another) on a laptop computer (in one form or another) for a more than
decade. For the most part there were no offers. Where there were
offers, there were few takers. And where there were takers, there were
mostly disasters.

One has to ask what makes the XO different, and if allowing Windows to
get there isn't killing the goose which lays the golden egg.

-- 
Steve Holton
sph0lt0n at gmail.com