[Olpc-za] OLPC downsizes

[Morgan Collett]

I'm sure many of you have seen the news about the OLPC layoffs - for
those of you who have not,
http://blog.laptop.org/2009/01/07/refocusing-on-our-mission/ is the
announcement and
http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2009/01/09/fund_loss_staggers_group_giving_laptops_to_poor_children/
has further information.

The layoffs include almost the entire software development staff and
contractors. OLPC will continue to sell the XO laptops with the
current software release, and hopes that the "community" will continue
to develop and support the software.

The Sugar learning platform has been spun off into a separate project
under the banner of Sugar Labs: http://sugarlabs.org/ - development
continues on a volunteer basis at the moment as almost all the Sugar
developers were paid by OLPC. Sugar is available for several Linux
distributions including Ubuntu and Fedora, to give a similar
experience to those running other brands of laptops or desktop PCs.

Other than the OLPC software releases, it remains possible to run
other Linux distributions on the XO, providing you get a developer
key. Fedora 10 works out of the box, and Ubuntu Intrepid works with
some minor customisations.

Regards
Morgan