[Server-devel] 9.1 Proposal: Printing support

[Jeff]

On 21 Oct 2008, at 4:15 PM, Martin Langhoff wrote:

> On Wed, Oct 22, 2008 at 3:05 AM, Jeff <jeff at wildcoast.com> wrote:
>> Please stop imagining that lowest-spec, cheapest hardware and  
>> crippleware is
>> the answer - or that 3'rd World countries will never progress  
>> towards a
>> reasonable standard. That attitude is patronizing and demeaning.  
>> And wrong.
>
> Hey - I'm familiar with a lot of variety and I'm working towards
> options and flexibility as much as I can. But I'm shorthanded as hell,
> so help is appreciated in *getting things done*.
>
> And no -- server-devel is not about crippleware. It's just not very  
> far along.


I'm sorry to have offended you Martin. I have tremendous respect for  
you and think you've done amazing work here, but I think some of the  
limitations are a result of the (artificial) constraints which you  
currently perceive or experience, but which may not actually be  
constraints in a couple of years. . . Including the cost of your data  
traffic in NZ.

 From my perspective I would love to see a full featured XS  
deployment that includes wikipedia, gutenberg library, comics, games,  
and a DVD distro with all the necessary software applications and  
packages - rather than a server OS cut down to the bone to be able to  
fit on an XO as a server.

The Server and the Content Library are inextricably interwoven in my  
mind.

It could be worth considering focusing on XS running on XO as a  
server to handle the basic requirements (DNS, DHCP, ejabberd, and  
CUPS (hehe), etc.) - but for the rest I think that everything  
required for an XO deployment server could as easily be packaged for  
Debian and Fedora separately as distinct repositories. Another thing  
which is important, in my experience, is single sign-on  
authentication across the board: from a user data directory on the  
server - to Moodle and Drupal... and much more. In that regard I  
would love if there was a closer correlation to normal desktop  
deployments instead of depending on the XO's unique ID or MAC address  
(or however it is planned... I don't really have a clue about that.  
Sorry. Send me an XO, please. : -).

Unfortunately I don't have access to an XO, and each 500mb download  
of an ISO (Sugar & XS, but excluding Qemu) costs me a very  
significant percentage of my monthly income. *sigh* That's my own  
fault for choosing to be where I am and doing what I'm doing, I guess.

I just wish I knew how to help you get more things done. I believe  
strongly in the OLPC vision (actually, Nicholas Negroponte's original  
vision)... and as far as I'm concerned, if we had a deployment of  
OLPC here (and I mean 1 laptop /per/ child) we will use it as medium  
to instill a love of reading in children.

If OLPC misses every constructivist wish and vision; and only creates  
a mobile "Library of Alexandria" for our children (including, and  
probably especially, classic comic material) - thereby instilling a  
love of reading and an improved literacy - it will have succeeded  
beyond Nicholas's dreams. Please don't think by that I misunderstand  
or believe that such a foundation will not provide the constructivist  
platform that we all, mostly, believe in. It's just that my  
perspective is colored by my real life experience here.

To put that in context: here where we are the text-books are locked  
up in safes, and the children learn to regard the teacher as a font  
of all knowledge and wisdom. It is a very dangerous mindset that; and  
creates an appalling dependency on perceived "authority" and  
artificial hierarchies.


-Jeff



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