[Server-devel] 9.1 Proposal: Printing support

[Greg Smith]

Hi Jeff,

If you will help develop with us, you can sign up here for a free XO: 
http://projectdb.olpc.at/

BTW I'm a comic book fan myself. I give out Gyro Gearloose comic books 
whenever a kid comes by the office :-)

Thanks,

Greg S

Jeff wrote:
> 
> 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
> 
> 
> 
>