Peru lures children into the world of Windows

AFTER DISAPPOINTING news back in April that One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) might dump Linux in favour of the Vole’s Windows XP on its cheap and cheerful XO, the government of Peru today announced it would be first to implement the change.

OLPC, which used to want to provide small, super cheap laptops for kids – mainly in the developing world – originally had its XO based only on Linux, running a home-made app called Sugar. But now, in Peru, the pequeño XO lappie will be running the Vole’s XP instead.

The apparent sellout to the world of ‘evil incorporate’ will bring mucha tristessa for young Peruvians who actually believed OLPC was an ideological David, standing up to the software Goliaths who regularly impose their will on the system.

In the Vole’s case, it also wouldn’t be the first time company-sponsored copyright enforcers have been accused of heavy-handed tactics in the country.

OLPC had originally decided to offer XO with Linux because the OS was free and made the device run more efficiently. Sugar with bare bone versions of Firefox and other open sauce software used only 200 MB, leaving 800 MB free.

Windows XP Home SP2, on the other hand, sucks up a greedy 1.1 GB of disk space, not including various patches and updates thought to add another 165 MB each year.

So XO will have to start packing a heck of a lot more disk space than its current 1 GB, meaning OLPC can kiss goodbye to its goal of getting laptop production costs down to less than the affordable $100.

Currently, at $200 an XO, there aren’t too many poor families who can afford one for their children, which is why the Peruvian government is giving them away to school kids in a nine month trial.

This new push to get mega-corporate sponsored tech into classrooms doesn’t just stop at the OS. The new XP enabled babybooks will also come with all kind of Volish software including Microsoft Office 2003 and something called “Learning Essentials 1.0”.

But big software doesn’t necessarily suit little learners. "XP and Microsoft Office are not designed for children nor for classroom usage", noted Alejandro J Cura from the Python Users Group in Argentina, adding "it won't make sense."

The government argument is that a non-Windows netbook wouldn’t prepare the innocent kiddies for the harsh realities of a world where capitalist monopoly giants regularly crush their weaker opponents to death. Maybe the government should also tell children that Santa Claus never existed either and was all part of Coca Cola’s sinister Christmas marketing campaign.

The move is definitely a blow to open saucerers, who advocate making software and its source code free and who had high hopes the XO would spread a little of the Linux love to the five billion or so people without computers in the developing world. But five billion has too much market potential for Microsoft and its secret source to miss out on, apparently.

Boggers worldwide are already fighting back though. One, Richard Stallman, of the Free Software Foundation, even goes as far as comparing closed source software to addictive drugs, and saying that Proprietary software such as the Vole’s “is incompatible with the spirit of learning”.

Claiming that it puts kids under the power of the system's developer indefinitely, Stallman concludes “If the XO turns out to be a platform for spreading the use of proprietary software, its overall effect on the world will be negative."

It definitely seems things are taking a nasty turn down in OLPC headquarters. And it’s more than a little disturbing that, whereas old Nick Negroponte used to kick up a right fuss at Intel’s perceived evil attempts to undermine the XO with a Windows-based Classmate, he now seems to be eating right out of the Vole’s hairy paw. µ

See Also

Richard Stallman’s blog post

Microsoft's Big Stick in Peru –Wired

Microsoft convicted of Software Piracy

Software Libre