“My brain about exploded. Of course! What can’t you do that a businessman might typically want to do that he can’t do on Google Docs? Note to countries thinking about whether or not to get the OLPC laptop and worrying about Word and Excel and all that: not only does the OLPC have equivalents, but if you want the kids to be able to function in a Microsoft environment, let them go to Google Docs and they can even share the work. An entire class and the teacher can all work on a project together. Here’s how some others in the world are already using Google Docs. ‘Nobody needs a hard drive any more,’ the young guy said. And you know what? It’s true. So down topples another piece of anti-OLPC FUD.” – Groklaw’s super-informative, link-rich XO article.
The TeleRead take: Stories like this just add to my frustration over the late delivery of my XO, which, although useful as an e-book device, could be much much more. Apparently you can even buy a doodad to let one USB port work with both a mouse and keyboard. Caveat: I haven’t tried it.
Meanwhile, a debate is raging, as noted in the unofficial OLPC News, on whether the Give One Get One program should expire after December 31. I vote an emphatic No. If OLPC can’t handle ordinary consumer purchases, let ‘em contract this out. The more people owning XOs, the greater the number of software apps. Notice how a private XO user named Bennett Todd tested FBReader on the XO? That’s what happens when we don’t ghettoize innovative hardware and, say, confine it to the world of education. Let the market decide how the machine is to be used.
"@Mary That's correct. You can choose to convert to whichever formats you wish using programs such as calibre. We are providing pub and pdf formats ..."
“My brain about exploded. Of course! What can’t you do that a businessman might typically want to do that he can’t do on Google Docs? Note to countries thinking about whether or not to get the OLPC laptop and worrying about Word and Excel and all that: not only does the OLPC have equivalents, but if you want the kids to be able to function in a Microsoft environment, let them go to Google Docs and they can even share the work. An entire class and the teacher can all work on a project together. Here’s how some others in the world are already using Google Docs. ‘Nobody needs a hard drive any more,’ the young guy said. And you know what? It’s true. So down topples another piece of anti-OLPC FUD.” – Groklaw’s super-informative, link-rich XO article.
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I run OPERA on OLPC. And then use zoho.com that is 100 percent better than google docs. Try it you might like it.
J