French insights on OLPC's 'suicidal' blunder: How a ZX81-style user 'onion' could kick start the XO

Moderator’s note: Sorry, France. OLPC has not arranged for the XO laptop go on sale there, even for a limited time; and François Schnell is understandably disappointed. Edited, here are some insights he posted to an OLPC list; the full thread contains his reference to OLPC’s “suicidal behavoir.” We welcome François, a software developer at Université Louis Pasteur, as a TeleBlog contributor. His views are strictly his own, not the university’s. – David Rothman

I’m very disappointed with XO’s limited distribution scheme for people wanting to buy one. Perhaps OLPC can learn a lesson from the history of the Sinclair ZX81, shown here—a success I’ll discuss later.

What a shame about the XO. It’s on sale to individuals for just two weeks this month. And it’s only in the United States, and not elsewhere, such as in France where I live.

The XO is the best educational and technical machine out there, vs. Intel Classmate and Asus Eee. But it’s not sufficient, not even necessary, to have the best product to gain wide adoption. Ask Microsoft.

With the XO in mass production, the OLPC project should concentrate now on creating an ecosystem, onion layers, to try to reach a sustainable critical mass.

OLPC would enjoy far more sales if it widened distribution; this would help bring in software developers, content creators and advocates.

ZX81 memories

Back when I had my first $100 “laptop,” the ZX81, anyone could buy it, anywhere.

Even without the Web, this very limited machine and successors benefited from a growing community of users. Dedicated magazines were full of Open Source and Open Hardware, sharing tweaks and hacks and all kind of creative projects that ignited the curiosity of many young hackers who became today’s engineers

In that regard the XO is Heaven, but where are the well-deserved, robust layers of support? I’m following the official olpc-open and games lists, at least, but sadly, they don’t flood my mailbox.

ASUS site full of kids’ pictures

Now compare the XO with the Eee subnotebook that ASUS recently released. The Eee screen resolution is not as good as the XO’s, and it lags in other ways. Officially the Eee is not for education, they say now; but the official website is full of kids’ pictures. Already, or soon, you can buy it everywhere with an ASUS two-year warranty.

Not surprisingly, ASUS has a hard time to keep up with the unexpected high demand, and the layers of the user onion are building fast. Forums, blogs and lists are vibrant with tweaks, hacks and all kind of creative projects, just as with the old ZX81.

French excited over ASUS

In my own little country of France, where the laptop won’t even be available before the mid-December, a single forum on Blogee.net is already very active with people sharing their experience and projects for a few laptops bought from Taiwan on eBay.

By contrast, I can’t buy an XO and consequently can’t contribute to the XO project. So instead I’ll buy an Eee and probably contribute to the layers of the ASUS onion.

I find that ironic since I’m fully in sync with the main ideas and approach of Nicholas Negroponte, Seymour Papert and Alan Kay.

Yes, the OLPC is already an incredible success, having shaken up Intel and ASUS, so cheap, affordable machines are and will be more and more a reality. But I also expected the layers to serve as catalysts, my mistake probably.

Hopefully Quanta Computer will release a “consumer” version of the XO, though it could be already too late to reach a “critical mass”; let’s hope I’m wrong.

Moderator’s comments: Like François, I’m rooting for the success of OLPC, and we both mean our criticism to be constructive. I know. OLPC has only limited resources. But couldn’t it have arranged with contractors for global distribution to reach individuals and more institutions, as opposed to such a government-centric approach? Click on François’s resume and you’ll appreciate the caliber of talent that OLPC is denying itself without full distribution.

Yes, the XO is far from polished. But distribution can take place with ample warning to recipients that they will need software updates. In fact, the whole point should be to collaborate with the global technological community to make the machine more polished. OLPC needs to be less controlling and let people everywhere play a larger role in the evolution of the XO.

From an e-book perspective, I’m wondering if François or others couldn’t work with Mobipocket and Pepper Computer—and other vendors!—to allow DRMed books to be an option for XO owners, even without the Pepper interface. I hate DRM but believe that XO user should have all kinds of options—the best way to assure the mass volume the OLPC needs for its project to thrive. Alas, major publishers insist on DRM.

Related: OLPC News commentary on Francois’s messages.

Technorati Tags: One Laptop Per Child , France , French , XO , distribution , ZX-81 , ZX81 , Sinclair , Sinclair ZX81