GO TO XO

As a recognized expert on authoritative opinions, let me share with you the reactions of daughter Jen, current graduate student and future educator, on first seeing my new XO Laptop :

• That is an XO Laptop? It looks like an Etch-a-sketch!
• It is so cute!
• It’s Green!
• It is so cool!
• You have to show me how it works.

Say what you will about Intel’s Classmate and the new ASUS Eeee PC, but I doubt they inspire this same level of excitement.

I’ve been going to a gym regularly for some years now and have thus learned that January is a month for quitters. Each year I see many new faces in early January, fresh evidence that some people really do make New Years resolutions. However, most of those new faces are gone within a few weeks, and I expect some I don’t even see because they last only a few days.

A recent article in the New York Times brought the news — as unsurprising as it was disappointing — that there are quitters outside the gym, as noted in a report by John Markoff, Intel Quits Effort to Get Computers to Children.

The article begins as follows:

A frail partnership between Intel and the One Laptop Per Child educational computing group was undone last month in part by an Intel saleswoman: She tried to persuade a Peruvian official to drop the country’s commitment to buy a quarter-million of the organization’s laptops in favor of Intel PCs.

Intel and the group had a rocky relationship from the start in their short-lived effort to get inexpensive laptops into the hands of the world’s poorest children.

But the saleswoman’s tactic was the final straw for Nicholas Negroponte, the former Massachusetts Institute of Technology computer researcher and founder of the nonprofit effort.

He demanded that Intel stop what he saw as efforts to undermine the group’s sales, which meant ceasing to sell the rival computer. Intel chose instead to withdraw its support from One Laptop this week.

The project has been a lightning rod for controversy largely because the world’s most powerful software and chip making companies — Microsoft and Intel — had long resisted the project, for fear, according to many industry executives, that it would compete in markets they hoped to develop.

As a result, One Laptop’s XO computer comes with a processor built by Intel’s rival Advanced Micro Devices and open-source software, rather than Microsoft’s Windows and Office software.

After several years of publicly attacking the XO, Intel reversed itself over the summer and joined the organization’s board, agreeing to make an $18 million contribution and begin developing an Intel-based version of the computer.

Although Intel made an initial $6 million payment to One Laptop, the partnership was troubled from the outset as Intel sales representatives in the field competed actively against the $200 One Laptop machine by trying to sell a rival computer, a more costly Classmate PC.

The Classmate sells for about $350 with an installed version of Microsoft Office, and Intel is selling the machine through an array of sales organizations outside the United States.

I’ve written an earlier post giving a brief comparsion of the features of the XO and the Classmate, Comparing the OLPC XO Laptop and Intel’s Classmate PC.

The article does have some news about the recent Get 1 Give 1 program:

The group, based in Cambridge, Mass., announced Friday that its two-month “Give One, Get One” charitable promotion had generated $35 million and sold a total of 167,000 computers, half of them to be distributed in the developing world.

I found the news unsurprising in that Intel appears to see the OLPC XO Laptop as a competitive threat.

I found it disappointing in that Intel decided not to be part of an effort to demonstrate U.S. leadership in helping to improve the global delivery of education. But this is unsurprising in that it demonstrates yet again the abject failure of the established companies in the computing industry to attempt a serious effort to provide meaningful innovation for education in the poorer parts of the planet. By serious effort I don’t just mean within the last year or so, but within the last quarter-century.

In any event, it is sad to learn that Intel will no longer be part of this effort, and thus that their expertise and experience will not be available to help advance it. Their action turned what could have been an important collaboration into a competitive effort. It doesn’t really matter who was at fault here, other to say that all of us are the losers, and I suspect that it will be hard for our nation to maintain a leadership position in this area. If our government and the key industry players haven’t been able to organize themselves, leaving the field open to a small group of volunteers, then why should any other country look to us for leadership going forward?

The genie is out of the bottle. The OLPC project has already proven that a useful global educational platform can be built for under $200. If we don’t provide the needed leadership then others will step forward to do it in our place. My own guess is that it will be China that builds its own variant of the XO if the OLPC project falters. China has an urgent need for such a device, especially due to its low power consumption. China also has a centrally-managed education system.

While browsing some XO-related web sites recently I came across a link to the home page of Intel’s new Classmate PC, Classmate PC, and did an investigation into the content.

At the bottom of the page there is a note that says for more information you should go to their portal, and I did so: Classmate PC Portal. A little investigation led to the following page which has a hardware and software summary: Classmate System Configuration.

Hardware
The hardware configuration is described here:

Chassis: Customized Mini Chassis 245×196x44
Processor: Intel® Mobile Processor ULV 900 MHz, Zero L2 cache, 400 MHz FSB
Chipset: Intel 915GMS + ICH6-M
Memory: DDR-II 256M SO-DIMM
LCD: 7″ 800 x 480, LVDS Interface, LED B/L
Storage Device: 1GB/2GB NAND Flash
Audio: Stereo 2 Channel Audio, Built-in Speakers and Microphone, Jack for External Output and Microphone Input
LAN/WLAN: 10/100M Ethernet + WLAN 802.11 b/g w/ Antenna
Keyboard: Integrated Keyboard with Hot Keys
Touch Pad: Cycle Touch Pad with Left and Right Buttons
Digital Pen (optional): Wireless Pen to take digital notes
TPM: TPM1.2
Power Solution: Battery with Adapter – 6 Cells, approximately 4 hours Usage
Weight: Less than 1.3kg (aprox. 2.86 pounds)
Operating System: Windows XP Pro*/ Linux*

(See this for a comparable summary for the XO.)

The machines are similar in that each has 256 megabytes of dynamic memory, and a Flash (no moving parts) disk. The Intel processor is twice as fast and the larger model has a larger disk (2GB) instead of the 1GB also used by the XO. Each weighs about 1.5 kilograms, or three pounds. Here are the notable hardware differences:

• The Classmate has no builtin video camera; the XO does.
• The Classmate batteries are good for 4 hours, the XO’s for over twenty.
• The Classmate has a wireless receiver; the XO has a wireless receiver AND a wireless transmitter.
• The Classmate display is 800 (H) by 400 (V); the XO display is 1200 (H) by 900 (V).

To me the main hardware difference is that the XO has a video camera and a wireless transmitter, not just a receiver. Moreover, the XO transmitter can run when the XO is in suspended mode, consuming about half a watt to keep the mesh network up and running. Though power usage figures are not given for the Classmate, I expect the XO takes much less power.

Operating System

The XO is based on Red Hat’s Fedora Release 6 version of Linux, as described at OLPC Software Specs.

The Classmate supports Windows XP and two Linux distributions: Mandriva Discovery 2007 and Metasys Classmate 2.0. (Though I have heard of Mandriva, Metasys is new to me.)

Educational Software
To me, the key software feature of the XO is that all the educational applications are written in Python.

I’m not that familiar with educational applications based on Windows XP. I certainly have not heard of any “must-have” applications, though in fairness my main interest is in Linux and open-source solutions.

Licensing

If you look at the bottom of the software page you learn that the Classmate is licensed as follows:

• Windows XP Professional: Microsoft Partners in Learning Program for Governments;
• Mandriva Discovery 2007 (Linux-based): Annual Volume Licensing to OEM;
• Metasys Classmate 2.0 (Linux-based): Annual Volume Licensing to OEM;

Here is the licensing information for the XO Laptop:

• Licensing: ZERO, NOTHING, FREE, NO CHARGE

Note that you have to pay a licensing fee for the Linux variants available for the Classmate, even though Linux itself is free and open-source software.

The Classmate’s Linux variants require 500 MB (megabytes) of disk; the XO needs just 300 MB.

Cost

The XO costs about $200. There are no licensing fees.

The Classmate hardware sells for about $350 according to a recent article in the New York Times.It is not stated what, if any, part of this cost is the license fees noted above. However, I do think it worth noting that the Classmate includes Microsoft Office as part of the $350 cost, a cost that makes the Classmate almost twice as expensive as the XO, for which there is NO software licensing cost.