GO TO XO

• Funtoo by Daniel Robbins: A tale of two cultures…
  This is a *very* insightful post on the problems of building and maintaining an open-source community, in this case that of the Gentoo Linux distribution. One hopes that those in a position to bring Gentoo back on track , the Genoo developers, read this p
  (tags: open-source open-source-governance gentoo)
• Extinguishing LAMP: Sun Buys MySQL – Computerworld UK – The Voice of IT Management
  Glynn Moody on Sun’s acquisition of MySQL. I share his doubts that executing s/LAMP/SAMP/ is possible..
  (tags: open-source sun mysql LAMP)
• tecosystems » Give Me a M: The MySQL/Sun Q&A
  A remarkable in-depth analysis by Redmonk’s Steve O’Grady of Sun’s acquisition of MySQL produced in a remarkably short time, within a day of the announce. Especially notable are its open publication and the large number of cited links. Keep up the good w
  (tags: database lamp mysql redmonk sogrady sun web)
• ITPro: Servers: Features: Red Hat at the crossroads
  Good short history of Red Hat, supplier of the Linux distribution used by the OLPC XO Laptop. Michael Tiemann, mentioned in the article, is a fellow owner of an XO laptop.
  (tags: open-source xo-laptop redhat)

I’m on the road this week. As part of my trip I attended a conference in Dayton, and as part of that conference I observed a group of about thirty teachers and future teachers who are currently students at Wright State University use a computer.

The presentation began with all present opening up a browser and going to Google, and then doing a search on a topic of interest to them. I was sitting in the back of the room, and so could see what many of them were doing. The Wright student sitting next to me was viewing videos about Cuttlefish in the sea near Australia, and I learned he was doing a project with a group of fourth-grade students on this strange beast.

As it happens, this presentation was delivering the internet via a Linux-based solution. It took me a few hours to fully comprehend what I had witnessed, that it didn’t matter to them how the internet was delivered.

They were accessing the internet through a diskless box with 128M memory, using a stripped-down Linux kernel with X11. But a key point is that to view the internet they just needed to have the HTML text sent over the wire from the server to their barebones box so the browser could do the rendering. The “box” was an old computer, one that could in no way run Vista, yet it met all their needs.

They didn’t even know the internet was being brought to them via Linux. All that mattered was that is was on their screen.

So much for the client-server model that has been the basis of the Microsoft franchise. It is now toast, a relic of days gone by. These current users could care less. All that matters is that the browser delivers the content they wish on demand. To them, a computer is just a device for delivering the internet.

I just got the following email from Robert Bolgar, father of the Brothers Bolgar, Josh and Zander:

Subject: XO Weekend

Hi David,

How is your schedule this Sunday for continued XO teaching? If you are busy, no prob. Josh will study more for midterms.

Thanks,

Robert

Here is my reply:

I’m on road now, in Detroit as I write this. I get back late Saturday, and will be free to visit the boys on Sunday afternoon. Let me know what time after noon is convenient.

I post this because I was quite taken by the title of Robert’s post: “XO weekend.” Isn’t that a nice thought? If you have an XO, how do you plan to spend this weekend with your XO? With whom?

As noted I’m on the road. this week. I spent a fun couple of hours two nights ago writing some Python code based on an idea that came to me while I was in Schipol Airport in Amsterdam a few weeks ago. It is a variation of one of the basic XO Snippy programs, one I find quite exciting.

Say what you will, the XO is just a barrel of fun. You just need to dive in and find how it best works for you, and what you hope to accomplish.