Sic Transit Gloria Laptopi is a long and wrenching piece about the OLPC project by Ivan Krstic. Just one man’s take, but Ivan’s been a strong advocate for the OLPC’s highest purposes. Performer too.
Some pushback from Taran Rampersad. Also this from Tom Hoffman. (And privately from some people.)
For what it’s worth, I’ve loved the ambitions of the OLPC program from the beginning, even if I thought they were crazy to start in 5th gear by rolling a zillion laptops out to 3rd world countries, too many of which are run by dictatorships that could be bought by actual vendors.
Still. Ordinary laptops have been stale for a long time.
Even if they crater, they’ve blazed a worthy trail along the way.
