| Interesting times in K12 Educational Technology ... |
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| Written by Ken Task | |||
| Tuesday, 08 April 2008 04:16 | |||
ISD's appear to be interested in purchasing low cost laptops with an operating system that is on MS chopping block. There are websites now that are for the purpose of gathering "support" for the notion that XP should be saved! Now MS wouldn't miss out on any market but I saw an article that interviewed an MS Exec. person that was saying XP Home would be "allowed" on OLPC type machines. No mention of XP Pro. But, then again, it's not unusual for an MS Exec to "get it wrong" or the MS policy to change - once/if they see any other company making sales! What will happen to the companies offering these OLPC's with XP (Home/Pro/or stripped version) when/if MS pulls the rug out from underneath? Surely MS would NOT do that! Well, the OLPC makers are covering in the event of MS "change" ... they offer a Linux version as well - supposedly same functionality. However, enter fairly new technology: Intel's Atom processor and MIDs or UMPCs. http://www.intel.com/products/mid/ http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/16/intels-mid-umpcs-so-long-xp-vista-hello-linux/ BTW, looking at the second URL and the picture shown of it's "desktop", it looks (not surprisingly) like gOS ... the operating system that was on the WalMart Everex (cheap) pc's! Check this one out: http://www.mobiletopsoft.com/board/2037/midinux-linux-on-mid-umpc-video-walkthrough.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IALqu7EKUTw Hey! Here's another HP mini-notebook: HP will sell the basic version of the machine with SuSE Linux for $499. The same standard version of the system will sell for $599 with Windows Vista Basic. HP will also offer a $749 version aimed at business travelers that features Windows Vista Business, a Webcam, Bluetooth, 2 GB RAM, and an extended battery. Vista Home Edition, FreeDOS, or the SuSE Linux http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptops/hp-2133-mini-note.aspx Used in "discussions" over Windows vs Linux, MS Office vs OpenOffice.org: 1. "cost" should NEVER be a selling point 2. "good enough" is NOT "good enough" for our students ... at any age/grade level. And yet, one of the primary reasons for looking into any of this is: cost ... the other being "good enough". And something else ... there's a difference in full blown laptops vs. ClassMates, EeePC's, MID's, UMPC's, etc. Seems the "lower end" devices are for consumption of information (viewing, listening, watching primarily) where as a desktop or full blown laptop has the ability to create the digital content. The 21st Century Skills that we've been hearing about I would imagine involve the creation of content (or re-mix/mesh) as opposed to consumption of content. Hmmmmm ... what of the above mentioned "low-cost", "good-enough" 1-1 laptops? Intel Classmate: http://www.intel.com/intel/worldahead/classmatepc/ OLPC: http://laptop.org/ EeePC: http://eeepc.asus.com/global/ Something else for WebMaster types: W3C is working on a "standard" for Media in CSS. http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-mediaqueries/ Here's what I wonder (this is a when NOT if) ... In order to solidify a companies "hold" on a customer, in the past, servers of "special flavors" were offered (at a price) to match the clients and they were/are proprietary. Is that still happening? Or is the only thing needed is something web-based?
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