What is Digg?74 Comments
- beni, on 10/12/2007, -1/+44One of the Youtube comments:
"I don't think the "Mines" game is all that appropriate for kids in developing countries."
Funny *****! - shrewduser, on 10/12/2007, -1/+35i know i'm abusing the first comment (sorry) but that low res youtube video is *****...
THIS is what you want to watch: http://www.ivr-usability.com/olpc/olpc.html
(note: exact same video, much higher quality, nicer compression) - schestowitz, on 10/12/2007, -3/+351. The UI needs to use little energy and use modest amounts of the available resource.
2. The UI should be universal, simple and contain little or no language. - atdigg, on 10/12/2007, -3/+16I'm not sure I understand either the castration of the browser... I need address bar I use both Opera and I can't live without the address bar ( sure there are ways around it like pressing F2 and then typing the address) not everything is my bookmarks and I don't have to search for something that I know how to access.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -4/+18*****
- shrewduser, on 10/12/2007, -5/+18if you ask me that UI is absolutely brilliant....
i would like some of those concepts introduced into mine. - mdmadph, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10that's the bloody point... *sigh*
- Saffa, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10It is for little kids...
- raid517, on 10/12/2007, -5/+14I love Linux. I have used it for years. But that UI is a huge letdown for such a potentially nice product.
It looks like it has been made by geeks with no kids of their own.
Hopefully someone will come up with an OSS alternative. - andrewmac44, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9My mother would enjoy such a browser, she still can't grasp the concept of an address bar, she just performs a search for the website she's looking for... everyday... every time she checks her email :S
- knutert, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8There is an adress bar. Not so obvious in that video, but you can try out the UI through a vmware image found here: http://hog.tuttlesvc.org/~hoffman/olpc/olpc-182.zip
I like the circle where all your application icons are shown, it would be cool to have something similar in beryl/compiz. The scale plugin does pretty much the same, but sometimes I would rather have a list of icons than the actual window itself. - ICSU, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8The messenger doesn't have to look like it escaped from Win 3.1 tho.
- misterjangles, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8Being able to see only one app at a time fullscreen seems a bit limiting. Is that due to the power/resource requirements, or are they just trying to keep things as simple as possible for the kids?
- aeiou, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Ummm.... It IS OSS, isn't it?
- Lobster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Never fear we of the Puppy Alliance have come up with an interface for the kids . . .
will they hack it?
http://desktoplinux.com/news/NS2746872300.html - mdmadph, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6most users won't miss the address bar (or even know it's not there). you'd be amazed how many non-computer-savvy people don't even know it exists in the first place.
- treelovinhippie, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6IMO that OS is horrible.
What's the go with the "frame" ... that would piss me off within minutes. It's like the disappearing taskbar option, but around the entire screen!
And why does the browser have no address bar?? - dDuk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5The project is a good and honorable one, but this OS is not doing it any favours. At least have a choice, 'Sugar' and 'Spice' maybe, with 'Spice' being for more grown up and advanced users (those who can use an address bar being one example) and with more standard interface. I read somewhere that if some kid learns how to use computers with this they are effectively alienating themselves from regular computer users, well I think you'll know your kid is smart when he/she figures out how to change this crappy gui to something useful and not so restrictive!
- breakaway, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Remember, none of these kids have used Windows XP, Gnome, KDE with Beryl before. Therefore, it doesn't really matter whether you like the way it works. It's great, serves the purpose.
- rbanffy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6@atdigg,
"I need address bar I use both Opera and I can't live without the address bar"
You are not an 8 year-old child. This interface is not one of a general purpose notebook computer but one of a learning tool.
Kid's shouldn't be able to type "myspace.com" in their XO's - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4The main part of the actual GUI looks quite nice but its just too unintuitive and the bubbles are really condescending - its like they just renamed all the common terms for the hell of it without making the new terms any better or putting any thought into the explanations.
- r00tus3r, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I don't see why they went to the trouble of developing all that crappy untested stuff when there are so many great free open source options out there such as Ubuntu, gaim, etc. It just seems pointless and wasteful.
- drizek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3then go buy one...
- mikeazorin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3That wasn't funny.
- nofxjunkee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3On devices with smaller screens (like PDAs) it's common to an interface like that. But when the resolution is 1200x900 I'm not exactly sure why they would do that. Maybe eliminating window management from the user's perspective makes the thing easier to learn. You have a list of task/activities that you're doing, and you can work on one at a time.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -13/+15On the contrary, I'd say it's VERY appropriate to learn how to dodge mines in those countries...
- pawitp, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2As far as I know, I've read somewhere on the laptop.org wiki that clicking on the title bar of firefox will trigger address bar. I'm downloading it right now.
HERE:http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Using_QEMU_on_Windows_XP - julielacombe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2For those who want to experiment how the OLPC feels like, you can test it on your OWN system on a freely available VMWare image.. instructions are right here:
http://geeksaresexy.blogspot.com/2006/11/how-to-get-one-laptop-per-child-image.html - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2due to power restrictions, using the laptop in the daylight requires the monitor to switch to B&W
Most of the target users will be using the monochrome display mode more often. - raindogmx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2No because in the beginning of the video it says something about your activities showing up inside the ring on the desktop. I'm sure it is able of at least task switching.
- 0KonTroL0, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Come on ppl, try giving a little critical critisism. :P
- ricepudd, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Perhaps the hidden address bar is so the Nigerian recipients of the laptop won't see the phish marker whilst they surfing their own website, so they won't go to the effort of trying to circumvent it...
- rbanffy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Sure your 8-bit Amstrad had a 900x1200 display and could run Smalltalk (the etoys demo runs under Squeak)
It's simple. Remember: It was built for small children. - zmigliozzi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Wow im very impressed with that. You could even use this for early childhood development, it looks tons easier and more friendly and pleasing than an apple II :D
- aMiTnaRain, on 10/12/2007, -9/+10come on at least make a decent looking GUI
poor people arent colorblind
gr8 idea though. all the basics and everything to the point. - JrGhoull, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1root, and to basically everyone
the nice part about using linux for their OS is that its open source, so anything that they mess up on (i understood the top and bottom bar...but the sidebars would drive me crazy too treelovinhippie8) can be fixed by other people
the main stuff that was focused on seemed to have escaped most people who dont know too much on the subject.they focused on power consumption and useability, emphasis on the power consumption which they made sure that every piece of the OS wasnt running when it wasnt needed to, in order to save power. I am not a programmer, so i dont know much about making/modding an OS (or making/modding any other piece of software for that matter) but, while i do think that this thing could use alot of work from the community, i also hope that people dont mess up alot of the work that the good people over at MIT have done with the power saving. - Wootery, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1To me the most surprising thing about the Sugar interface was that it is written in Python - I would have thought that would drive up the hardware requirements and the price.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1How come the title says first look? did you miss the others?
- kubudubudubuntu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2My grandmother can code more advanced UI's.. (or cut down on code without making it worthless)
Im sure that the Open Source comunity would have helped them.... - drizek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1python has high requirements and isnt hte most performant thing in the world, but the interface is pretty simple, and you are only using it to open/close apps. So once you open firefox, Sugar isnt going to slow you down just by running in the background. When sugar is running, the hardware will be fast enough to run it.
I must say though, i am very surprised they went with firefox over konqueror/khtml. Firefox and 128mb ram just dont mix. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4hmmmm... I think i like it?
- rbanffy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The etoys part is running under a Squeak image.
I think Smalltalk makes a fine language for teaching. Yet, I think children may have some trouble learning C++ or Java after seeing Squeak.
I know I did - it took me years to have the courage to learn C++ after learning OOP on ST (fist Smalltalk/V, then Actor) and ST80 makes Java 2006 look... well... crude. - grinin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I would still want a hand crank! :D
- grinin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Thats a pretty nice interface... I would love to have a hand crank on my laptop! :D
- spacebar14, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Of course, by "first look" you don't really mean first...
This story has been on Digg dozens of times.
We've seen Sugar. Some people like it, some don't.
Deal with it. - avsa, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1address bar has been replaced by a big "I'm feeling lucky ®" button
- avsa, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1they did not show the best part of the messenger, that is, you can draw/ handwrite on it...
- avsa, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1there =is no hand crank in this one. for ages now.
- raid517, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Puppy looks good.
- Grayfox777, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yeah... laptop prices are going down. You can get them for under $500 now. Go get one!
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