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They were selling to governments. That's a core part of their strategy. These Governments are concerned about unemployment in their countries. They are concerne

by netcan 18y ago

They were selling to governments. That's a core part of their strategy. These Governments are concerned about unemployment in their countries. They are concerned about low wages. They are concerned about not getting a piece of the info economy. They want windows because it increases employability. You might call them short sighted, but no more so then every other educational body that uses MS. BTW, it's not just about MS vs OS. It's about Sugar. The OS is (I hear) very different from other mainstream OSs. Education ministers in countries where computer literacy is low here "Use a computer that is so different from every other computer that students will not be able to use any other computer."

andreyf 18y ago
They were selling to governments. That's a core part of their strategy Sucks for them. Selling to large organizations is an art people perfect for decades. BTW, it's not just about MS vs OS. It's about Sugar. Sorry, I was generalizing, I stand corrected. Bah, if what the education ministers want is "computer literacy" in the sense of "how to use Windows, Word, and Excel", that's their mistake to make. What sucks most is that they sure as hell won't be affected by it. Maybe if government were run more like a company... where salaries were dependent on change-in-per-capita-GDP under one's tenure (plus a smaller piece of long-term deltas).
- netcan 18y ago
  Maybe if government were run more like a company... where salaries were dependent on change-in-per-capita-GDP under one's tenure (plus a smaller piece of long-term deltas). On a tangent point- I am less & less confident in this sort of pay-by-incentive executive engineering. On the first point. I don't think you can blame them really. There is no push to get these machines into kids' hands in the US or Switzerland where all the kids have Windows. Why should they do it. It's not like there is a huge chunk of evidence that XOs are a better educational tool. I think it's worrying that every review you here that someone got their hands on one, thought it was neat, couldn't figure out what to do with it & gave it to a school.

by netcan 18y ago

andreyf 18y ago

They were selling to governments. That's a core part of their strategy Sucks for them. Selling to large organizations is an art people perfect for decades. BTW, it's not just about MS vs OS. It's about Sugar. Sorry, I was generalizing, I stand corrected. Bah, if what the education ministers want is "computer literacy" in the sense of "how to use Windows, Word, and Excel", that's their mistake to make. What sucks most is that they sure as hell won't be affected by it. Maybe if government were run more like a company... where salaries were dependent on change-in-per-capita-GDP under one's tenure (plus a smaller piece of long-term deltas).

netcan 18y ago
Maybe if government were run more like a company... where salaries were dependent on change-in-per-capita-GDP under one's tenure (plus a smaller piece of long-term deltas). On a tangent point- I am less & less confident in this sort of pay-by-incentive executive engineering. On the first point. I don't think you can blame them really. There is no push to get these machines into kids' hands in the US or Switzerland where all the kids have Windows. Why should they do it. It's not like there is a huge chunk of evidence that XOs are a better educational tool. I think it's worrying that every review you here that someone got their hands on one, thought it was neat, couldn't figure out what to do with it & gave it to a school.