PlexNex: OLPC + Windows

Negroponte redefines "open" in his statement justifying the inclusion of an opening for Windows on the OLPC.

"It would be hard for OLPC to say it was 'open' and then be closed to Microsoft. Open means open," Negroponte said.

Jo Best | ZDNet Australia

Open means visible code. Not welcoming of having your head stoved in.

This twisting of language, good sense and repudiation of declared objectives must be an expedient to get Bill Gates & Warren Buffett to stop standing on his bunyons.

Negroponte needed to get the anti-OLPC-league off his back to close some big deals. But he just gave up one of the strongest educational principles supporting the project: that kids can open up the software and learn from playing with the source. This will probably never be possible with a Windows version of OLPC (-- and if Microsoft releases its source it will stop these kids from ever contributing to Free Software because they will have seen the Microsoft code and become a patent violation risk).

In addition, OLPC Windows runs afoul of the principles of Free Software and common sense in an education project by distributing a hornet's nest of proprietary dependencies into fast-growing markets.

In fighting for oxygen in the real world of influence, OLPC just stopped being important. Another big win for the Gorilla.