[clue-talk] Richard Stallman Slams OLPC for Switching to Windows - Webmonkey

[David L. Willson]

/me likes Richard Stallman.

Sure, he's polarized.  But someone's gotta be.  North is easier to find with a North Star.  Somebody's gotta make the main point without compromise, even if us implementers need to compromise from time to time.

He's right.  OLPC isn't supposed to be profit motivated, it's supposed to be charity.  Yes?  If so, why not do things in as utopian a manner as possible?  Is it cost prohibitive to promote independence from Microsoft's proprietary products?  Or have we somehow reached the conclusion that it's wrong to promote that independence?  Whenever the product serves children, we should be considering the 5, 10, or 15 year benefits.  How long do we want the IT industry inseparably bound to Microsoft's tightly-coupled, proprietary, patented products?  Forever?  That looks like slavery to me, golden handcuffs or no.