[conspire] NYLXS Press Release on the OLPC Project

[Ruben Safir]

On Sun, Apr 27, 2008 at 01:03:08AM -0400, Ruben Safir wrote:
On Sat, Apr 26, 2008 at 04:11:42PM -0700, prosolutions at gmx.net wrote:
> > From: Ruben Safir <ruben at mrbrklyn.com>
> > 
> > An operating system is more than a commodity.  It becomes the looking
> > glass that develops how the user thinks and it literally shapes
> > the mind of it's users. 
> 
> I disagree with this Ruben.  I believe an OS should be something the end
> user is totally unaware of, and the difference between them that a
> normal user might notice should be minor to trivial.
> 

I appreciate your response and I believe you make some very valid points.
Unfortunately, I don't think that the goal of making an OS invisible to
a user is possible, and perhaps it isn't a good way to view operating 
systems.

First, let me say that I posted this here, and then re-edited it some
because I'm basically stupid about these things, lose patients and 
inevitable send something out before it is finished.  And I was reminded
by a friend, this might not be a great topic for a Press Release, but NYLXS
has a serious political component, in fact that might be its most important
component, so we will make such illadvised public statement from time to 
time.

Lastly, I'd just like note that the reason I sent this to this small and vital
mailing list, aside from the great esteme I have for the Cabal host, is that
the only time I've put a hand on an OLPC prototype was at a Cabal meeting
so I asumed that there was a rich body of people interested on this list in
the project.

Regarding the use of the operating system as being invisable to the user,
there are 3 components to this commonly held position in the tech industry
which makes it problematic:
  
Human perception, Human Interface Design, and thinking of people as users.

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Nearly legible now....