Talk:Software Ideas

typing software

A version of Touch Typing software to teach these kids to touch type, the faster you can work with a keyboard whatever age you are then the faster you can get on with solving the worlds problems and letting the world know about your solutions... ' eg unjustified government spending on military budgets that will eventully only lead to one thing, more War to justify more spending etc..."

There is an open source program called GNU Typist. It would need to be ported to some languages it is not yet ported to, and it might benefit from a GUI, but it's a start. --Hal Canary 20:21, 14 June 2006 (EDT)

cranks

And does someone not need to make clearer in your marketing for support of this project that it does not have to be the same person who turns the crank as types at the keyboard, that there is a shortage of electricity in developing nations not hands to turn cranks?

security

Q: Is anyone giving consideration to the kinds of bad things that can happen to the laptop when immersed in an open Internet environment? Is there work underway to develop resistance to known vulnerabilities? Just thinking that millions of these laptops could become part of a bot army unless we consider abusive risks and try to mitigate them.

A: We're giving serious consideration and will probably use SELinux technology on all services that the laptops might normally be running; this gives some level of protection against day 0 attacks. We're also worrying about write protecting the BIOS of the systems, and similar items.

So the answer is yes, we are considering them. Have we thought of all threats? Almost certainly not. Please help us think ;-).

What is the educational value of sound players for Linux?

I don´t see the point in providing music players... --Dagoflores 00:30, 4 April 2006 (EDT)

I can see them playing audio books, or helping in the learning of other languages, or in the teaching of music. --Juan Diego 15:02:50, 5 April 2006 (EDT)

How do you fully describe a scale in music? How can anyone comprehend the Martin Luther King speech without a chance to play the actual recording? Textbooks with audio support might have a greater impact when they can play audio examples to the Fugue. -- Mathias Schindler 09:42, 5 April 2006 (EDT)

What kind of desktop environment & browser?

Hello,

I was wondering if there are any discussions made for a suited desktop environment? It is more or less the basis for the work environment, and it is also an important factor of performance. I do tend to think that full fledged environments like KDE or GNOME might be too heavy for the device. But there are numerous other alternatives out there, life XFCE and i once read something about a 'lite' version of KDE. It may be also possible to 'strip' such an environment? I think that some form of KDE is a good choice since i'm under the impression that (for browsing) Konqueror is more suitable for less powerfull devices than full fledged Firefox, but that is just a good guess since i don't use KDE. Software like ROX filer might also be very interesting, and very lightweight: http://rox.sourceforge.net/desktop/static.html

Are there any 'formal' descisions on this one?

• I think the best option is XFCE, more light and fast for laptop requirements. But if Gnome or KDE will make a special version for OLPC project, would be fine. I don't know "formal" decision about that. If i can change desktop i install XFCE instead gnome or kde, of course.--Asmarin 06:29, 10 April 2006 (EDT)

• Due to the decision to use the GTK+ toolkit, KDE will not be used. That leaves GNOME, XFCE, a stripped-down version of GNOME, or some other GTK-based desktop as the only options.--Hal Canary 13:00, 29 June 2006 (EDT)

• AFAIK, Sugar will be the primary way to use the $100 laptop. It includes an embedded Mozilla/Gecko-derived web browser. Desktop environments will probably be a secondary decision made later depending on the amount of free space left over on the flash memory. --SamatJain 13:08, 29 June 2006 (EDT)