[dosman33]

IMHO, it was the correct pivot for them - from hardware to the OS.

I remember the OLPC hardware was harshly criticized by industry, and even the audacity of the project was widely attacked. I considered it proof they were just ahead of the market here and industry realized it was behind the 8-ball. Meanwhile OLPC spawned a new form factor, netbooks and tablets did not exist until the OLPC project was first proposed in 2005. Netbooks wouldn't materialize until 2007, and the ipad launched in 2010. Once industry caught up though it was hard to compete against that, and at the end of the day OLPC was about the mission, not the hardware - but you can't have the mission without the hardware. So pivoting to Sugar was a smart move to achieve the mission once industry caught up.

You can certainly make other arguments against some of the ideas of the project and what it was trying to achieve though. It definitely is a Western idea being applied to problems other civilizations may not have an interest in contending with. Water and food security, let alone electricity and communication infrastructure, are still real problems in the areas OLPC was targeted at.

[Lazonedo]

> Meanwhile OLPC spawned a new form factor, netbooks and tablets did not exist until the OLPC project was first proposed in 2005.

What? they've existed for aeons, they were just not practical enough in UI to be a success in the market.

https://youtu.be/IK2bAAAdBxs?t=59

Netbook format computer (thicker than what came after the OLPC, obviously, but still well within the range of tiny machines in terms of keyboard/screen size) that converts into a tablet PC in /1993/.

https://youtu.be/ArjRjU9SSr4?t=189

The UMPC, tablet PCs from the Windows XP era.

https://youtu.be/E1r2e8ub02o?t=245

Sony's Vaio tablet PC with a slider style keyboard.

https://youtu.be/DORREhWt9x0?t=725 Sony PCG-U101, a cross in size between the netbooks and palmtop style PCs.

The fact of the matter, the iPad is still the only device in this kind of form factor that has enjoyed long term success and it is entirely due to the UI being such a good fit for the device. Netbooks entirely disappeared from the market because using linux or windows with that kind of tiny screen is absolutely unpleasant and the tiny keyboards make typing painful. The smaller chromebooks in the market tend to be 12 inches, which is far more manageable than the horrible 9 inches of the average netbook. Chromebooks aren't the successor to this device type, this device type disappeared from the market never to be seen again.

Pleasant to use was not the OLPC strong point either.