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Letting The Parents Choose The OS: Good or Bad?
Recently, Intel announced that they have sold around 500,000 Classmate PCs to Portugal (these are a competitor to the XO). The part of the story that caught my attention, though, was the decision to let the parents of the children who will be receiving these laptops choose what operating system they want installed, Windows or Linux. At first, this idea strikes me as a bad idea, for two reasons.
First, the likelihood that parents will be able to make an informed decision is almost zero. Most parents are likely to know almost nothing about computers and so they will have to base their decision on pre-exisiting biases, if they have any, and any information provided as a guide to them. The information given to them is almost guaranteed to be lacking at best and biased at worst.
Second, if every parent gets to decide what OS their kid gets, then schools have a mixed set of Linux and Windows laptops. This is likely to create compatibility issues and all sorts of problems. Sure, mixed environments can and are done, but why create one unnecessarily?
Letting the parents choose does not have to be a bad idea, though. Another way to interpret letting the parents choose is that each school chooses based on the input of the parents. This would actually be smart, because (a) the whole school uses one OS or the other and (b) only the parents who care (have some idea about the options) will get involved in the OS decision.
It is hard to say what Intel and Portugal will decide, so I guess we will just have to wait and see.
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Re: “schools have a mixed set of Linux and Windows laptops. This is likely to create compatibility issues and all sorts of problems”.
Being what Linux users experience in the real world, this is not bad. If Linux does not fit in such environment, then it is not yet ready for mainstream usage. If Linux IS ready for mainstream, the kids will see how the compatibility problems are being solved and get immune to any Linux FUD.
The fact that Windows costs more money will probably make most uninformed parents think it is higher quality. These parents are probably thinking “I am spending all of this money on the computer anyway, so why not at least give it high quality software for a little bit more money?”
csig – No, but how many other people do you know that could make an informed decision? Yes, there will be a few well informed people, but, overall, those “the parents” (meaning everyone as a whole) are unlikely to be able to make an informed decision.
This is why I think making a school-by-school decision would make sense. Then, the small number of people (like you) who can make an informed decision can get together and make a good decision.
I’m using Linux for over 12 years now and have 2 children – would this mean that I am uninformed just because I am a parent?
emk – Yes, many or all will probably have used Windows a fair amount, but how can you decide between Windows and Linux if you only know anything about Windows? That would be like saying I prefer apples over oranges, even though I have never tried an orange.
“First, the likelihood that parents will be able to make an informed decision is almost zero. Most parents are likely to know almost nothing about computers ”
You might want to reconsider that statement! If these laptops are going to kids 10 yrs old and less, their parents are probably under 35 yrs old and most likely have had long exposure to computers. Granted they will likely go with the familiar i.e Windows, but a small and growing number will likely choose Linux.
emk
i think the choice for parents is easy:
the linux (mandriva) laptops are “cheaper” (or so they say…)
if this is true and M$ is not giving it for cheap ($10), then it should be easy
the laptops are not free and the parents will have to pay for them.
it it were Brazil, they would had gone with linux no questions asked…