ex tempore

On paper, the OLPC project is lovely – a true posterchild of the current state of opensource and its overall goals. It would show the triumph of openness, and open standards, and would provide a better world. Then – here we go to the ‘details’. According to a post from Christopher Blizzard, on his blog, OLPC is now searching for people to develop a new package manager for the OLPC, after probably finding the obvious – rpm won ‘t fit ever. This is a core issue – if the OLPC is just a RedHat ‘philantropic’ project – no more, no less – they have all the rights to do whatever they want, but if the OLPC – as it is painted – is an OPEN, and global (opensource) project, then Red Hat management must realize that there are ‘life’ besides RedHat. And that, would mean being a bit humble and to recognize that there are cool (opensource) technologies elsewhere, even some developed by former RedHat people. Packaging is a critical and core issue. If the OLPC people, due to strict corporate hubris don’t look frankly and openly at third-party open-source package management technology (like conary) they are doing the world a big disservice, and acting just like Microsoft uses to. They would be delaying, and diminishing, even making it a lot more expensive, what could really be a great project. Open Source is not only about open code, is also about frank, open, rational and clear decisions. And then, maybe not. Perhaps the OLPC is more about politics. Time will tell.