How I wanted to love you. I really did. This entry is written as a response to missives like this.

The idea is great, the design of the laptop is perfect and the choice of OS, at least initially, was perfect. Then, they had to go and design a new user interface that shares almost nothing in common with computers that kids that grow up with the XO's will come in contact with in the real world.

Sugar and Spice and everything crappy

Yeah, I am just going to come right out and say it, I hate the sugar UI.

I hate the idea behind it, I hate the execution of it and I hate the feeling you get when you use it. You are doing a disservice to the kids who will be using these laptops, by not equipping them to work in the real world.

When they go to an internet cafe on a trip they won't be using the sugar UI, when they go to college to study law they won't be using computers that have the sugar UI. When they take their first job in IT, they won't be using a computer that has the sugar UI.

Furthermore, the argument that they can affect change in their respective jobs is absurd. Do you know who decides what platforms are used within a corporation? CIO's, middle managers and VP's. In short, older people. Older people who grew up with a specific UI paradigm and don't want to learn something new.

Older men and women who are interested in stability and quality of support across an entire infrastructure. An infrastructure that reflects the industry. An industry that was not built around computers that use the sugar UI.

But wait, when these kids become...

Stop right there. When these kids become middle managers, VP's and CIO's they will have been conditioned by years working in the company to use what the company uses. They will have to answer to someone above them as to the feasibility of their actions.

Large corporations don't want cute UI's that make you hunt for something until you get your head around the poorly laid out visual vocabulary. Large corporations want UI's that make sense immediately because they have a sense of familiarity that the 65 year old President needs.

You don't believe me, ask Microsoft. Vista has been met with lackluster enthusiasm. Do you know why? Things aren't where they are supposed to be. The UI is different, things aren't where you expect them to be. And this was just a realignment with some eye candy pasted on top.

And it looks like OLPC has seen the writing on the wall.