[be] Bibledit XO "activity"?

[Kahunapule Michael Johnson]

I just finished with my turn evaluating an OLPC XO computer. I had it
for several months, but being rather busy with other things, didn't
really spend a lot of time on it. I did try a few things, though, beyond
just playing with a few of the standard "activities." I upgraded the OS
and activity set to the latest distribution using a memory stick. That
worked OK. I connected to my home wireless LAN. That worked OK. I
attempted to connect to the Internet (accessible via my home wireless
LAN through an authenticating proxy server). That failed miserably.
There is no standard, built-in method for dealing with such a barrier,
that I could see. Since the XO runs a subset of Fedora 7, I'm sure it
can be done, but I wasn't in the mood for hacking. I just wanted to see
if I could expect an ordinary working linguist to use the toy, er, low
power computer to do anything productive. Then, I thought I would load
Bibledit on it. I found a pre-built binary for the previous version of
the XO build on the Bibledit web site, so I downloaded that (using
another computer), copied it to a memory stick, and attempted to follow
the instructions. I could unpack the tarball OK, but hit a brick wall
with the instructions to execute
yum install git-core
which, of course, failed due to lack of Internet access on that box. I
could have tried installing some sort of proxy or tweaking settings at
the command prompt. Naturally, I couldn't install gtkhtml, either,
without heroic efforts. Instead, at that point, I wimped out and gave
up. I have given that XO computer to Brian Chapaitis, where I'm sure it
will be much happier. After all, Brian actually likes those underpowered
computers. They require little electricity, and are more powerful than
basic text-entry boxes like the Dana and Alpha-Smart and the obsolete
Radio Shack Model 100 (the first low-power computer I ever used).

Is anyone still working on packaging Bibledit as a self-contained (with
all prerequisites) "activity" that can be installed on an XO computer
with a USB memory stick and without any Internet access? (I'm sure it
was mentioned on at least one of these lists, but I get busy and there
are over 5000 unread messages in my mailing list folder, now.) I really
can't imagine the XO computer getting much use in PNG for Bible
translation without that and/or Adapt-It packaged in the same way.
(Unfortunately, I'm rather overcommitted with other tasks, right now,
and can't take this on, myself.)

My dear brother and neighbor, Brian, is a great salesman promoting the
OLPC XO. I'm a bit more skeptical, but I think that if we can make the
software work and easy to install before the machine goes obsolete, it
might get used for Bible translation in some remote places. If not,
people might just have to make do with a better, faster computer and
more solar panels... :-)