Disclaimer: This post contains Off-Topic meta discussion
Conclusion:
fedora-olpc, to be a sucess, needs a much slimmer UI than that of GNOME.
"Success" needs to be defined. Seems to me the OLPC was envisioned mainly for a single-application environment. Except for being slow at processing, I think it succeeds admirably.
I'm not talking about the sugar interface, which is what you're talking about.
Non-sugar interface is something I'm also interested.
The reason for my enthusiasm: I think the OLPC offers the bringing of technological assistance to economically disadvantaged locations.
I think that people who focus on "slimming" the OLPC are missing the point. What they end up with is a slow, small Linux system. But if what they want is a small Linux system, today's 'netbooks' offer more capability (and as netbooks continue to be produced by the millions, I expect tomorrow's models to cost less than the OLPC).
For those who are interested in using the OLPC to bring conventional applications to people who already have access to technology - why not work with a netbook instead? For those who think the OLPC *is* suited to the environments in which it is being deployed - let's work on developing OLPC-scale applications to assist 'the things people do' wherever such "computerization" could improve matters.
mikus