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Microsoft and OLPC Agree To Put XP On the XO Laptop
Posted by
Soulskill
on Thu May 15, 2008 07:13 PM
from the sliding-down-a-slippery-slope dept.
from the sliding-down-a-slippery-slope dept.
Apro+im points out a NYTimes report which states that Microsoft and the OLPC project have officially agreed to put Windows XP on the XO laptop. While Microsoft has been working toward this for some time, analysts began to think a deal was more likely after Walter Bender resigned from the project and was replaced by Charles Kane. Former OLPC security developer Ivan Krstic had a lot to say about Windows on the XO as well. From the Times:
"Windows will add a bit to the price of the machines, about $3, the licensing fee Microsoft charges to some developing nations under a program called Unlimited Potential. For those nations that want dual-boot models, running both Windows and Linux, the extra hardware required will add another $7 or so to the cost of the machines, Mr. Negroponte said. The project's agreement with Microsoft involves no payment by the software giant, and Microsoft will not join One Laptop Per Child's board. 'We've stayed very pure,' Mr. Negroponte said.
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Microsoft Wants OLPC System to Run Windows XP 553 comments
Stony Stevenson passed us a link to an IT News story about Microsoft's recent request that the folks behind the XO laptop redesign it to suit their needs. The company now wants to be able to run Windows XP on the highly-publicized and inexpensive portable. "Microsoft general manager ... Utzschneider says a shrunken version of Windows XP could potentially run on 2 Gbytes of flash memory. The XO, however, can only hold 1 Gbyte. As a result, Microsoft wants the XO's designers to add a slot through which more memory can be added via a secure digital (SD) card, Utzschneider said. Microsoft's renewed interest in participating in OLPC might be viewed by skeptics as an admission that a rival offering for developing markets called Classmate — which uses an Intel processor on Microsoft software — has failed to catch on."
[+]
Mobile: Walter Bender Resigns From OLPC 126 comments
westlake writes "Walter Bender, the former executive director of MIT's Media Lab, and, in many ways, the tireless workhorse and public face of OLPC, has resigned from OLPC after being reorganized and sidetracked into insignificance. The rumor mill would have it that 'constructionism as children [learn] learning' is being replaced by a much less romantic view of the XO's place in the classroom and XO's tech in the marketplace."
[+]
New President for OLPC Organization 251 comments
haroldag writes "After Walter Bender's resignation as president of OLPC, Charles Kane enters to take his place as the new boss. Kane says 'The OLPC mission is a great endeavor, but the mission is to get the technology in the hands of as many children as possible. Whether that technology is from one operating system or another, one piece of hardware or another, or supplied or supported by one consulting company or another doesn't matter. It's about getting it into kids' hands. Anything that is contrary to that objective, and limits that objective, is against what the program stands for.'"
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Give it to them for free (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Give it to them for free (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Give it to them for free (Score:5, Insightful)
What really pisses me off is that including XP on these things will increase the cost directly and indirectly ($3+$7) a total of 10% of the target $100 price of the laptop. It's taken a lot of hard work to put something together that is workable and to get the price down to the $200 it is at now. If they license at $3/copy, and are successful enough to get it on a million laptops, they've grossed $3 million
You're right. Their corporate image would look a lot better if they just said 'Okay, here, install it all you want, this is on us.'
Parent
Re:Give it to them for free (Score:5, Interesting)
If you read the blog by Ivan Krstic in the submission, it would seem that Nicholas Negroponte isn't too bothered about education when compared to shifting the OLPCs -
It is a huge shame that the OLPC project has deteriorated in this way. When first announced,I was really keen on getting hold of one of these machines to see what I could do to help. I downloaded the
Parent
Re:Give it to them for free (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
That sinking feeling we all got (Score:5, Insightful)
I think we can safely say that this has nothing to education of the third world or software idealism or even free market economics but is simply a nasty little case of cronyism and under the table deals. Nicholas is a board member and OLPC is a nonprofit. Last time I checked board members of nonprofits don't draw a salary.
This is the thing I hate about our current system. See, it would be one thing if they just flat out stated what they were doing, "It's in our corporate best interests to make sure that everyone learns to use our software, so we're going to make this cheap laptop and put Windows on it and sell it to third world kids." I would actually have a little grudging respect for that.
But no, once again the system has eaten up idealism and spat out lies and manipulation. Most people involved in this project were idealists who thought they were bringing something good and pure into the world. Many of them were devoted to open source. And they just got fucked, and the motherfuckers who did it to them are laughing all the way to the bank.
Parent
Re:Give it to them for free (Score:5, Insightful)
But most importantly, they just told all of their software developers to shove off. Well done Negroponte. Well done.
Parent
Re:Give it to them for free (Score:5, Insightful)
Devs disillusioned about OLPC, so they leave the project. OLPC project without devs, so it will bomb. One problem less for MS where they might have lost some market share, and the last thing MS needs is hardware in wide use that struggles to run their bloatware. It might tell people they're better off with a system that needs fewer flashy gimmicks to do what they want to do.
Sure, the people in "underprivileged countries", who were the alleged original beneficiaries of the whole project are losing out. But
Parent
Re:Give it to them for free (Score:5, Insightful)
They're not being empowered.
They're being subjugated.
Parent
Re:Give it to them for free (Score:5, Insightful)
This is OLPC's vision;
Parent
Re:Give it to them for free (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not bashing MS per se' but I dislike the idea that so many people who can ill afford it would be placed into that cycle of upgrades and buy to play software. RMS was right in some respects, and the OLPC situation illustrates the foundation of his early frustrations. It should be free. I'm not saying that you can't roll your own and try to make some money. Good on Bill for doing so, but using money and clout to force that on others is rather despicable... and I'm being nice here.
Why doesn't MS just send the disks free of charge with a label on it that says 'fuck you kid' and be done with it?
Parent
Re:Give it to them for free (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Give it to them for free (Score:5, Insightful)
It destroys the "It's an education project, not a laptop project." to not ship with an operating system and educational software.
Parent
Re:Give it to them for free (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Give it to them for free (Score:5, Insightful)
There are many excellent reasons. Some of the students will grow up and start businesses, requiring computers. They will choose what is familiar to them. That's why MS virtually gives away software to universities. In the bigger picture, MS is trying to keep a lid on the development of alternative OSs anywhere. If a few million PCs in one country are running Linux, it creates a big enough user population (even if mostly using free software) that people will develop all kinds of solutions using it as a base. And when road tested and reliable, there is no reason these could not be sold into the first world.
That's why Ballmer will fly all over the world and pay any government or other large organisations that start making noises about shifting to Linux. It takes a strong government to reject fistfuls of money. They may honestly feel they are serving their people better by taking MS's money, as Negroponte obviously does. In the short and medium term they may be right.
Parent
Re:Purity (Score:5, Informative)
"OLPC should be philosophically pure about its own machines. Being a non-profit that leverages goodwill from a tremendous number of community volunteers for its success and whose core mission is one of social betterment, it has a great deal of social responsibility. It should not become a vehicle for creating economic incentives for a particular vendor. It should not believe the nonsense about Windows being a requirement for business after the children grow up. Windows is a requirement because enough people grew up with it, not the other way around. If OLPC made a billion people grow up with Linux, Linux would be just dandy for business. And OLPC shouldn't make its sole OS one that cripples the very hardware that supposedly set the project's laptops apart: released versions of Windows can neither make good use of the XO power management, nor its full mesh or advanced display capabilities."
(bold added by me)
I hope MS pays you by the quantity of your shilling rather than the quality.
Parent
"extra hardware"? (Score:5, Interesting)
Why does dual boot require extra hardware??
Re:"extra hardware"? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:"extra hardware"? (Score:5, Insightful)
To make sure the one with Linux costs more...
Parent
exactly correct (Score:5, Insightful)
Dual-boot will be developed to pacify some OLPC supporters. It will never ship.
Likewise, Sugar will be ported to Windows. It too will never ship. Nobody wants it: not the we-want-Windows government officials, not the free software fans, and certainly not Microsoft. Look at Java and JavaScript if you want to know how Microsoft feels about somebody slapping a portable API or ABI over top of the Microsoft-controlled ones.
Parent
Re:"extra hardware"? (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:"extra hardware"? (Score:5, Funny)
Wow, that's deep. It's like a zen riddle or something. "What is the nature of the Buddha? What is the sound of one hand clapping? What is the functionality of Windows with all the crap removed?"
Parent
So $10 gets you what (Score:5, Insightful)
Can someone tell me why this makes sense again? or is it more of MSFT buying customers as they can't earn them through capitalistic competition.
How about applications? (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:How about applications? (Score:5, Funny)
Don't be ridiculous.
It's got MS Paint too.
Parent
Re:So $10 gets you what (Score:5, Funny)
Somewhere Balmer strokes his horns and drinks a toast to another soul!
Parent
One Blue Screen Per Child? (Score:5, Funny)
OBNPC (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
It's just as well (Score:5, Funny)
Re:It's just as well (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:It's just as well (Score:5, Funny)
STOP: 0x00000FE1 (0x029FBE01 0x0000007B 0x0001029A 0x0000003E)
DRIVER_IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL_TO
First, you're learning about hexidecimal numbers. Enough unsigned drivers and hitting things on the ground, and you've got a great "flash card" teaching tool. Plus, the general math aspect, "Okay, class, if the IRQ is 'not less or equal to', then what is it?" "Okay, since nobody knows what this means, let's say that first number is the driver IRQ, which of the other numbers are not less than or equal to it?"
Not to mention learning about colors (blue)... and... um... death.
Parent
Pure? (Score:5, Interesting)
Purity is in the eye of the beholder? (Score:5, Funny)
Yep, as pure as the bride wearing a white dress for her wedding when she's six months pregnant.
Phew (Score:5, Insightful)
Now we drag them down to our level!
what is windows going to provide? (Score:5, Insightful)
I used to be a Negroponte fan, but since he allowed the MS move in this project he designed, I am no longer. No, it's not because I'm anti-MS, it's because I thought that this project wasn't a place for competition with commercial software. If MS wants to help out, the should do what Steve Jobs did with OS X: Offer it for Free. No deals, no licensing BS.
fighting economics from the beginning (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
A total loss of focus at OLPC (Score:5, Insightful)
What? That's totally ridiculous. It means that the XO becomes nothing more than a vehicle for transfer of money from 3rd world children to Microsoft.
Whoever thought that idea up at OLPC has shit for brains.
Microsoft should be *PAYING* for the privilege of getting its O/S installed on a machine to which it contributed absolutely nothing during development, and which will become an instrument of propaganda for Microsoft among the children of the world.
OLPC guys, you've really dropped the ball on this one, and forgotten that the XO was not intended as a normal western product for exploitation of consumers.
Sad news (Score:5, Insightful)
So much for that. (Score:5, Informative)
"XO is built from free and open-source software. Our commitment to software freedom gives children the opportunity to use their laptops on their own terms. While we do not expect every child to become a programmer, we do not want any ceiling imposed on those children who choose to modify their machines. We are using open-document formats for much the same reason: transparency is empowering. The children--and their teachers--will have the freedom to reshape, reinvent, and reapply their software, hardware, and content."
That's the last nail (Score:5, Insightful)
This is truly a feat for Negroponte (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
i find it hard to believe... (Score:5, Insightful)
They are quite confident of their monopoly it would seem.
There will be (hopefully) a million kids growing up thinking 'Windows is sooooo sloooow'
If i was in charge i don't think i would let windows only versions ship as then they think the same about you.
The OLPC should now die. (Score:5, Insightful)
Sorry, this is the pure outrage: You fucking suck.
We believed, we helped, YOU SUCK.
Meanwhile, Intel makes Atom Nettops with Linux (Score:5, Informative)
If I worked on this I would be pissed off (Score:5, Insightful)
I really am sickened by this.
I don't see why... (Score:5, Insightful)
Honestly the OLPC isn't any better for it's stated goal than a $130 Nintendo DS would be if it came with a dev cart. If they really wanted to make a $200 computer, they would have been better off having Nintendo make a new flavor of DS that was not quite compatible, had an Black and White screen, and had an SD slot instead of a cartridge slot. It wouldn't have broken Nintendos 1st world market, yet it would have been just as useful, and less expensive than the OLPC.
Re:Send them a message! (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Maybe (Score:5, Insightful)
I believe MS has finally set an appropriate value on their OS. $3.00 is a fair price.
Now governments of the world should mandate a price cap for all versions of XP, based on that value. Otherwise Microsoft is using price dumping to drive out competitors, an illegal tactic for a monopoly.
Parent
Re:Maybe (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:A couple of thoughts (Score:5, Insightful)
I think the point whizzed above your head at orbital altitude and velocity.
Linux has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with this, it is the openness which Linux simply represents.
The whole point of the project was supposed to be enabling kids to learn to use/program computers and so the whole environment was supposed to provide them with a complete set of tools for such tasks. Putting XP on this thing adds nothing whatsoever to the value of such a laptop as XP not only takes away a degree of openness but it offers none of the other elements which are part of pretty much every Linux distribution: educational tools, text and graphics editing applications, development tools etc etc etc all in the storage space in which XP can barely fit itself.
So by essentially totally selling out, Negroponte has in effect killed the project and turned it into a glorified advertising campaign for Microsoft while at the same time dropping all the core objectives the project was supposed to stand for. The winners are: Microsoft, the corrupt, retarded governmental official in the developed countries who are taking kickbacks from Microsoft to push for Windows, regardless of what it actually means for the project and the losers are: the kids.
Also note that by doing this the OLPC now has become simply yet another low cost low power laptop vendor and as ongoing commoditization of hardware progresses apace, they will soon find themselves competing with the likes of ASUS who will be able to deliver more features for less money. The only thing of course ASUS and other low-cost brands won't do is to offer all the other aspects of the project, which Negroponte himself no longer gives a fuck about, and which were what made OLPC different.
Microsoft wins, some crooks get richer, all the kids in the developing world (and probably some in the Western world) lose. Simple as that.
Parent