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OLPC to Run Windows, Come to the US
Posted by
Zonk
on Sat Apr 28, 2007 07:11 AM
from the gone-a-little-bit-off-course-here dept.
from the gone-a-little-bit-off-course-here dept.
An anonymous reader writes "'Yesterday Nicholas Negroponte, former director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab and current head of the nonprofit One Laptop Per Child project, gave analysts and journalists an update on the OLPC project. Two big changes were announced — the $100 OLPC is now the $175 OLPC, and it will be able to run Windows. Even in a market where there are alternatives to using Windows and Office, there's a huge demand for Microsoft software. The OLPC was seen as a way for open source Linux distributions to achieve massive exposure in developing countries, but now Negroponte says that the OLPC machine will be able to run Windows as well as Linux. Details are sketchy but Negroponte did confirm that the XO's developers have been working with Microsoft to get the OLPC up to spec for Windows.' We also find out that the OLPC gets a price hike and will officially come to the US. Could this be tied into Microsoft's new $3 Windows XP Starter and Office 2007 bundle? Now that the OLPC and Intel's Classmate PC can both run Windows, is Linux in the developing world in trouble?"
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Microsoft Takes On the OLPC 218 comments
A number of readers sent us links to a BBC story on Microsoft's plan to provide the "Microsoft Student Innovation Suite" for $3 to governments around the world, for use in schools. The suite contains Windows XP Starter Edition and Windows Office Home and Student 2007, along with other educational software. To qualify, a government would have to provide free PCs to schools. Microsoft's stated goal is to double the number of PCs in use (and running Windows). An unbiased observer might wonder about an agenda of slowing the OLPC project and the spread of open source in general.
[+]
Technology: No Windows (Officially) On OLPC 179 comments
Kadin2048 writes "Despite reports last week in major news sources indicating that the One Laptop Per Child project was in negotiations with Microsoft to bring Windows XP to the low-cost platform, Walter Bender, president of Software and Content at OLPC, said in an interview with Ars Technica, 'We are a free and open-source shop. We have no one from OLPC working with Microsoft on developing a Windows platform for the XO.'"
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Bill Gates' criticism (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:AND Slashdot's Criticism... (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Price of Dollar and System upgrades (Score:5, Insightful)
The dollar has fallen in value quite a lot, next month we'll no doubt see $250 OLPC if it keeps slipping.
Why 256Mb? (Score:5, Insightful)
Unless they can offer those 256Mb of RAM at a lower price than a smaller memory, it's a waste of resources. Better make an effort to lower that price than try to make it run windows. What next, the $999 OLPC to run a $300 Vista Starter Edition?
Parent
Wow, what a setback (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, MSFT won again!
I wonder how much it cost MSFT to buy them off....
Tom
Re:Not News (Score:5, Interesting)
I said 'the news' there.. I guess I really should say 'the spin'.
Parent
Re:Not News (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:Not News (Score:5, Insightful)
Negroponte has screwed open source by nearly doubling the OLPC price so it can run Windows. He's just back-stabbed all the people who donated a lot of time and effort into putting together a low cost laptop and the free as in speech software to run it.
The OLPC project is now dead, just like every other venture that capitulates with Microsoft.
Parent
Re:Not News (Score:5, Informative)
So as often happens, the story is more sensationalist than anything else.
Parent
Re:What was said, what you know, where it goes. (Score:5, Insightful)
BTW, I agree 100% with the comments stated. Microsoft must see OLPC fail if it is not running Microsoft Windows. Microsoft is not out to save the world or educate the world and their only purpose on this earth is to sell Microsoft software. Negroponte and group are fools if they think Microsoft has ANY OTHER MOTIVE. Like I said, there are a couple of decades of evidence which shows how Microsoft 'works'.
LoB
Parent
An offer he couldn't refuse (Score:5, Funny)
Not surprising that Negroponte changed his mind. Waking up and finding that chair in his bed must have really rattled him.
Anti competitive move? (Score:4, Interesting)
Let's just hope that the next US government will break up Bills empire and throw the upper management in jail.
If the price rises $75, that can be considered a $75 windos tax, that is 42%!
The death of Linux on OLPC is greatly exaggerated (Score:5, Informative)
True: Microsoft is working on a Windows based system that can be executed on the OLPC laptop.
False: There is no strategy change. The OLPC is continuing to develop a Linux-based software set for the laptop in conjunction with Red Hat. But since the OLPC project is open we cannot (and maybe even don't want to) stop other people from developing and supplying alternate software packages.
Re:The death of Linux on OLPC is greatly exaggerat (Score:5, Insightful)
I think you missed the bigger implication here...
None of us care if Billy G sells a crippled, OLPC-specific version of XP dirt-cheap, in a desperate bid to promote Windows adoption in the 3rd world. Exposing people to "Starter Edition" would most likely do more to promote Linux use than compete with it.
Given the price and specs change, and Microsoft's announcement of "embracing" the OLPC, some of us can't help but but 2 and 2 together and get 4. A decent Linux system doesn't need 256MB, while XP can barely run its own Explorer interface, much less any additional programs (and I wouldn't even want to try any of the Office apps such as Word) on anything less.
As the biggest issue here, you need to look at this from two perspectives - Ours, as (most likely) middle-class geeks posting from a Western nation viewing this as a really cool (and still exceedingly cheap) compromise between a palmheld and a laptop and cheap enough to consider nearly disposeable; And a third-world school looking at a total budget of $150 per year, trying to decide if they should buy an OLPC or rebuild the school that washed away in the annual spring mudslide.
Cheap toys vs still-expensive tools.
And lest you take that as baseless speculation, "However, Negroponte disclosed that XO's developers have been working with Microsoft Corp. so a version of Windows can run on the machines as well". No, not a "side effect". Boost the specs and boost the price just so Microsoft can play along.
I wonder how much Nick Negroponte's soul cost Mr. Gates...
Parent
Re:The death of Linux on OLPC is greatly exaggerat (Score:5, Interesting)
True: Microsoft is working on a Windows based system that can be executed on the OLPC laptop.
False: There is no strategy change. The OLPC is continuing to develop a Linux-based software set for the laptop in conjunction with Red Hat. But since the OLPC project is open we cannot (and maybe even don't want to) stop other people from developing and supplying alternate software packages.
Apple was turned down on the basis that the laptop was all about the special open sourced based software. Now all of a sudden it's about that, but it's okay if it costs 75% more and runs a cut-rate version of Vista.
On the surface, it seems like Negroponte was certainly co-opted by Microsoft.
Parent
This is VERY VERY bad news (Score:5, Insightful)
Wait a second... (Score:5, Funny)
Wow... No OS X? (Score:5, Interesting)
I believe that Negroponte refused, with the argument that he wanted a truly open OS. Now they've gone with windows, I think his mind must be slipping..
B.
Re:Your panties are in a bunch... (Score:5, Insightful)
You think it's hard to get proper tech support in the 1st world? Try it in a field school somewhere 500 miles away from the nearest large city. Running windows as opposed to the hardened linux they were developing is just inviting every random malware and virus to hop a ride through their laptops rendering them useless.
Also a lot of the innovative features like the grouping and shared sessions [as well as tailor made games/activities] probably won't be ported [or well] to Windows, leaving the kids with a really large lack of useful software.
Tom
Parent
Re:Vista ready? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Technically, no (Score:5, Informative)
Several users of both systems (including my own experience) tends to show that Windows comes up with a desktop earlier than Linux. But once there the disk is still trashing for some time. Whereas on Linux, once you're logger, you're logged and everything is ready to run.
The whole stuff is build on windows to give you the impression that it is faster.
Parent
Re:Windows is good for education (Score:5, Insightful)
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If a picture is worth a thousand words my dissertation is going to be a dodle
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Parent
Re:Windows is good for education (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Windows is good for education (Score:5, Insightful)
Windows is designed by lawyers, marketing analysts and people who watch other people using Macs.
lower entry barriers
You're joking, right? Microsoft is nothing but barriers to entry. $$$ for this, $$$ for that, $$$ for the other. And then more $$$ to keep it all safe. And then the same again next year.
Parent
Re:Twelve Hundred Children (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent