Microsoft and OLPC Agree To Put XP On the XO Laptop 530
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.
"extra hardware"? (Score:5, Interesting)
Why does dual boot require extra hardware??
Pure? (Score:5, Interesting)
Support? (Score:4, Interesting)
Send them a message! (Score:2, Interesting)
I wonder if Gates Foundation money is behind this (Score:4, Interesting)
Comparing the money involved, OLPC = $200, OLPC + XP = $207, and Windows XP Home = $199. Hard to really explain why there is such a desire for Microsoft to cut the costs so deep just to get involved in this project. I'm sure it's not corporate altruism.
Re:Support? (Score:4, Interesting)
Must be the flash memory. (Score:3, Interesting)
granted, it does have a 4 gig hard drive compared to the 1GBytes from the XO. However, I have not looked at the specifics to see if the AMD Geode is any less than a 333 pentium II.
Re:So $10 gets you what (Score:3, Interesting)
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2008/apr08/04-03xpeos.mspx
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
Re:Give it to them for free (Score:2, Interesting)
They will not openly give out a free copy of windows. Simply not. They have to charge at least something. Because if they start giving out free licensed copies, other users might get even more annoyed with MS's stance on software piracy and DRM.
Re:Give it to them for free (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:How about applications? (Score:1, Interesting)
Ah yes, teaching kids in undeveloped countries to use Microsoft Word. What kind of education are they supposed to be getting? Microsoft University?
Re:It's just as well (Score:3, Interesting)
(And before anyone thinks I'm a troll - I once had a sound card whose driver wouldn't load until I did 'cat
Re:Sad news (Score:2, Interesting)
And that's why I quit the project. I wasn't making great money, but I really enjoyed working on the concept. My software may still end-up as part of the default install, but I'm no longer working on it for money. Niggerponte(as most of the paid employees correctly called him) worshiped Bill Gates. I'm from Seattle so I've seen a lot of people that worship Bill Gates and believe he has never done wrong, but Niggerponte's worship didn't make any sense. It's really frustrating because he is smart enough to not be one of those ignorant Microsoft users. I'm now working for an educational start-up that will go public. Maybe we'll have the money to make a laptop that is open.
Re:XO has been assimilated (Score:3, Interesting)
I admit, that was my first reaction: Fuck no, I'm not going to buy an XO now, and I'm not going to develop the Sugar UI if it simply ends up being abandoned on 99% of the new laptops being shipped. (In favor of Microsoft Works. Yes, really.)
Then, I remembered -- one of the earliest documented cases of astroturfing was a couple of Microsoft employees sent to a Linux convention, when a bunch of large corporations started attending -- you know, when there started to be an IBM booth. They stood around spewing crap like "The revolution is over! The suits are taking over, now... It was fun while it lasted."
I also remember talking to my boss, who used to work inside MS -- talking about how there was a time when just about every meeting, someone would ask "What are we going to do about Linux?" And there would be no answer. They were running scared.
What this means is, OLPC was actually cool enough and big enough to provoke this kind of response from Microsoft. If we let it die now, we let Microsoft win.
I don't know what to do, but I am not ready to give up here.
Re:Give it to them for free (Score:4, Interesting)
The funny thing is, this cheap mini-notebook market is the only one where their OS actually has had to compete in decades.
And it's scaring the shit out of them...
Re:Give it to them for free (Score:2, Interesting)
The only 2 explanations I can think of are:
1) Microsoft is offering a monetary infusion.
2) Governments are refusing to buy a computer without Windows on it.
Re:Give it to them for free (Score:5, Interesting)
That's why they had to bribe the Libyan Ministry of Man Power with a huge training contract to get them to switch from OLPC to Classmates.
Re:Give it to them for free (Score:2, Interesting)
Actually, that was a really good time for Thailand. You saw lots of people talking about piracy and how to stop it. There's much less conversation about it now that everyone's back to buying "XP + 1000 apps" CDs off the street. Process that however you will.
Interestingly, OSX was being heavily pirated when I was there in February. Most of the software stands had an entire section devoted to OSX and applications. That's something different, anyway.
Sugar (Score:3, Interesting)
Strongly agree. I think Sugar had - has - the potential to be the next big thing in user interface. It's a complete new look at how the graphical user interface works, and in my opinion it looks streets ahead of the conventional WIMP interfaces we're using now.
Of course, Sugar [laptop.org] is a project which is, at least potentially, independent of OLPC. I really hope that enough of a community will carry on developing Sugar to make it a viable alternative desktop, not just for third world children, but for all of us.
Re:Give it to them for free (Score:4, Interesting)
The OLPC project lost focus as the low price ultra portable open notebooks started eating into it's market identity. In order to retain significance it sidled up to M$. M$ jumped at the opportunity, not to promote OLPC, or even to sell it's software at a profit losing discount but to kill the OLPC.
M$ just like the other single minded greed is everything corporations wants to bleed the taxpayer dry, with endless licence fees, service and support fees, upgrade fees, server fees, content distribution fees etc. etc. etc. all dumped onto the cost of educating the children of the world not only in the third world but also the first and second world.
The OLPC is just as useful an educational tool in first world countries as it is in third world countries and, people don't really realise how threatening that was to the arse holes of greed, all those billions of dollars of profit gone wanting or in reality tax payer dollars spent more usefully than on bloating the profit margins a just a handful of companies.
Well at least the OLPC was not a failure, it launched a whole new line of notebooks and created a focus on achieving low cost educational computers using FOSS software, an effort that will only grow, and continue to expand well beyond the M$ lead demise of the OLPC.
A possible benefit to OEM PC makers everywhere (Score:2, Interesting)
Now we have a flip situation, where a PC platform started off with Linux. And now to be "fair" (***see note below) we are going to include MS-Windows in a dual-boot form alongside Linux.
So some PC manufacturers who really want to offer Linux (like Dell) might be able to, in the light of DOJ observation or just in the public eye, offer Linux in a dual-boot form on their MS-Windows only PCs. After all, we want this to be as convenient as possible for consumers of computer technology so they have
"a choice."
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*** oh, excuse me, I shouldn't say it that way, "to be fair." We all know that everyone REALLY WANTS MS-Windows, so why should we withhold technology that "everybody wants." Shame on me. I should know better that the current atmosphere does offer a "fair" choice already. Could it even be "better" than that? Yes. And that is the unfairness of it. We do have better technology out there than MS-Windows. But if that better technology is artificially held back on the same hardware platform, a majority of people will ever know about it. Especially schools and low-income people who are stuck paying into technology that really could be improved, but can't, because a big fat gorilla holds it all at bay. And in the United States at least, the government presided by the Bush administration who quieted the DOJ for Microsoft because of campaign contributions, is letting them. 'See http://www.linux.com/articles/35173 [linux.com] and Google')
Re:Give it to them for free (Score:4, Interesting)
Now, it becomes clear. The cost is higher than was originally planned. The devices are going to run Windows instead of Linux. Negroponte has admitted he's more interested in proliferating his brain-child than maintaining the commitment to learning about and through computers that he originally claimed. They used those things for publicity, and now that they got the publicity they're dishing out the reality.
We told you so.
OS X (Score:3, Interesting)
Doesn't compute to me.
Or Microsoft persuaded governments they wanted it. (Score:4, Interesting)
Didn't the same thing happen when Intel, as a member of the OLPC team sent out its sales force to sell against the OLPC? It'd be pretty naive to think that "more comfortable with Windows" was the only reason. There's comfort and comfort.
Re:Give it to them for free (Score:2, Interesting)
What an arrogant a-hole