Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Takes On the OLPC
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.
Hardware requirements? Need to dump old 'inventory' for a tax break? No compelling features?
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
So no Third World Countries can get MS software super cheap - just like before, but now with real licenses! Hooray. Also, they will need to spend $x more on hardware! On the otherhand, they can go with the variety of people working very hard to provide them cheap hardware and free software. Tough Choice.
One could make the argument that you're not unbiased.
However....even paranoids have enemies, and just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you.
It innovates nothing but new ways of taking money from computer users while frustrating them in what they want to do. /2p
Buy the $100 laptop.
Get cheap MS software.
???
Profit!
liqbase
Exactly. Doesn't an 'Innovation Suite' require, well, innovation?
'Loose' is when your pants are three sizes too big. 'Lose' is when you misuse 'loose'.
I don't understand how this "observer" would be unbiased. If he sees a grand conspiracy, he's not unbiased.
Would you kindly mod me +1 insightful?
(I am serious, and don't call me Shirley!)
New punctuation update "~" (no quotes) at the end of a line to indicate sarcasm. ~
An unbiased observer might wonder about an agenda of slowing the OLPC project and the spread of open source in general.
No, an unbiased observer would probably see this as an extension of student discount programs Microsoft already offers or an attempt to make a little extra money from markets that currently bring in none. Only a tinfoil-hat-wearing free software zealot would wonder about an agenda of slowing the OLPC project and the spread of open source in general.
I guess Microsoft doesn't want these schools to teach any programming classes. This bundle is great for someone just looking for a good typewriter.
Maybe I'm the only one, but I'd certainly buy a copy of windows XP Starter if it was $3, or $10. I know I'm not in the majority, but for crying out loud. I build my own systems, I install Linux, and I have to make due without Windows for my gaming.
God, if they had any sort of soul, they would give XP away once it was discontinued. Hell, give Windows 2000 away!
Yeah, it's not OSS, but they're not making any money off of it, and if Vista were any good, it would stand and sell on it's own, without resorting to making Windows XP unbuyable...
</rant>
Yeah, it's a low form of cynicism: "A lie repeated often enough becomes truth - Joseph Goebbels"
Todd Bishop of the Seattle P.I. points this out in his blog. On one hand, Microsoft is a company in business to make money, so this makes sense. But it still leaves a foul taste when coupled with all the other cynical things they've done. This has nothing to do with "the children" or the poor, just building the next generation of consumers.
If thou see a fair woman pay court to her, for thus thou wilt obtain love
... crack dealers hand out free samples on school playgrounds.
Have gnu, will travel.
An unbiased observer might wonder if they are just going against open source? Hmm... Maybe. Or maybe they are giving cheap standard software to school children because they believe in charity. Can the open source community blinded by their distrust and only capable of seeing evil in everything Microsoft does?
An unbiased observer might wonder
might...?
"We are all geniuses when we dream"
- E.M. Cioran
This is competition. Competition is good.
"An unbiased observer might wonder about an agenda of slowing the OLPC project and the spread of open source in general."
Give me a break! Another completely irresponsible statement make it into TFA's description here on slashdot. I can see it now, Microsoft called a meeting to talk about the threat of OLPC, right after they started working more with open source (Novell). Of course the cynics will say that it was just a "keep your enemies closer" move.
If anything, an unbiased observer would see this as a good thing, maybe the best thing possible, if you are the people this and OLPC will benefit. Competition will only help to get the OLPC under $100 someday, not hurt.
So what, Microsoft thought a different way to help those in need, and itself, in the long run. Tell me what is wrong with that?
Invexi - a Phoenix, AZ based web design and web development company.
Is Microsoft pulling this out of their ass or what?
/end mindless rant
$3 for software aimed at 'schools' around the world, yet would probably still be 100X that here in the states... (no I'm not going to look for it)
To me, this screams of,
Bill G.: We need to head off getting cut out of this OLPC thing.
Balmer: We can't give our software away, as our investors need piece of mind, and we need market shared.
Bill G.: Charge $3, as its something, but not quite free.
Balmer: That will at least keep the FOSS people at bay, as our software still has a tangible market value.
You can still sell MS software for $.01, that still doesn't make it right for them to force it on markets who are lucky to have technology at all.
Now considering they are not manufacturing the PC's how are they taking on OLPC? Apples to Oranges anyone?
Seriously, if Microsoft's motives were entirely philanthropic, don't you think that they would use their very large and powerful cone of influence to provide these schools with some cheap hardware? I'll bet some folks at Microsoft have a few contacts at a few major OEMs who might just help them out if pressed...
My blog
Of course, if we ignore the fact that $3 is a full time employed person's monthly salary in many of the developing countries, especially in africa.
Read radical news here
An unbiased observer would see that Microsoft is trying to make its software available to those that might not otherwise be able to afford it. An unbiased observer might wonder if Microsoft is trying to be competative with one of it's biggest competators.
Seriously, what's wrong with you people. If Microsoft continued charging third world students $400 for it's operating system, there'd be a snarky comment about "Well, a monopoly can charge whatever they want and get away with it". If they cut costs, then its "Well, they're just trying to get them hooked! M$ is like a drug dealer loolllerskates!!!112".
Finally we find out the *real* value of Windows and Office: about $2.75, leaving another twenty-five cents to cover the "other educational software."
Sounds about right to me.
There is no -1 Disagree mod. Slashdot.org/faq defines mod options. USE IT.
A better comparison than OLPC might be with Edubuntu since we're talking about providing software to run computer labs. And Microsoft does have something to worry about here -- Edubuntu is steadily improving alongside Ubuntu, and as a simple and easy way to set up an educational computer lab it is almost unparalleled. Not only does it have an easy to set up terminal server system, but it comes with a large array of educational applications out of the box. That makes it a very attractive option, as you get a complete lab setup and educational application suite shipped to you for free. Between this and OLPC I suspect MS is starting to worry about its position in developing countries where children are going to increasingly grow up largely using Linux in one form or another.
Craft Beer Programming T-shirts
Of course it is an attempt to grab and retain marketshare by weaning people on cheap MS now in order to lock them into that in the future and make real money. They aren't doing this to feel good at night.
When people say conspiracy, this is what they mean.
I'd prefer not to run Windows at all but at $3 the 'license dies with the machine' bullshit isn't so offensive when you want to move a license to a VM image.
Microsoft, where's our $3 XP you monopolistic fucks?
But Microsoft is due to phase out XP by the end of this year.
8 &from=rss
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/04/12/04924
So does this mean they will push out XP to schools then not support it?
Okay, OS+Software for $3. But the school has to provide free PCs to the schools using the deal. Sooooo...where does the PC come from? Or am I not supposed to not ask that question and just blindly applaud Micro$oft for their generous offer?
Any old $200 to $300 PC will work, right? Oh, wait, the OLPC is currently $150, or something like that.
Eh.
Bearded Dragon
You may want to read up on the anti-trust testimony before you start defending the pricing practices of the Borg.
What are you, a Microsoft shareholder?
One such document could be a 1997 e-mail note from Jeff Raikes, a Microsoft group vice president, asking billionaire Warren Buffett to consider investing in the Redmond, Wash.-based software company.
Some observers have likened Microsoft's lucrative operating system dominance to a "toll bridge," Raikes wrote in an exchange that The Wall Street Journal first reported Wednesday. With a worldwide sales force of just 100 to 150 people, Raikes wrote, "this is a 90%+ margin business."
Raikes, who noted in the e-mail message that his own net worth was "well into" the hundreds of millions of dollars thanks to Microsoft, tried to convince Buffett to change his mind. "A PC is just a razor that needs blades, and we measure our revenue on the basis of $ per PC," Raikes wrote. "In FY96, nearly 50 million PCs were purchased and Microsoft averaged about $140 in software revenue per PC or $7 billion...I don't really see our business as being significantly more difficult to understand than the other great businesses you've invested in."
http://news.com.com/2100-1016-5173992.html
Would you take $2.75?
Okay, that's $3 per PC, but you have to bring your own PC... which is, what, $500 w/o case, keyboard, mouse, or monitor? Mini-itx.com and damnsmalllinux.org have $110 EPIA 5000 boards, but $110 is $10 more than the famed $100 OLPC and you still have to get memory, storage, power, case, keyboard, mouse, and monitor.
The OLPC you get all the hardware, all the software, for a very very low price.
If you're a struggling country, what would you get? A $100-per-unit all-in-one, or $500-or-more-plus-three-bucks-per-unit system that does the same thing?
Come on, Microsoft! We've already done cheaper than that! ETRYAGAIN.
--
# Canmephians for a better Linux Kernel
$Stalag99{"URL"}="http://stalag99.net";
What a good deal!
And what happens when the time to upgrade comes? From the article:
""This is not a philanthropic effort, this is a business," Orlando Ayala of Microsoft told the Reuter's news agency.
The Microsoft initiative was launched by Bill Gates in Beijing under the banner of its Unlimited Potential scheme, a program aimed at bridging the digital divide"
Looks more like unlimited profits to me.
You know, I've never been more frustrated while at the keyboard than when I first learned my way around Linux. Wading through unintelligible man pages, cryptic commands, vague error messages, hit-and-miss support via newsgroups, and different flavors of *nix, really is a pain in the ass when you are not quite sure what you are even looking for to begin with. Not that I haven't gotten frustrated with many a Microsoft product, and the 'Net has become a much better resource than it was back then, but nothing can compare in terms of sheer piss-you-off value than going at the *nix command line as a newbie. The Gnome and KDE interfaces weren't much help, either.
That being said though, I've been away from Linux as a daily user for a while, and I downloaded Ubuntu a couple weeks back to see what it was like. I have to say, something like this would have been a much gentler in-road to an open source OS. The other stuff is still going on in the background but it has what I consider to be a practical menu arrangement and usable interface. I am pretty sure the tables have not turned in this area yet - OSX or Windows are going to be much less frustrating for the vast majority of the world population - but the gap is narrowing. The OLPC interface also looks like it was well thought-out for use by school children.
Wow, what a completely unbiased article. Just maybe, it could have been titled, "MS practically gives away software to poor people in poor countries" rather than "MS SUX, LINUX PWNS", or whatever the hell the actual title really meant.
Life needs more saving throws.
I thought the OLPC project was based on getting the hardware cost below US$100. Obviously, the cost of the software is not an issue since it is all based on volunteer work and even the distro was compiled by donated time and effort.
So, Microsoft is offering nothing. According to the article, the governments have to figure out how to buy and configure the hardware themselves. Only then can the governments purchase Windows and Office to put on the computers they have already bought.
Oh, wait . . . Is it not true that WindowsXP is going to be discontinued at the end of this year? So what happens then? US$3 up front and a US$500 per box upgrade in January? Or are they going to audit all the schools in India the way they did in Washington State?
It sounds like -- if the governments do not happen to be intelligent enough to use Free Software -- the governments should just give the hardware to the kids and let the kids figure it out. That way, at least, "illegitimate" copies of Windows would not be the responsibility of the government or school administrations. Maybe then Microsoft will start suing children like the RIAA.
If Microsoft was really pro-education, Windows would be free on all educational computers period. They would be reasonable to think that was a good enough advertisement. At least when Apple sold schools computers the hardware was included. Microsoft is offering aether.
All data is speech. All speech is Free.
"Microsoft Takes On the OLPC"
what a bunch of dicks
You state: "An unbiased observer might wonder about an agenda of slowing the OLPC project and the spread of open source in general" but you're not really, are you now? An unbiased observer wouldn't give a shit either way, but a biased one would.
Democrats and Republicans are like AIDS and Cancer, I want neither!
If the figures in the linked article http://www.cbronline.com/article_news.asp?guid=096 AC51E-EE83-413C-B32A-A4FFDE598E9F are close to being accurate then MS are losing $18.5 on each sale (this is without the addition of the cost of development & manufacture). Selling into markets at below cost is called "dumping" and is usually sanctioned. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumping_(pricing_poli cy)
What makes MS a special case? Nothing.
My faith is expressed through Nihilism. Do you understand?
An unbiased observer might wonder
:) ] observer would wonder these days. We all know all participants too well, sadly.
I think not even an unbiased [ thus non-existing
I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I can think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.
Stop trying to see this from your first world perspective. If its the same price, the governments would be best suited to choose Microsoft. The software works, and just about every company uses it. Its best for the customers.
If you see this as a conspiracy , you really have to consider what the *real* goal of OLPC is. I hope to God that its not : " To promote Open source"
From the web site of OLPC :
OLPC is not, at heart, a technology program, nor is the XO a product in any conventional sense of the word. OLPC is a non-profit organization providing a means to an end--an end that sees children in even the most remote regions of the globe being given the opportunity to tap into their own potential, to be exposed to a whole world of ideas, and to contribute to a more productive and saner world community.
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you
Where has this myth sprung up? paranoia is thinking that they're out to get you when they're not. If you think they're out to get you and they are, it's just reasonable concern for your safety.
Seriously, competition is a good thing, and it's a pretty level playing field. MS can sell their software for a failry small amount and try to make a profit. Even in the countries this is aimed at, the price tag is fairly small, so pricewise, its competitive as long as Windows can offer something that Linux can't. It offers choice. Choice is usually good, and we're a long way from guarenteeing another MS monopoly here.
Of course, it's not that good. The version that MS is offering isn't exactly feature rich or better than the default OS in any discernable way, but if people want to spend some money on an inferior OS then let them.
Hooray, now Nigerians can recieve Nigerian scam-mail. That's what I call progress!
"Now I'm seriously serious!" - Serious Sam
Apparently true.
t tributed
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joseph_Goebbels#Misa
I am surprised /. folks are so cynical about this move by Microsoft. After all, OLPC is *all about the children*, isn't it? I mean OLPC isn't just a component of some religious war on Microsoft, is it? Because I thought OLPC was about giving tools to those who needed them so they could lift themselves up out of poverty. This move by Microsoft does exactly that, just as OLPC does. Now, is this simply a response to the OLPC program? If it is, then once again we see clear evidence that competition is a much better way to foster progress than is regulation or coercion. If it isn't, then it's still laudable regardless of motives.
The more you regulate a company, the worse its products become.
I am completely disappointed in the slashdot response. The parent is the only response that is on target. This is so blatantly obvious a use of money from a monopolistic enterprise to further their monopoly that it should be illegal.
How on earth can anyone attribute altruism to this move. That would be like saying that Gates is a good guy for giving money away when in fact, he is just trying to buy respect after bilking the public out of the billions.
The only thing going on here is to get these people locked in to MS products so if any of these countries pull themselves up, they will be like the other MS masses.
means that someone will listen to ALL the evidence. A biased person will disregard or not even hear evidence that doesn't help their biased stance.
So an unbaised observer would ask
a) Who is MS?
b) What is the OLPC
c) What do they both offer
d) Do they have past history
e) What evidence of good behaviour in the past has been recorded
f) What evidence of bad
Now given MS's stance against OSS, their change of tune when OLPC didn't use windows and MS's varied and extensive anti-competitive actions in the past, someone would wonder if MS were doing so again.
A biased one would only look at a-c).
I was afraid it might be a philanthropic effort, which BG and friends are moderately-good at. Thankfully it's a business, which they suck at.*
*footnote: that is to say, businesses in which they cannot leverage a pre-existing monopoly on the desktop. Like e.g. new PC deployments in third world countries.
My turnips listen for the soft cry of your love
From the marketing department: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/newsroom/winxp/ WinXPStarterFS.mspx
e gory__search__charity-14844_retail
In an effort to provide an affordable and simple introduction to personal computing, and as a result of ongoing collaborations with governments on PC access programs and increasing digital inclusion, Microsoft Corp. has developed Windows XP Starter Edition, an operating system designed for first-time PC users in developing technology markets.
This really seems like monopoly protection. Microsoft charges non-profits a charity version of XP for $139 http://www.dealtime.com/xPP-software--license_cat
If Microsoft were serious about providing affordable computing, they would offer this program to budget constrained schools world wide. They would offer the same license to the non-profits.
Enjoy,
It's just the normal noises in here.
Its a saying, not a myth, and was thrown in for humourous effect. Apparently you missed the joke.
Nice to hear from you.
I'm not sure whether or not that's true, but even if it is, it doesn't contradict what I said, so I'm not sure why, as I response to what I wrote, you would claim I'm missing that.
Edubuntu, anyone?
Geeks like to think that they can ignore politics, you can leave politics alone, but politics won't leave you alone.-rms
I guess the name of this program lets you know how much the coin of "innovation" has been debased, that this kind of stunt dares call itself "innovation".
I do hope when MSFT and the BSA tell us how much money is lost to the scourge of piracy in the future, they price out the software in this bundle at $3 a copy.
-=Maggie Leber=-
In countries where the street price of Linux and Windows are essentially the same - Windows and MS Office are often the software of choice.
The geek needs to get a handle on the notion that what users want from Windows - what users find easy to do in Windows - is not what attracts him to Linux.
What's worrying is that, if it gets traction over OLPC, developing countries will get the familiar MS lock-in, and with support for XP due to expire soon, what's going to happen with Vista? Will that also be $3? What do you think?
If you think companies wouldn't dare risk those sorts of tactics, I offer the (much more heinous) example of Nestlé, promoting and giving "free" baby milk out in developing countries in hospitals, which results in breastfeeding rates dropping. This leads to the WHO's statement that "WHO estimates that some 1.5 million children die each year because they are not adequately breastfed." and blaming unsafe bottle feeding, caused by both unclean water, and unaffordability of baby milk. It's off-topic, but if people are concerned about this issue, see http://www.ibfan.org/.
Anyway, the point is that large companies are perfectly capable of screwing those in developing countries under the pretence of charity. And amazingly they continue to get away with it.
That's true. I think I and a lot of linux users were able to get into that sort of thing more gently because we started out on school unix accounts over dial-up, or at the very least had done command line stuff via DOS previously.
The student discount programs Microsoft currently offers aren't some sort of noble-hearted effort to do good for all mankind. They are explicitly offered to get the consumers of tomorrow using Microsoft's products at an early age/stage. Like a free crack sample, there's no philanthropy involved.
This offer is more of the same. Whether you believe that this is a direct response to the OLPC project or not (I do, but really it's immaterial) is not as important as recognizing that this is a direct response to the "danger" (to Microsoft) that 5/6ths of the world's population will grow up on non-MS software and learn to like it.
The results of that (either most people going the MS route, or using FLOSS) is open to interpretation based on whether you are an MS- or FLOSS zealot.
Interested in a Flash-based MAME front end? Visit mame.danzbb.com
I'm afraid you're mistaken; what you're seeing there is an unmistakable cone of ignorance.
Gates and Microsoft are just screwing over 3rd world countries by pretending that Windows and a standard PC are anything like the whole package of the OLPC project. There is no comparison and all this shows is that Bill Gates and Microsoft are ONLY AFTER THE MONEY. Donations to schools and libraries are only to hook them and their low income users onto the Microsoft Windows threadmill.
They'll find shortsighted naive people to take them up but when reality sinks in, the OLPC setup has more promise to do THE RIGHT THING and do it well. IMO.
LoB
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
FEAR is a terrific motivator. Unfortunately, it is a lagging indicator response as Ballmer has initiated it.
Ballmer is not a forward thinking guy who came out with a total package solution (software+hardware) 4-5 years ago, when he would have been a leader/innovator.
He let Linux, OSX, & OLPC get a 4 year head start while Ballmerizms were used to describe Medica Center, XBox, etal.
As a result of insecurity foisted by MS's poor state of programming and internet bug/hole detection over the last 4-5 years, MS may just not be able to stop the switch by critical thinking customers to UNIX-Linux solutions. OS's are becoming just a commodity.
they'd just launch a cut-down version of Vista that ran on the cheapie hardware.
*MEEEP*
You think Bill reads Slashdot?
Looking at all these stories from companies like SCO and Microsoft it seems that they really are playing Whack-a-mole with the open source movement. It seems though that the moles are getting bigger and needing bigger hammers to whack. Sooner or later I think its just going to be too much for them to handle.
I may agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to face the consequences of saying it.
So, I have to wonder: how many of the PCs that this software will run on already have the MS tax priced into them?
OLPC is a tool for learning. It's not a word processor and spreadsheet. OLPC software will come with source codel. Is Microsoft giving away the source for Word and Excel?
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
Let's make one thing really clear. Each and every OLPC XO machine is going to be owned by a kid. The government is paying for it, but it has no ownership. In the MS new offering, the government pays for the hardware and the computers. Given that they actually have to buy PCs that may cost significantly more than the XO, they have no requirement to actually give ownership away. In other words they own the computer. So this is the scenario: kids borrow PCs from the government, and they are most likely required to give it back at some point. I assume this from the fact that the license agreement MS is offering, is not with the actual kid but with the government. So the idea is that once the kids graduate or moves on in life, will buy a PCs with a regular license.
One other interesting consideration: The hardware cost may vary a lot. To save a bit, the government may go for desktops instead of laptops. Unless something like the Intel Classmate is deployed, I see desktops prevailing. This means tha tthe computers will stay in the schools. Again, a very different approach than the OLPC.
I see this as a control vs freedom issue. I hope the involved governments are smart enough to judge the best option in the long run
Taken from http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/newsroom/winxp/ WinXPStarterFS.mspx:
With Windows XP Starter Edition, first-time home PC users can have up to three programs and three windows per program running concurrently. Further simplification of the operating system includes setting a maximum display resolution of 1024x768 and no support for PC-to-PC home networking, sharing printers across a network or more advanced features such as the ability to establish multiple user accounts on a single PC.
Why limit yourself AND waste 3$ when you can use a free operating system?First of all, I've proved a definition of the word "if", beacuse you seem to misunderstand it:
/f/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[if] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
-conjunction
if
1. in case that; granting or supposing that; on condition that: Sing if you want to. Stay indoors if it rains. I'll go if you do.
2. even though: an enthusiastic if small audience.
3. whether: He asked if I knew Spanish.
4. (used to introduce an exclamatory phrase): If only Dad could see me now!
5. when or whenever: If it was raining, we had to play inside.
-noun
6. a supposition; uncertain possibility: The future is full of ifs.
7. a condition, requirement, or stipulation: There are too many ifs in his agreement.
--Idiom
8. ifs, ands, or buts, reservations, restrictions, or excuses: I want that job finished today, and no ifs, ands, or buts.
Ok, the first post was nice. This isn't, its real. You are living in a house, really historically speaking a castle. You have more money than the kings of Europe did 500 years ago. You are going to sit in your nice house, or from your nice job and spout random shit about free software, completely disconnected from the reality that most of the world lives in. The goal of OLPC is the HELP CHILDREN FROM POOR COUNTRIES. FULL STOP.
Compaines use windows. As you've previously stated they have a monopoly. Monopoly means that most places use it. Duh. If a child wants to get a job at a company, they would be better served using what they use. It doesn't freaking matter if Linux, Beos, Amiga, Risc OS, OS/2, Solaris, OSX are better in any sense.
This has *NOTHING* to do with DRM. Children in third world countries, don't know what the check that is, and don't care. It has nothing to do with ANYTHING you know or apparently care about.
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
We all know the drill. If MS offered XP Legacy Fundamentals, or a usable OS, they should be commended, but for a deliberately crippled version of Vista? No thanks.
The GP complaint, that MS won't stop beating the "innovation" drum, has nothing to do with Linux's flaws as an end-user system. I mean, OK, Microsoft does create new things. But they sell it like they were the Thomas Edison of innovation. Thomas Edison wasn't the Thomas Edison of innovation. They whine about it every time someone picks on them. "We were just being innovative, why are you giving us such a hard time?" Well, because you were being innovative dicks. They act like they should be given carte blanche to "innovate" however they like, because they are the embodiment of progress in the world, and so they beat their drum whenever they can, so they'll have ammunition to use next time they get in trouble.
Being pro-Linux doesn't mean (or have to mean) being anti-Windows, naturally - and the same works in reverse. Advocating Windows doesn't mean cutting Linux down, (though I will happily concede that the criticisms brought up here are quite accurate) it means advocating Windows. So don't change the subject.
---GEC
I'm but the humble pupil, seeking to snatch the scratchbuilt pebble from the master's fully articulated hand
Microsoft better hurry and get Windows and Office loaded on the PC's of 3rd world countries. The way the market is moving in the USA--by 2010 Windows and Office will be a distant memory. None of the school systems in my state have any plans to upgrade and teach Vista or Office 2007. Just the opposite--my observation is new curriculums are being developed around OpenOffice, Apple, and Linux.
Most school systems run on very tight budgets. The technology directors are realizing two benefits from dumping Microsoft. The obvious advantage is not paying Microsoft's licensing fees. The not so obvious advatage is better support. The vast majority of schools have no means to access any type of assistance for Microsoft products beyond what Microsoft provides in their Knowledge Base. The support for open source software tends to be much easier and quicker to find--FAQs, Forums, and IRC come to mind.
I'm sure there's a good Cone of Silence joke somewhere in there too, but I can't come up with it.
Well, technically paranoia is a suspicion that has no basis in fact. It doesn't mean that "they're not out to get you," it just means that you have no reason to believe that they are.
Jesus loves me, he loves me a bunch, because he always puts Jiffy in my lunch.
Um...just because you're paranoid does not mean I'm not out to get you?
I drank what? -- Socrates
Does the OLPC laptop purify water? Make crops grow in poor soil/drought conditions? Vaccinate against River Blindness?
Why do I ask these seeimingly irrelevant questions? Because these are the things 1/2 the human population needs. As near as I can tell, LOGO or Linux or Netscape or cheapo suites from Microsoft do not provide these basic physical needs.
If you don't have enough to eat or clean drinking water, a PC is irrelevant.
Maslow's hierarchy is still operating. Seems to me that this is one thing Gates got right when he decided to give his fortune away in pursuit of better public health in the developing world.
According to the Windows Life-Cycle Policy page, Microsoft intends to stop selling Windows XP via Retail and OEM channels on 31-Jan-2008. As a procurement officer, would you buy into something that already has the Death Knell sounding upon it?
It's going to cost a lot more than $100 so you should stop calling it the $100 (or $103) laptop.
I'll probably be modded down for this...
Because I doubt that company can do such dump of price - even in educational market - while owning total monopoly in OS and Office markets. They will offer, sure, but it is much more like "placeholder" for Microsoft answer to OLPC and Edubuntu, and other educational open source projects.
user@ubuntubox:~$ stfu This server is going down for shutdown NOW!
they are supposed to buy the OLPC, but use windows on it!
The MAFIAA is a bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first up against the wall when the revolution comes
I don't know what kind of profit is "slight", but at that price they won't be able to compete in the free market against Third World street vendors.
I live in Brazil, where you can buy a copy of XP for R$5, which is about US$2.50 at today's rates. This includes the CD with a plastic cover and a printed sheet with the activation key. Think of that, someone can copy a CD in his home PC and sell it at a lower price than the biggest software vendor in the world can do in a worldwide production and distribution scheme.
If Microsoft really wanted to distribute Windows with charitable intentions, they could do it without financial loss at less than $1 per copy.
That second part I associate more with Linux than Windows, to be honest. (Die hard Linux user, btw)
"The dew has clearly fallen with a particularly sickening thud this morning"
Microsoft is totally out of their element here. This is a situation where backwards compatibility and support for legacy software is worth a hill of beans (okay bad analogy - a hill of beans is worth a lot in some of these places). $3 a for a student, on the other hand, is worth about 206 Kenyan Shilling. How is Microsoft expecting to pull this off? These countries need an operating system that allows web browsing, text editing, and has some educational software. Linux and Windows both can do this. Linux also saves you $3 a head every time you'd have to upgrade Windows. Nevermind the fact that XP is a six year old operating system, prone to viruses, and frankly too complicated for people who have never touched a computer before.
Windows CE was originally brought up as an OS for OLPC. The Negreponte turn them down. Windows Mobile, the current incarnation is very Vista-esque as well. Maybe we'll see an MS version in the commercial release or maybe a PalmOS.
You missed it by *that* much!
I could care less who uses what operating system and why but the M$ bashers here complain the loudest, sometimes for good reason, but simply won't acknowledge what they at least suspect is true: it will work. Or maybe that is what the outcry here is about.
/. for that.
M$ maybe trying to squash OSS: Not the point.
The hardware needed to run it is probably more expensive than OLPC: Not the point.
Linux is better: Not the point.
M$ has a near monopoly share in most locations: Not the point.
The point is that M$ has made a plan to get its software to poor countries (and maybe not so poor) at an extremely attractive price and that plan has a good chance of success.
Please, by all means, rail away against M$ and curse the Fates by name. You have a friendly audience at
Microsoft Innovation Suite. Wow! Sounds amazing!
This company has absolutely no shame, and no self respect whatsoever.