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Microsoft Wants OLPC System to Run Windows XP
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."
Looks like their back to square one. Nice to see they're not making much progress.
Microsoft Wants OLPC System to Run Windows XP
Yeah, and I want to get laid. Good luck to us both, but I'm pretty sure I'll get laid before Vista runs on an OLPC. In fact, when Vista runs on an OLPC I'm going to get one and play Duke Nukem 4ever on it.
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
Then they will have to change it to One Virus Per Child.
OLPC with Windows XP!
Now children can read their books by cool blue light! Once the capabilities of the OLPC are bumped up to run Windows comfortably, they will also be able to heat their food* on the machine itself!
* Microsoft has declined to provide food.
1 Gbyte should be enough for anyone :-)
The article continues: "A Microsoft spokesperson has confirmed that a Vista-Capable OLPC release is in the works. The laptop will run Remote Desktop, connecting over the wireless network to a server running Windows Vista."
Now, I'm no fan of microsoft, but they have a not-too-bad embedded OS
Why, I love Microsoft! When it comes to truth in advertising, their product names are the absolutely most truthful. Who but MS would name their media player WiMP? Or an OS WinCE? God these guys are hilarious! Or the bloated eye candy OS "Vista"!!!
God I love those guys! Too bad I have to use their software though...
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
"Microsoft's recent request that the folks behind the XO laptop redesign it to suit their needs"
From: OLPC
To: Microsoft
re: Redesign
Dear Microsoft,
Our design works for us. It's set. We won't change it. Would would, however, be willing to offer XP as an alternate operating system. You'll just need to redesign it to fit our needs.
Sincerely,
The XO team
P.S.: Sorry to hear about the Classmate.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
not from microsoft, it doesnt. you're confusing monopolists with real businesspeople (drug dealers).
Come read my stupid blagablog. Rants and Giggles
As another spoof video once pointed out, if you arrange the OS releases in the right order, you get Windows CE/ME/NT
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
Ah! good point. They didn't eventually start charging for it. But oh do we still pay! :p
"Heck the Xbox consoles at their core run a highly customized version of WinNT and they only take up a few MB why do they need 2GB for the OLPC?"
The XBOX does not have the Windows GUI or apps. A laptop running the XBOX OS would be about as useful as a dating tip from a Babylon 5 fan.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
A kid spending his day farming isn't going to say, "man, I could really go for a /. break right now."
Well...they'd better get their damn priorities STRAIGHT!
And furthermore, how's he supposed to survive without his quota of porn...or be unable to have a MySpace page for gosh sakes!
If you've never been modded as "flamebait" or "troll," you've never tried to argue a minority viewpoint here!
Wouldn't that count as child abuse?
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
-1, Bad Spellar!!!
"A $100 laptop will last a lot longer than $100 of food will."
A child with $100 worth of food will last a lot longer than a child with a $100 laptop.
-1, whoosh!!!
man, I feel like mold.
Instead of just parroting somebody, as if that is great satire from an intellectual mind, why don't you actually do some work there and type in a few real rebuttals?
You know, something like this:
Copyright law is a great evil in society
No, Disney invested a lot of money in Steamboat Willie and deserves to have it protected until the end of time. The idea that anyone should be able to steal somebody else's idea is communist and anarchist. Why, what would have happened if anyone could steal anyone else's great works, like Buster Keaton or Rudyard Kipling?
Windows is actively damaging to a child's education
You don't want to teach children how to think for themselves. That makes for terrible consumers. Better to wait until they have grown up and shown responsibility before lettnig them learn how to think independently and work out puzzles on their own.
Windows encourages a poor mental model of computation...from its... "priacy is bad"...
Of course piracy is bad! The MPAA and RIAA have put a lot of work into creating laws for us to follow (see the second point above) and it is their prerogative to make us pay for every time we listen to anything and to pay for singing Happy Birthday -- you didn't write it, why should you get to sing somebody else's hard work for free? What makes you think you should be able to pay once and listen to something on several different devices or at different times? Next thing you know, people will consider it their right to play music on a stereo that multipel people can listen to at once without individual headphone-enabled properly paid for copies.
Infuriate left and right
The excess is for the EULA. What's Windows without the EULA?
If I'm not mistaken Vista is Microsoft's currently supported OS. Why don't they want to put a minimal version of Vista on the laptop?
I fear the Y2038 bug
to have confused OLPC with "One License per child".
The world is changing. Try to keep up.
Oh, well, when you put it in terms of an ad hominem, then of course I must agree.
Dude, just trying to help out and all, but if you don't agree now you look kind of slow.
When I wrote
The world is changing. Try to keep up. that was not an ad hominem attack. I had already won the argument by demonstrating that the facts did not support the assertions OP built his logic upon.My words were merely a gratuitous insult. And that is an affront to civility, not a matter of logic.
Kids today. You can't even insult them without them getting it all wrong.
Hey! Get off my lawn!