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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."
patented slashdot slapdown, and I will attempt to deliver my best shot:
So what M$ is saying that if you upgrade the hardware you can get a downgraded XP? That's nice.. "we're not petty or anything, but we'd rather see less laptops in the hands of children in developing countries than have them using Linux".
Well, between the Classmate going downhill and Linux being free, the only one looking to make a buck are the chair manufacturers.
One more thing to break, probably (including a 2GB SD card) a $40-$50 increase in cost per machine, for what advantage?
So it can run the industry standard operating system, if the *user* desires. I know that many here are rabidly anti-Microsoft, but sometimes people are going to want to be able to run what nearly everyone else runs.
And Microsoft just asked for an added slot, which certainly wouldn't add much cost. Are you arguing that the machine should be intentionally crippled just to prevent Windows from running?
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
This is a nice guesture by MS, but of course the OLPC guys are going to stay their destructive course. OLPC is, was, and always will be simply a project to force people to use a really crappy version of Teh Lunix. It never did, and never will, be about "teh kidz".
If OLPC really WERE about the kids... why would they do everything possible to prevent people from getting the Classmate? Why would they care about preventing people from using Windows or MS Office?
If OLPC really were about the kids, they would be happy that "teh kidz" were getting computers, no matter who provided them or what it was running.
With every press release, the OLPC guys, and FOSSies in general, reveal their disgusting hypocracy. Using kids in poor countries as nothing more than a political prop.... it appears there is no limit to how immorally far FOSSies will go with their rabid hatred of Microsoft.
Interesting sentence construction of yours. It parses like "To square one, [it] looks like their [Microsoft's] back".
Learn English, moron.
Burn Karma, burn! Yes, I'm being extremely rude because I KNOW parent is a native speaker. Non-native speakers do not make such silly mistakes. Oh, btw, English is my second language...
Except - the children can't use their laptops on their own terms. They can only use them within the framework dictated by fiat from OLPC. They have no choice as to which family of OS's to run. The XO comes with exactly one hardware configuration, and isn't compatible with stock PC expansions... So, no customization there either. The XO runs Linux, so software written for Windows (including educational software) is unavailable to them as well. Etc... Etc...
If it was Microsoft writing such marketdroid bilge -
Double standards FTW.
I forgot what my original comment was, cos Slashdork is too gay to allow allcaps. Fuck this shit.
Speak for yourself. Linux is great for some stuff, but the thought of giving up .NET/VS2005 for developing Enterprise Applications and using Linux makes me want to poke myself in the eye with something hot. Hot and sharp. And I've developed lots of UNIX code in a variety of languages.
The funniest thing about you Linux/FOSS dweebs is you have no idea what's going on on the other side of the fence, but you're just _convinced_ your little Perl, Ruby/Rails, PHP, or whatever the "hot" stuff is in FOSS is super-high-tech and Windows people are developing apps in VBA or something. It's hilarious.
Yes... because the OLPC is completely unharmed by water and dirt. It is also both a floor wax AND a desert topping. It will walk your dog, it will cook your meals, and most importantly, it will protect you from TEH MIKKKR0$$$L0TH BOOGIE MANZ!!!11!
OLPC is yet another in a long and glorious line of FOSSie flops and failures. Just like Teh Lunix, it's nothing more than a jealousy and rage fueled attempt to attack Microsoft, which gets carried out by incompetents who can't hack it (literally!) in the real world.
What has FOSS actually accomplished? Teh Lunix on teh desktop is a huge flop, it can't even do half the things Windows 95 was able to do. Firefux is a buggy and unsecure mess, hardly surprising since it was based on the buggy unsecure mess of Nutscrape. ODF bombed- when it came time to actually impliment their ideas, they folded like a bad hand. And OLPC is getting OMGWTFPWNED by both reality and the technologically superior Intel Classmate running Windws, which will actually teach skills to kids which give them a chance in the real job market (like Windows and MS Office), rather than trying to simply boost Lunix's statistics at the expense of their unfortunate user base.
The way FOSSies are seeking to use and abuse poor people is nothing short of disgusting. The OLPC has absolutely nothing to do with giving computers to poor kids: it's all about being a FOSSie vanity project.
We can only hope there's a special place in hell for the OLPC people.