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No Dual-Boot XO Laptop, According to Microsoft
Yesterday, we discussed reports of Microsoft and the OLPC project working towards a dual-boot version of the XO laptop. Now, BetaNews tells us that Microsoft has issued statements denying such plans. The software giant has also reaffirmed their intention to develop a Windows-only version of the laptop. Microsoft's statement to BetaNews had this to say:
"While we have investigated the possibility in the past, Microsoft is not developing dual-boot Windows XP support for the One Laptop Per Child's XO laptop. As we announced in December, Microsoft plans to publish formal design guidelines early this year that will assist flash-based device manufacturers in designing machines that enable a high-quality Windows experience. Our current goal remains to provide a high-quality Windows experience on the XO device."
I think most folks would be happy just to get a high-quality Windows experience on any computer.
More than 60,000 Windows programs won't run on Linux.
That sentence is just dripping with oozy goozy Microsoft sales sauce.
... a high-quality Windows experience ...
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Doesnt surprise me that Microsoft doesnt want a competitor on the same machine in an Emerging market. I am really curious about this "high quality windows experience" though.....
I heard the stumbling block in getting "a high-quality Windows experience" on the XO laptop was the damn "View Source" button on the keyboard.
-Isaac
I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. For Entertainment Purposes Only.
... Negroponte didn't see this coming apparently.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
For those who can't click the link:
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
I can only hope they plan to redefine the interface on top of the Windows core (e.g. like they do in ATMs), because the default Windows interface would be absolutely terrible for a laptop given to a child.
So would any windowing interface, which is why OLPC spent so much time developing an alternative interface that is decent for education.
Let's see what Microsoft puts on top of Windows...let's see if they actually care about children and what is best for education. If this laptop boots into the standard Windows desktop, I'll assume they have no clue about what is good for a child and are just in it to preserve their monopoly.
"Microsoft killed my company, I hold a personal grudge. I don't use Microsoft products and neither should you."-JWZ
"The main barrier is that the XO has only 1 GB of built-in memory and no hard drive, Utzschneider reportedly said. Accordingly, Microsoft has been exploring the idea of building Windows and Office on a 2 GB add-in card, but this would require writing new BIOS software for booting directly from the SD card."
Cryptographically signed firmware is a bitch... Seems that the whole anti-theft system built into the XO is going to get in the way of Microsoft hijacking the project without OLPC's express consent.
It won't work. If you remove the Windows UI then you remove the value (from Microsoft's perspective) of the machines running Windows: millions of children growing up thinking the Windows UI is how a computer is supposed to work.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
If they can make a stripped down version run on an XO, can I please have that same version for my PC?
For those who can't click the link: Did he really say "....and have no reason to believe it won't be implemented." ????
I thought he was supposed to be an intelligent and informed kind of person? Call me a troll if you must, but that just sounds so naive that it must be a trap being set for Microsoft to have proven reason to never let MS near another child in the developing world ever again?
Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
A computer without Windows is like chocolate cake without mustard.
Why are the OLPC people using resources assisting a billion dollar cooperation in a field where that cooperation is supposed to be a specialist? If all the XO technical issues have been solved, then they paste fire the unneeded engineers and save fiscal resources -- or is Microsoft giving money to the OLPC project for this service?
"Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
Slashdot mods probably won't like it because it's utterly false. They're weird like that.
Here's an article from less than 3 weeks ago about exactly that. It's on some site with a weird name ("colon slash slash dot dot org org org" or something), so I don't blame you for not seeing it.
"More established tech" would be an order of magnitude more expensive, not work reliably in the environments where their target audience lives, and be virtually unusable by them as well. To use your space flight analogy, it would be like trying to fly a 747 at an altitude of 200 miles and calling it a space shuttle.
Can only things which make it to low earth orbit be revolutionary? OK, let's compare it to the space shuttle. The space shuttle was built to bring down the price of lifting a pound into orbit from $1000 down to $20-50; even after a few decades, it's well over $100/pound (3x more than planned). Huge failure?
Maybe another personal computer would be a better comparison. The Macintosh was originally supposed to bring Lisa-friendly computing from $10,000 down to $500. They took about 5 years, and shipped at $2500 (5x more than planned). (They're also the only personal computer maker from the early 1980's I know of who is still in business.) Huge failure?
The OLPC was built to bring the price of a laptop from $1000 to $100; in less than 3 years, it's less than $200 (2x more than planned), plus they've actually shipped. That's the kind of "huge failure" the rest of the industry is jealous of.
If I was your wife, I would want a divorce. Fortunately for both of us, both are as untrue as your rant.
enable a high-quality Windows experience
Let's see what Elvis has to say about that:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=YikMhfKmBrY
Dan East
Better known as 318230.
I was looking at developing software for an innovative pen-based computer system named go!. It was cool, it was radically different, and when they started lining up real interest, suddenly Microsoft had "Pen Windows!" Support dropped away like autumn leaves. How could someone competing with Microsoft succeed? My bet is that Microsoft is making lots of noise saying that XP will be on the XO, and use that as a stalling method. Governments and institutions will wait for Windows XO, before buying the XO, thus depriving the OLPC non-profit for income to "break even" and continue operation. They have to make some money, right? Otherwise they'd give it away for free. Nothing Microsoft or the Gates Foundation does is for the common good. It is alway for profitable or anti-competitive. Always. Never forget that. I have been in this industry too long and I have seen too many things for anyone to convince me otherwise.
There's an edit source button on the XO. In the Sugar environment it pulls up the source code of the current program for editing. In order to teach these waifs proper respect for the sacred and occult art of programming, it will be replaced with a device that delivers a mild electric shock. Of course, no matter how many times they press it nothing else will happen because unlike an operating system the Windows operating environment comes with neither source code nor a compiler.
Before being permitted to operate their Microsoft Enhanced XO systems they must be taught the proper rituals of Windows Update, Antivirus Update, Virus Removal, Patch Tuesday and Troubleshooting Wednesday. These will be provided by a Microsoft authorized Training Center and will be four days of rigorous training followed by a certification exam and be offered for only $2300 per student.
Because some of the XOs might be used in an isolated environment until Microsoft figures out this "mesh networking", the Microsoft Enhanced XO will have its malware preinstalled.
Mesh networking is provisionally anticipated to be delivered in 2012, and a secure network stack is not expected ever.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
If Microsoft put the XBox team in charge of coming up with a version of Windows for the XO, then it would probably fit onto the flash disk and have a usable interface.
I'm still waiting for that on *my* system.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
So much anti-anti-windows/anti-anti-ms mentality. I mean, I've listen to this for since Windows 1.0.
Windows OS is like a yugo.
-It might not be the safest way to travel, provided that it even starts at all.
-It might immolate you spontaneously, but at least nobody will bother stealing it from you.
-There are plenty of other ways to travel besides it, should you actually want to go anywhere today.
But when it comes down to it, everyone is going to make stupid, trollish car analogies.
"Microsoft struggles to port Windows to a device originally conceived to run Linux."
If you had told me, in the 90s, that it would eventually happen, I would have never believed you.
Yes, but what if... OLPC are quietly stringing MS along with no intention of putting Windoze on the machine, whilst in the meantime getting thousands of laptops out there into the real world. Once the laptop (with it's splendid open source operating system) is out there in sufficient enough numbers, OLPC can tell MS to disappear back under their rock, safe in the knowledge that other avenues for indoctrinating the masses have long since closed.
Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.