Microsoft and OLPC Agree To Put XP On the XO Laptop

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.

Comments

"extra hardware"?

[v1]

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

Why does dual boot require extra hardware??

Pure?

[the_brobdingnagian]

'We've stayed very pure,' Mr. Negroponte said. Yet from their core principles:

There is no inherent external dependency in being able to localize software into their language, fix the software to remove bugs, and repurpose the software to fit their needs. Nor is there any restriction in regard to redistribution; OLPC cannot know and should not control how the tools we create will be re-purposed in the future. And they seem to have adapted their "core principles" to be more positive towards closed source. A real shame is you ask me. source: Core Principles (Renamed to "Five principles" instead of "Core principles" as the seem to value their principles less and less).

Support?

[iamacat]

I wonder if it means Microsoft is prepared to support XP for at least another 10 years. Developing countries may be able to pay $200/laptop, but not $200/laptop/year. If a school goes with XP solution and some critical patch, such as a revision of IPV6 support, is needed, will they have to buy new laptops to run Windows 2015 or whatever?

Re:Support?

[NotBornYesterday]

I wonder if they will outsource the call center taking 1st level support calls on XP for OLPC to one or more of the countries where kids are using the laptops?

I wonder if Gates Foundation money is behind this

[joeflies]

Although it is being presented as Microsoft doing some good contributed to the project, I wonder if we could compare Gates Foundation money will flow to OLPC after the XP version is for sale. That could be the kind of non-profit pressure that would make the change of heart towards adoption of Microsoft software seem more understandable.

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:Give it to them for free

[kernowyon]

NotBornYesterday said -

I can honestly say that I don't think that Microsoft as a company is concerned about these kids' education
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 -

Nicholas told me -- and not just me -- that learning was never part of the mission. The mission was, in his mind, always getting as many laptops as possible out there
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 .iso of the Sugar GUI and ran it in a VM - very clunky in the VM, but you could see the potential. Others I demonstrated it to were equally impressed. Now it seems to be floundering desperately and the Microsoft sharks are closing in for the kill.

Re:Give it to them for free

[ozmanjusri]

I wonder if Microsoft could get in monopoly trouble for doing that?

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

[ozmanjusri]

Microsoft is doing this because people actually want their software.

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

[rtb61]

Not only that but M$ will block the installation of OpenOffice.org on the windows OLPC boxes just as it does on all the low price ultra portables. So the lie that it will only add $3 to the cost is simply another marketing lie, as it will all add a repeating M$ office licence fee another licence fee to be spent again and again, at upgrades and as a result of hardware failures.

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.

Re:Give it to them for free

[ivan256]

It didn't deteriorate. It started that way. Plenty of us pointed out Negroponte's ego and the impossibility of success without compromising on almost every one of the stated goals. When we said these things in forums such as this one, we were modded down, and told we hated children, or that we were linux haters, or were asked what we were doing to improve the world...

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.

Or Microsoft persuaded governments they wanted it.

[Rob Y.]

Would it be too paranoid to expect that the government customers that approached OLPC about wanting Windows, had themselves been approached by Microsoft to be convinced that they wanted Windows?

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.