OLPC and Microsoft [LWN.net]

OLPC and Microsoft

Posted May 16, 2008 5:07 UTC (Fri) by mtall (guest, #52045)
Parent article: OLPC and Microsoft

The situation is actually a lot worse than Negroponte spin of "dual-boot".
In reality most machines will now be Windows only.

From MS press release:

The intention is to create a version of the XO laptop that provides the ability to host both Windows and Linux

"Intention of ability" does not equate to dual-boot actually being the default.

From BBC:

Machines will eventually be offered with the ability to run either Windows XP or Linux, although he admitted there were still some technical issues to overcome to achieve this.

So either Windows or Linux?

from NY 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 models that can run both Windows and Linux, the extra hardware required will add another $7 or so to the cost of the machines, Mr. Negroponte said.

In other words: Windows is now standard, Linux is optional, until OLPC figures out how to make it dual-boot, evenutally somewhere down the line.

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OLPC and Microsoft

Posted May 16, 2008 6:17 UTC (Fri) by Cato (subscriber, #7643) [Link]

What is there to 'figure out' about dual-boot?  As long as there's enough storage space it is
completely trivial to do this.

OLPC and Microsoft

Posted May 21, 2008 8:56 UTC (Wed) by anandsr21 (guest, #28562) [Link]

There is the problem of freebios which doesn't work with Windows. And the Linux version used
for OLPC will not use normal bios ;-).