<incom> Microsoft Says Windows May Soon Be On XO Laptop (Modified by Geert Lovink)

Fri Oct 26 02:11:22 CEST 2007

http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml? 
articleID=202601773

  Microsoft Says Windows May Soon Be On XO Laptop

  The low-cost laptop computer for poor children currently runs on rival
  Linux software.

  By Reuters
  InformationWeek
  October 25, 2007 07:00 PM

  BOSTON - Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) has made progress in getting its
  Windows software to work on a low-cost laptop computer for poor
  children that currently runs on rival Linux software, an executive
  said Thursday.

  The world's largest software company is now working to adapt a basic
  version of Windows XP so it is compatible with the non-profit One
  Laptop per Child Foundation's small green- and-white XO laptop.

  "We're spending a non-trivial amount of money on it," Microsoft
  Corporate VP Will Poole said in an interview Thursday. "We're working
  hard. But we're still at least a few months away."

  The One Laptop per Child Foundation, a spin-off from the Massachusetts
  Institute of Technology, plans to start producing the $188 machines in
  China next month and eventually manufacture millions a year for
  elementary school children in developing countries in Asia, Africa and
  Latin America.

  The foundation is also selling the machines in the United States and
  Canada for $400 apiece through a fundraising campaign.

  The laptops were designed specifically to run Linux programs. If the
  machines run only Linux, Microsoft will lose an opportunity to expose
  tens of millions of children worldwide to its Windows system.

  "We've made progress," Poole said.

  If the foundation is able to meet its goal of producing millions of
  laptops for school children around the world and they are all loaded
  with Linux software, then they would end up being more comfortable
  with those programs than with Windows, said Wayan Vota, who publishes
  a blog that monitors the project. (http://olpcnews.com/).

  "People will realize there is an alternative to Windows and they might
  like it better," Vota said."

  Originally dubbed the $100 laptop, which is the group's target price
  for the machine, the XO features a string pulley to charge its
  battery, a keyboard that switches between languages, a digital video
  camera and wireless connectivity.

  The laptop's designer, Mary Lou Jepsen, said in an interview earlier
  this month she expects the price to drop in the first quarter of next
  year because prices of memory tend to fall dramatically during that
  period.

  The computer requires just 2 watts of power compared with the typical
  laptop's 30 to 40 watts and does away with hard drives, relying
  instead on flash memory and four USB ports to add memory devices.

  The XO laptop's component makers include Advanced Micro Devices Inc
  and Marvell Technology Group Ltd. Software maker Red Hat Inc helped
  develop the device. Quanta Computer Incwill manufacture it.

  The foundation will start taking orders for its Give 1 Get 1 campaign
  on Nov. 12 at http://www.laptopgiving.org.

  By: Jim Finkle

  As per CMP's agreement with Reuters, this story will be removed from
  this site after 30 days.
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