Windows XP Ready for OLPC XO; OLPC To Revisit Give 1, Get 1 in November

July 26th, 2008 by Joanna Stern  

We reported months back, to the dismay of many Linux and Sugar lovers, that One Laptop Per Child had officially teamed up with Microsoft to port over Windows XP to the OLPC XO. According to ZDNet, Microsoft has finally now released to manufacturing the version of Windows XP that it has tweaked to run on the One Laptop Per Child XO computer. JkonTheRun put up a single shot of the OLPC XO running the customized XP (see an enlarged picture below). We don’t have many details at the moment on how the XP interface has been tweaked but we do know that it will run many of the programs that were designed for the Sugar operating system. The system hardware has also had to be changed to run the Microsoft OS and now includes more RAM. But rest assured, we will be getting a peek at the new XP for the green system in the coming weeks. Foley of ZDNet reported that Microsoft has no plans to make Windows available for individuals who bought an XO in last year’s Give 1 Get 1 program. The program allowed U.S. and Canadian consumers to buy the XO laptop, but only if they bought one to donate to a developing nation. It looks like the public will have to wait until this year’s Give 1 Get 1 to get an XO running Windows XP. According to Nicholas Negroponte, the non-profit will ramp up its next Give 1 Get 1 in November of this year. He tells us that he is trying to have dual-boot machines, running both Windows XP and Sugar, ready for the new G1G1.

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3 Responses to “Windows XP Ready for OLPC XO; OLPC To Revisit Give 1, Get 1 in November”

  1. carlleigh Says:
    July 27th, 2008 at 2:12 am

    I was interested in the two for one last year but: These computers are being introduced for use by children. What happens when they become adults. For example: as adults they make US $400 per month and they need to buy a PC and Windows and Office cost $500. Or maybe they need development tools so they buy MSDN at $700. Is it moral to sell an OS for practically nothing to children and then rape them when they are adults.

    Its even worse when the decision is $400 per month and food on the table or skip one meal of two a day just to have an OS.

    People have such mean hearts.

  2. AD from Canada Says:
    July 27th, 2008 at 9:27 pm

    Well, I think that generally the thought is that by the time they get to be adults, they will have acquired some value-added and useful IT skills,built on their OLPC experiences as kids, that will help them find opportunities and income that will allow them to be able to afford the equipment in increments… just like we did.

    If they need dev kits, they will probably have an educational institution to help them with that or a business case to get a loan to get one – just cuz they are from the 3rd world and poor now does not mean they will be in 10-15 years nor that their aspirations and socio-economic opportunities won’t be all that different from what we take for granted today. And of course, there’s Linux too!

    Heck, having come from a 3rd world country, I can tell you now its not impossible for people with skills and ambition to find what they need and make a decent stab at a better life – its challenging for sure, but not impossible. Sometimes I worry things are too good here in the West that we forget that it was built on hard work, and others are equally capable of that given the right tools and opportunities. Its that part of that whole globalization fad… ;-)

    The questions for me on G1G1’08 are whether:

    (a) the OLPC’s offered this round will be the same or better than the one’s we got last year (I like mine, but 256M of RAM renders it an expensive but morally gratifying paper weight) and

    (b) will the XP option be available to legacy G1G1 purchasers… or will we just have to torrent it off the ‘net if they won’t take our money for it; and

    (c) will somebody come up with a simplified and optimized Linux distro for the OLPC that is decently functional on the ’07 hardware?

    Peace-out.

  3. david Says:
    December 2nd, 2008 at 2:47 am

    Not only is the office, adobe and other educational tools part of the issue, but the life and stability of the computer as well. We should all know that battery life and stability of unix-linux based OS’s are more reliable and energy efficent. They require less memory, less processing power, and thus reducing energy. They may not be the best when you want to do everything on earth, but these operating systems are absolute perfection when it comes to the basics. Battery life is increased, programs stability and all. As well as FREE Open Source applications, without having to pay money for a license. In my opinion this is just flat out wrong what microsoft just did to these countries. Everytime somthing great is going on, they step in and demand to be a part of it, acting as if they were help, when its all about marketing! Money, money money!

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