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Dual-booting One Laptop Per Child, and not with the Mac
OLPC is getting itself some Windows, but where's the sense in that, asks CNET Blog Network contributor Matt Asay.
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This is bizarre. Word on the street is that the One Laptop Per Child project will be adding Windows to its repertoire. Not separate machines, mind you. Windows/Linux dual-boot machines.
Where's the sense in that?
It's not that OLPC has been free of proprietary "taint" from the beginning. Back in 2006 it kicked up a furor over its inclusion of proprietary software.
But what about horsepower? Or what about the real question: Why? What purpose does it serve? Mary Jo Foley, of CNET sister site ZDNet, notes:
Why would anyone--kids, governments and/or laptop makers--want a dual-boot Linux/Windows OLPC systems in the first place? Dual-boot Macs make sense: There are some Windows-only programs that Mac users want/need to run. But this scenario doesn't make sense for the kinds of apps that XO laptops will be geared to run.
This isn't a moral or philosophical issue. It's a practical issue. Why?
