Dual-booting One Laptop Per Child, and not with the Mac

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?

[j_brendel]

Both sides win: OLPC can avoid Microsoft lobbyists pitching hard against XO laptop in any target market. Thus, OLPC deployments are more likely.

At the same time, Microsoft doesn't have to fear the proliferation of an open platform so much anymore. Instead, it will lobby hard for the decision makers in the target markets to choose Windows as the OS that is used in the schools. The XO laptop then is just another hardware platform, and nothing special.

Watch for the appearance of a heavily discounted license for Windows (just as it has in China) to make sure that nobody has any need to boot into Linux.

OLPC may win, Microsoft may win, Linux looses.

Bummer.

[suyts]

How would including a Mac free it from any proprietary taint? If anything, Mac is more proprietary than MS.....Myself, I dual boot SUSE 10.1 and XP. Why? Because its an easy fit. No special hardware to accomplish this. MS to work, SUSE to tinker and learn, Mac, for what? So they can store music for their IPOD? Make cool movies? Look cool? Really, come on. Macs do a lot of really cool things, but to third world kids, what is practical should be a standard.

[jackhidary]

this is great - now kids will see early on how bad microsoft windows is. it is slow and lumbering and will freeze their little machines. then they reboot in linux and be done with it.

[zotenschmied]

in the meantime german heise.de reports, that a microsoft spokesman denies the dual-boot xo-laptop. according to the spokesperson, microsoft is developing windows for the olpc, but nothing which would allow linux and windows on one machine.

mr. negroponte seems to have some problems in understanding his partners or the neccessary technical details of his computer.