More on Microsoft's effort to put XP on XO

Microsoft is serious about getting Windows XP to work on One Laptop Per Child's low-cost laptop, but the company still isn't sure it will be able to make a go of it.

In an interview, James Utzschneider, the general manager of Microsoft's emerging market unit, says Microsoft has devoted about 40 employees and contractors to work on its effort.

However, there are plenty of technical hurdles, he said. One of the biggest is the fact that the XO has no hard drive and only 1GB of built-in memory. The company concluded it needed at least 2GB of memory just for Windows and Office, so it convinced the OLPC folks to include an SD slot on the laptop's motherboard.

Microsoft's current plan is to get its low-cost Windows and Office bundle to fit on a 2GB SD card that can be added to the laptop. It also has to write new BIOS software to ensure that the operating system can boot directly from an SD card.

Just to get ready for a planned trial in January, Microsoft must write about 10 different hardware drivers to support things like the XO's special screen, its mesh networking, camera, and other unique features.

"To support all of that takes time," he said, noting that Microsoft has been working with OLPC for a year, but until recently, the software maker only had a handful of machines with which to do its development and testing.

Utzschneider said Microsoft normally wouldn't have even talked about its XO effort this early, but was concerned by statements made by Nicholas Negroponte that suggested Windows was ready to go on the XO.

"We wanted to come out and say flat out that's not the case," Utzschneider said. "Despite all of the rhetoric, we don't think we can have a production version until the second half of 2008."

Only after the trial, Utzschneider said, will Microsoft make a decision of whether it will commit to releasing XP for the device, though it certainly has that as its goal. And even if it does create such a version, it has no plans to allow those taking part in the Give One, Get One program to add Windows to their machine.

"It's clearly our goal to ship a release," Utzschneider said. "But we are not confident that the combination of all of this will work with the quality people would expect with Windows XP running on a laptop.

[The_Decider]

It wouldn't be such a huge deal with Windows wasn't bloated

More proof that MS needs to trim that fat POS.

[Proustian]

They did with Winodws PE

Witness an OS with applications based on XP that can run Live on a single CD-ROM disk:<br /><a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/" target="_newWindow">http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/</a>

[cary1]

ignorant as ever

Perhaps you don't know this, but other OS are the same size as Windows.<br /><br />The installation file of Fedora 8 is more than 3GB and it will take even more space when installed on hard drive; Ubuntu takes up almost 4gb disk space after installation; Restoration software for my macbook was on two DVDs. All these are more than XP Home SP2

[t8]

MS wants to swamp the 3rd world with viruses

Please no Windows.<br />Linux is better for this laptop in every way.<br /><br />The 3rd world doesn't need Microsoft.<br />They need something that works and it works just fine without Microsoft getting their dirty hands on this.

[DarkPhoenixFF4]

I would tend to say...

... the First and Second Worlds don't need Microsoft either.

[ethana2]

Ha! Haha...

That's it microsoft! Write your own drivers! See how it feels.<br /><br />And good luck trimming the bloat.<br /><br />Ubuntu FTW.<br />Let's see more PC choices like this, eh?

[KTLA_knew]

Writing drivers?

MS writes drivers all the time. Whatever are you frothing on about?

[Commander_Spock]

Ghee Whiz...

What a great idea it is to provide school children in poor "tornado" ravaged countries like Bangladesh... with hardly any food to eat, water to drink, clothes to wear, houses to live in... with laptop computers in this time "global warming" where large parts of some countries are disappearing beneath the sea!

[Proustian]

Yeah just too bad

they cannot run eComStation 2.0 RC2 on it, then they can run an OS with almost no modern applications on it and have it wear down the battery lice because OS/2 eComstation was never written to save power on laptops.<br /><br />Face facts Windows XP saves more power than OS/2 ever has. How about putting an OS and software they might actually want to use on those laptops instead of "Sugar" and oddball software written by OLPC that will not teach the students any good computer skills that they could use to get a better paying job. If these XO laptops can run XP and MS-Office then the student's chances of learning XP and MS-Office skills needed for a better paying job are better than if they have an OS that doesn't have any software they can learn on it to help them get a better job later.<br /><br />By the way the OLPC XO laptop does not use any CO2 resources, it is a hand-cranked or string pulled power supply that is used to recharge the laptop battery and not even use a single land power source. It uses alternative energy to power the laptop by kinetic energy of cranking a handle or pulling a chord to generate electricity.

[maverick_nick]

You're an idiot

Let me get this straight... impoverished people shouldn't have access to technology? So as long as we cloth and feed them it's okay if they're dumb, right?<br /><br />You really should read up on the XO laptop!

[zmonster]

They should have used Mac OS X on this machine...

Apple has OSX running on the much lower-powered iPhone. The <br />XO developers really dropped the ball on this one. They should <br />have used OSX.

[maverick_nick]

do you have to do this?

Everytime there's something said about Microsoft, there's something said about Apple. Have you heard of Windows Mobile?<br /><br />I don't think that Apple cares about emerging markets.

[DarkPhoenixFF4]

Nah

OSX is in the same boat as Windows, in that Apple would have to customize it themselves. OLPC picked Linux because THEY could adapt it themselves, rather than crawling to company X and asking them to contribute (because you know both Microsoft and Apple would have refused).

[Andy kaufman]

They would but it would cost $1500 to do so

<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.news.com/5208-13579_3-0.html" target="_newWindow">http://www.news.com/5208-13579_3-0.html</a><br /><br />Proof of that $1500 Mac laptop with a flash drive to compete with the $180 OLPC XO laptop.

[3rdalbum]

Mac OS X doesn't have the necessary security features

Mac OS X? It doesn't have any of the anti-theft features that are implemented in the XO operating system. The XO also has a revolutionary application permissions control system called Bitfrost, which allows an application to define at install-time what it should and shouldn't be able to do, so if an attacker managed to do a buffer overflow on an application they still would not be able to take over any functions of the computer.<br /><br />If OLPC tried to talk to Apple about the implementation of the security features, all the OS X developers would stare glassy-eyed and say "But OS X is virus-proof! It's based on Unix!".<br /><br />The XO also has features that are part-security, part-reliability, that stop errant or malicious applications from being able to damage the hardware.<br /><br />And that's before we mention the unique hardware of the XO, like the screen that is designed to work in monochrome without a backlight. That required special hacking around of the X.org display system, and is also not supported on OS X.<br /><br />Mac OS X does not possess any of the features that are necessary for this computer, and without full access to the source code the OLPC project could not implement the features. In fact, the only OLPC feature that Apple could probably do is the automated backup service discovery; this would become an absolute necessity for an OSXLPC - just look at Apple's reliability record with consumers having to reformat iPods on a regular basis!

[Sbvmax]

Good Opportunity ???

Good Opportunity: If they pull this off and it actually has a smaller footprint and runs faster than a normally configured XP machine: they should port this over to a XP Lite version (if they are using the Pro version since has more security options) if possible for release for computers that are still running WinME, Win2K or XP now for like $35-$50. Many people I know have more than a few computers at home, they keep the older ones and when they get new X2 or Quad Core computers with Vista or whatever they could buy the XP Lite and still run XP software on there older one's and network them more easily with added security. Again for XP Lite (most people don't use nLite and equilvalent) it has to be on Pro if they sold it to the regular pc public. <br /><br />But I think they have a hard road ahead getting this to work. <br /><br />Personally for the kids overseas they are probably better off with Linux. Because the ones that do get into computers it will be great when they figure for major Microsoft products you can pay $400 to $2000 let alone other costly products. <br /><br />I have one desktop with Ubuntu and find it to be really nice, however haven't had time to use it for 1+ months now.

[Commander_Spock]

Quite frankly....

... this is not the smartest of ideas in an age where you have an hand held device like the Blackberry "International" Edition with nearly all the computing functions that a student may ever need while in the classroom. Here is a very good idea of what is really needed:<br /><br />"Air Force base in Nevada goes solar with 15-megawatt array"<br /><br /><a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.news.com/8301-11128_3-9829328-54.html?tag=bl" target="_newWindow">http://www.news.com/8301-11128_3-9829328-54.html?tag=bl</a><br /><br />Geez... why have poor and already disadvantaged school aged children around the world "cranking a handle or pulling a chord to generate electricity" to run a laptop computer when they should be concentrating on their school and home workwork...!

[maverick_nick]

because

Installing solar infrastructure vast enough for everyone to have access to it is extremely expensive. So if we give a kid a little machine that could be used without having to worry about looking for a socket to plug into it's all good.<br /><br />Why don't you take some time to think about the situation or maybe visit a 3rd world country before making silly comments.

[cary1]

my classroom

you should really think through before you comment. I still remember, the university where I studied didn't have enough outlets in the wall for every student to hook up their laptop... and that was in U S of A just few years ago. Perhaps we should fix that first

[Meerkat71]

besides....

I was wondering since someone mentioned Wi-Fi and all the other nice things.....who the heck is going to crank WHAT to generate the power for that?<br /><br />I live in a third world country that USED to have a first world economy, but due to corruption in the government has fallen back to a third world country.<br /><br />They don't need a frigging laptop. They need someone aka a teacher that can teach them, a government that isn't corrupt to support the teachers by paying them instead of lining their pockets.<br /><br />I have lived in the US for 6 six years, have anyone bother to figure out how much US$100 is in other parts of the world? Well here in South Africa that equates to about R 700.00 and the minimum wage is roughly R1500.00 with the President earning well over a million rand a year and in some instances where mayor's earn even more than the president.<br /><br />Raw sewage are flowing into rivers and dams, roads are going to h3ll in a hand basket, and besides Botswana this is one of the "best" countries in Africa.<br /><br />You are not helping these kids by giving them a laptop that they won't even know how to use, and don't tell me the teachers will teach them cos you are sadly mistaken. Most of the "teachers" being trained in South Africa are illiterate and some dun even know their @$$ from a hole in the ground.<br /><br />If the people with billions wants to help the millions they would start putting financial pressure on the corrupt governments in the countries where these kids are, by telling them either get your house in order or you get nothing from us. That will be the first step, cos as long as they (corrupt governments) receive help from the big countries (businesses) that wants their natural resources the longer the poor will stay poor and the rich get richer.<br /><br />It is time that the problem is addressed and not the symptoms.

[AJ Pants]

Why does it need to run Windows again?

Oh right. M$ need to get their greedy paws on everything.

[James_U]

Earth Calling M$ Haters

Or ... I don't know ... perhaps its because people actually decide to purchase a PC running Windows instead of the various options out there. Oh, I forgot. MSFT has the world's most incredible piece of software that does mind control. MSFT actually has the ability to force 90% of the world's population to buy a PC with Windows against their will. They make them forget those hillarious Mac commercials and compel them to buy a Windows PC instead. Yeah, that's it. I mean XP and Vista don't actually even boot. It's just an illusion that they work and dumb luck that Vista has sold 80+ million copies. And Linux and the Mac NEVER have any problems. They "always" boot, never crash, never have any security problems, never even need patches, etc. I mean life is so much better on those platforms. <br /><br />Grow up.

[aavera]

In order to be useful

Enough said. Good gracious you MS haters need to get a life...

[sal-magnone]

all your AJ Pants belonging to us

Greed is Good.<br /><br />That and the potential customers have asked for it because that is what students will use when they join the workforce.<br /><br />It pays to be successful. It sucks to be poor. Get rich or all your AJ Pants belonging to us.<br />:=)

[bobcode]

So the children of the world can learn Excel!

Didn't someone compare that to a crime against humanity?

[JoJo Pumpkin]

I would at least like to see if they can do it.

I would find it interesting to see if they can get this to work. Windows XP, basically on a Pen Drive! This could put a spike in the capabilities of other mobile and handheld units as a result. I use both Windows and Linux and have no gripes about either.<br /><br />As for putting this on the $100 laptop, does it really matter what these people are using? I think the laptop is a great idea. These areas are developing and by bringing an accesible medium for information this can be a tool towards their advancement into the 21st century and self reliance. If you didn't already know there is a wealth of information on the web like crop planting, irrigation techniques, building methods and codes, sanitation practices, medical information, college courses, books, news, government resources, you see where I'm going with this. It's not JUST viruses and porn as many on other articles regarding this have suggested.<br /><br />If your going to argue that these people need food or houses instead of computers than I suggest you get off your butts and get over there and get to work. There are other organizations helping these people in other ways.

[Commander_Spock]

What are you on!

"get over there and get to work" Tell your lender (if you are one of those persons living in the United States and do not know where you next mortgage payment is coming from) that you are going to a needy country to lend an helping hand. Have you actually watched the TV news coverages coming in lately from places like Washington and the rescue efforts being undertaken; and, oh! how soon you appear to have forgotten Hurricane Katrina!

[zextron]

Why not use Windows mobile?

I have Windows mobile on a smartphone with much less resources. But I still have office and wifi.

[Proustian]

Very good idea

and it might actually work to put Windows Mobile in under 1G of Flash memory.

[theveggiedude]

Windows Mobile is not a real computer OS

The subject line says it all. The only thing Windows Mobile has in common with Windows XP is the name 'Windows'. They are not the same thing, nor are they the same animal.

[bobcode]

Nice. Teaching poor kids Excel.

Great, now the poor masses can learn Excel!<br /><br />Now if only they'd allow it on the XO's sold in the US, or created an <br />XP-lite for all the older computers. OS upgrades for pre-XP <br />machines!

[mabradford]

Forced to Truth

It's about time an situation comes about to force Microsoft to tell the "Truth". I've been sick of the lies for so many years! The Vista problems was the last straw for me. Microsoft can't say anything is "ready" anymore! The world knows now without a doubt that if Microsoft says "It's ready!" the "Truth" is that nothing is ready but the Microsoft bank account for taking your money! Yes - Linux is "READY" for the OLPC effort! Not Microsoft! Microsoft would do well to go with the Linux Kernel and call it theirs rather than copy cat it and try and fake it as always - being theirs! If Microsoft does go with their own creation - it most likely will be another OS created from C/C++ on Unix machines.

[Commander_Spock]

The "Hypothetical" Truth!

"Microsoft would do well to" release the "Code-Base" it still holds for the OS/2 Operating system to the Open Source Community. Banks around the world know somethings better than most people do; besides, they are the ones you trust with all you money; and, they moved to Windows and not Linux according to this:<br /><br /><a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/os/story/0,10801,83884,00.html" target="_newWindow">http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/os/story/0,10801,83884,00.html</a>

[FO-FI_FO_454]

Heard Millions of Kids Shout "DA" Yesterday In Romania!

Check out this link, should be for Romania.<br /><a class="jive-link-external" href="https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ro.html" target="_newWindow">https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ro.html</a><br /><br />Just gave some new merchandise to my Romanian friends to be put onto a community Romanian Gift truck on its way to Romania for the kids, their parents, the ones that are left. The fathers take off, for Italy, Spain, Germany, France, Poland, where they can get employment - none in Romania, to speak of, so the mother is left alone. One such parent, Marianne, has 9 kids, and she is a massage therapist. She's a STATE Licensed massage therapist, not a XXX Rated Massage Therapist, and she drives a lemon worst than the Yugo.<br /><br />Why the suspense about whether it will or it won't be XP.....who asked you for XP.....you offered, you let the cat out of the bag, it's already circulating in the streets of Arad, ROMANIA, Bucharest, Costanza, Transylvania, and Redmond, WA has to be placed in a position of being an "inquiry judge" at the race track. Well, is it or isn't it OFFICIAL...what is it?<br /><br />If you couldn't take care of these kids in Romania, and India, why did you let the cat out of the bag.....remember, "Loose Lips Sink Ships." Vintage WW2. What does a kid need, a kid up to the age of 16 insofar as a laptop is concerned?<br /><br />I believe the kids need to:<br />1. Communicate with each other, family, and the Internet.<br />2. LEARN MORE - if they connect, they'll learn.<br />3. Beaucoup snow right now in Romania - kids are at home - so, how's about GAMES.<br />4. Word processing, including attachments such as images.<br />5. Ability to compress files (.zip) and also to view .pdf files.<br />6. What else - OK - kids want to print, that's magic, they want to draw, that's magic, kids want to listen to music, that's magic, what else?<br /><br />Give the kids a scaled down version of whatever OS you have, including all of the above, and they will be knee deep in Romanian Tenderloin - tickled PINK.<br /><br />Why the intrigue - why the "we may, we may not, we do, we do not, we can, we'll see" - COME ON - you know what you can do, and if you didn't know what you CAM DO you wouldn't have jazzed up millions of people in Romania and elsewhere yesterday.<br /><br />"The Streets Are Alive With The Sound of Music" - (talking about Romania) so, hopefully the terrible flood conditions are over in the Northwest, Seattle, Portland, and you guys and gals can meet your commitment to those in Romania and elsewhere who are shouting "DA DA DA DA MICROSOFT DA DA MICROSOFT DA."<br /><br />Thank you for this opportunity to comment. Happy Holidays to Y'All.<br /><br />PS "DA" means "YES."<br />PPS TTFN - Vintage WW2 - means "Ta Ta For Now" (origin, United Kingdom). Remember Pearl Harbor, Friday December 7th.

[bdonohue1]

Ballmer on Drugs???

Maybe I'm missing something...the XO has a 433MHz processor and a 1GB Flash in place of a HD. I've got an old P4 box with a 1.3 GHz processor and an 80GB HD that struggles to run XP. So whatever drugs Ballmer's on, I hope he's willing to share...

[KTLA_knew]

Not Ballmer...

If you have a 1.3GHz P4 and you have it setup to "struggle" to run XP, you'd be better off letting a tech friend fix whatever you did to that thing.<br /><br />XP will run great on a FAR slower processor, quite easily. I have a friend that runs their buisiness on 700MHz systems built years ago, and even that is way more than necessary for a nice, snappy XP system.

[ColdMast]

he just going to keep coming and coming and coming...

<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=La_u1jPLOIA" target="_newWindow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=La_u1jPLOIA</a>

[regulator1956]

Your system needs help

I'm using an old Dell GX110 (2000) with an 866Mhz P3 CPU and 512MB of RAM. I did upgrade the hard drive to an 120GB a few years ago.<br /><br />Is it blazing fast? No.<br /><br />It runs XP, FF2, Office 2000, SQL Server 2000, Outlook 2003, Paint.Net, ZoneAlarm, McAfee VirusScan Enterprise and much more just fine.<br /><br />It does have issues with Skype video and doesn't play some video very smoothly. 32MB of integrated video is very weak.<br /><br />I keep thinking I should replace it, but it's rock solid. Pissed me off when my high-end 21" CRT broke. My new LCD sucks compared to that old graphics quality CRT.<br /><br />Back to the point, I want MS, Apple, Linux, Symbian to all create a great OS for the OLPC device. Competition creates excellence.

[FO-FI_FO_454]

THIS SHOULD BE A GLOBAL INDUSTRY-WIDE INITIATIVE - ONE LAPTOP FOR ONE CHILD

Wanted to append my earlier post, but, my Hanukkah Latkes (Potato Pancakes) are on the stove, so I'll make this fast.<br /><br />With a wee bit of industry-wide "Arm Twisting" and global media coverage, wouldn't it be nice if all of the technology giants could agree on just ONE LAPTOP per child, using just ONE OS, and ONE CONFIGURATION?<br /><br />Why is INTEL chasing this project with their "CLASSMATE?" Wasn't INTEL previously manufacturing CHIPS? Now what? How's about Apple, Sun, Ubuntu, Xandros and others all jumping into the fray with "their" version of a much more sophisticated Commodore 64 than the original?<br /><br />Isn't this supposed to be an effort by those with Billions to help those millions with SQUAT? Then, if I'm right, how's about a consortium, all of these geniuses, geeks, (nerds too) pooling their resources in order to provide needy children with "real time intelligence" - and also, to lay the groundwork for future industry-wide revenues as these need children become adults.<br /><br />Perhaps "ARM TWISTING" is a good idea, a consortium a better idea, who benefits, who has the power, to stands to gain, and finally, if all of this can be accomplished, and JUST ONE laptop is targeted at our children, then, we might even name the Laptop "SALLY."<br /><br />Thanks for this opportunity to TALKBACK.

[Meerkat71]

...and they can access the internet to do lots of stuff....

Apart from my other postings, I have one more thing to add. Does anyone that mentioned how these kids will be able to access the internet etc have given any thought about what it would cost the kids to actually be able to access the net?<br /><br />Talking under correction in most countries that has no infrastructure (I guess these are the countries the are aiming for) the internet can only be accessed via a satellite connection. Go do the math.... Once again it doesn't help to treat the symptoms, you have to address the cause and that will eventually make the symptoms disappear.

[DarkPhoenixFF4]

Uh, yeah...

I was "trained" on "the OS the IT industry uses". Oddly enough, few of my IT-related classes made use of the Microsoft bloatware; the most common OS'es were Solaris and Linux, because that's what SERVERS generally run. And while my classmates have been stuck with the bloatware that is Windows XP, I've been running rings around them with my custom Fedora system. As for Sugar being a toy, you're making an incredibly stupid assumption; that the current way of doing things is the ONLY way.

[mhayfield]

XP on XO

I can't think of a better way to turn a $100 laptop into a $499 laptop.

[Commander_Spock]

First Things First!

"IDB approves $150 million for Mexico?s Habitat Program"<br /><br />"The program combines investments in infrastructure, such as access roads, street paving and drainage systems, with expanding the coverage of services, including electricity, drinking water, sewerage, public lighting and solid waste disposal..."<br /><br /><a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.iadb.org/" target="_newWindow">http://www.iadb.org/</a><br /><br />Now, did someone forget to put the "solar panels" on the roof-tops of the houses to provide the electrical power to re-charge the laptop batteries (certainly no need for a "crank" here) while the tired school age children rest at nights.<br /><br />How about if such a program is successfully implemented throughout the world. If/when this happens XO laptops may become paper weights!

[C.Schroeder]

Check the hardware specs first

While all the Windows/Linux bashing on this thread makes for entertaining reading, it totally misses the point. Look at the specs for the XO, if you haven't already:<br /><a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.laptop.org/en/laptop/hardware/specs.shtml" target="_newWindow">http://www.laptop.org/en/laptop/hardware/specs.shtml</a><br /><br />I get to work with start-of-the-art computers of many flavors (Solaris, Linux, Irix, &#38; WinXP) as part of my day job. In my volunteer work, I refurbish trailing-edge PCs. This laptop has 256 MB RAM and a 433 MHz CPU. Ever tried running WinXP with those resources?? Sure, it runs, but...it...is...very...slow!!! Win2K is sluggish with these resources, but runs better than XP. Win98SE positively flies with these same resources.<br /><br />I'm currently awaiting delivery of my own XO from the "Give On, Get One" program, so I have no hands-on knowledge with it yet, but "by the numbers" I can only shake my head and wonder what the boys in Redmond are smoking. Maybe it will teach them some humility? That would be, in a word,"Priceless!"