Comments on: OLPC, Microsoft working on dual-boot XO laptop

A forthcoming version of the OLPC's XO laptop could have the ability to boot both Linux and Windows, according to the OLPC's founder.

[slickuser]

geez! children now need emacs and yacc to go with it

Just great!

Nick Negroponte, why don't you load emacs, over engineered KDE/Gnome etc. Thats what children need!

Nick Negroponte should shutup and try to work with Intel instead of bad mouthing Intel every day

[Penguinisto]

Err, what?

1) the UI for an XO laptop isn't KDE, or GNOME, or any such. It's custom-built.

2) emacs? Everyone knows that vi is better. ;)

3) Children need stimulation and challenge. They are also, by and large, smart enough to explore and learn things that were once the exclusive domain of adults.

4) If he wants to rig it so that it runs Windows, so what? MSFT isn't going to be making any real profit off the deal (the economics of XO dictate that they really can't), and quite frankly, the system requirements can't really go up to the point where XP would be even halfway usable, at least not without meeting or exceeding the cost of a Classmate PC...

If OLPC does this, then it's either-or, and OLPC would have less of a claim towards being a superior solution (basically, mesh networking and power efficiency would be all they'd have left, compared to the Classmate's color screen and a standard (Linux or Windows) UI).

/P

[kool_skatkat]

Intel?

Why does everybody want to sell to Africa and not more. Will MS allow kids to play with the sources code and experiment?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kool_skatkat/

[SeizeCTRL]

SCARY

Not the part about Microsoft and OLPC but the picture embedded with the story. I can almost see these kids finding out ways to send out more and more of those Nigerian bank scam emails.

[Commander_Spock]

"SCARY": NOT!

"I can almost see these kids finding out ways to send out more and more of those Nigerian bank scam emails". How about giving the go ahead for the food laden ships to head for the ports when the gold, diamonds and black-gold from (Venezuela, Nigeria...) are in the bank vaults and at the oil-refineries or pumps. ;-) !

[ladiesmanwc]

an entire new generation....

....of e-mail scammers. I wonder how many of the kids in that picture are royalty, or will need to move $60 million to an offshore bank account?

Meh, I know it's terrible, but some part of me really doesn't want third-worlders with computers.

[SeizeCTRL]

LOL

I sort of beat you to the punch but that's kind of how I see it.

Granted I see nothing wrong with education the poor and such, but a part of me just knows some of them are going to be offering me these great opportunities to move countless millions to offshore bank accounts.

[Penguinisto]

Bigotry sucks.

Most folks in the "third world" don't live in Nigeria, nor are they potential email scammers.

Most of them just want to improve the conditions they live in. Is that too much to ask of you to approve of, perhaps?

/P

[cisasteelersfan]

give hungry kids laptops

yess i think it is great that they are giving kids in third world countries laptops. what they really need is food!!!

[The_Decider]

again

The third world market is not to sell to starving nations, but to third world nations with the basic necessities but need education to boost themselves up.

Third world does not mean starvation.

[Penguinisto]

laptops with agricultural info on them?

...plus construction info - you know, stuff like:

* how to build clean water wells
* how to perform basic first aid and medical care in a remote area
* how to build safe sanitation facilities
* how to generate electricity without stringing 400 miles of heavy copper cable
* how to make homes more energy efficient with basic tools and techniques


Meanwhile, these same laptops can contain educational subjects that would be otherwise impossible to get access to in a remote area with few teachers, let alone any who specialize in science, math, etc.

After awhile, you may just end up with people smart enough to pull themselves out of grinding poverty.

/P

[SeizeCTRL]

yes...

but what they really need to do is move out of the freaking desert. Sam Kinison had it right! MOVE TO WHERE THE FOOD IS... you cannot grow anything in sand, so we should move them to more fertile areas where they can actually grow their own food.

[cartablst]

please.

like the US and other "first world" countries don't have people scamming each other left and right. It's hardly the exclusive domain of third world countries.

[rcrusoe]

More memory, more cost, more problems

I read that MS is pressuring them to add more memory, etc to the
computer since its design (1gb ram) isn't enough to support
Windows.

And the result of this added cost will be the addition of the world's
most hacked operating system? Doesn't seem worth it to me.

[RompStar_420]

Ubuntu Linux is the Answer

Ubuntu Linux is a great OS and it is free.

They could load it with Edubuntu or Xubuntu (which requires less resources).

Hasn't failed me, I just use the Ubuntu Server.

[rklrkl]

XO already runs a free Linux...

The XO already ships with a heavily stripped down Fedora Linux, which is just as free (in both senses of the word) as Ubuntu Linux is. In fact, it's likely that similar work on Ubuntu would be needed to make it work as well as Fedora does on the XO, so I see no point in switching distros myself.

As for a dual-boot Windows - is Microsoft going to give away Windows for free for the XO? And if it's going to be embedded XP, isn't that going to be obsolete soon? So we might have a software cost increase, a definite hardware cost increase and I see a "$300" XO on the horizon :-( Dual-booting doubles the support nightmare for the XO and really makes zero sense to me. It's exactly why never see any laptop/desktop sold as dual boot - the support issues just become overwhelming.

[Penguinisto]

As noted...

Just reinforcing the other poster's view - Linux is already in there. The XO has a stripped UI (no KDE or GNOME), but a basic X11R6-based user interface.

/P

[Commander_Spock]

Why focus on a dual-boot XO laptop...

... for Windows and Linux when machines running OS/2 are all you need (like those smart bankers) to control the rest of the world industries (oil included) like they have succeeded with the housing and financial industries in the United States. You are able to "trap" folks (get them to pay you) for life; if they cannot pay-up their properties are yours. ;-) !

[Commander_Spock]

One other thing!

Come election time in countries all around the world you may even know how to project/predict the next winner of that country's general elections.

[regulator1956]

Running OS/2 Would Be Stupid

The XO already has an excellent customized version of Linux. He's only agreeing to work with Microsoft to add Windows because many governments view Windows as a necessity.

Even if OS/2 could already do everything the Linux version could do, adding it would be stupid.

XO has been a failure so far, but I bet there's more XO's running Linux than computers running OS/2.

[SeizeCTRL]

jumping jesus on a pogo stick

I knew it was too good to last. One of my first thoughts when reading this story was how long would it take before you would chip in your 2 cents on putting OS2 on one of these things.

OS2 is virtually dead now. It's not like you can run down to Office Depot or Staples and buy OS/2K8... heck, for that matter, I don't think it's been for sale this decade has it?

[Andy kaufman]

No driver support for OS/2 on the XO hardware

you can't install OS/2 on an XO Laptop if there are no drivers for it. All you will get is an error message if you attempt to install it.

[i_made_this]

To the writer

"Like it or not, it's a Windows-dominated world, and pretending that developing nations won't want access to the huge library of Windows applications out there isn't really serving their needs."

This system isn't targeted at what you vastly refer to as the "developing nations." It's targeted at kids in the least developed nations.

At the moment, we continue to live by a Windows-dominated world, but I doubt this will last for long. Insofar as the "huge .... Windows applications out there," the world's already proven that it can well do without app's like Microsoft Office (Open Office part of Ubuntu d/l is just fine) or Windows Media Player (VLC part of Ubuntu d/l is just fine). What other Windows app's did you have in mind that the developing world can't do without? Go ahead and let's discuss garbage like Windows Live Messenger, Outlook Express, really, the list of broken garbage is endless and we all can happily live without it.

Not just kids in these nations.

But really, if computing for these kids were all so important to Bill and Melinda personally, why not give away Vista Starter Basic Home whatever you're calling it this week? Ship it with a stripped box including a stripped Intel processor. And if your colleagues at Intel can't provide it, shop around like the rest of us. There are others out there that are just as good - some would say better.

[g15host]

World is bigger than OLPC and Wintel

Now that OLPC has the big corporations scared that the next generation will grow up on Linux and freeware, everyone wants a piece of the future market (get them hooked while they're young - same strategy run by cigarette and credit card companies). Just wait til Dell, Gateway, Acer, and other emerging manufacturers get in the act. You don't think they can make a system cheaper and better than Wintel? Why do brain-washed adults think that little kids must need MS Office, IE, or Outlook? To teach them VBA? Why would you want to multiply the world's supply of scripting kiddies and crackers by 100 fold? If XO-class laptops do spread Windows, start buying anti-virus companies stocks. The future of computing hopefully will come from outside of Wintel mindpot to be truly imaginative and innovative.

[Penguinisto]

Psst!

* The Classmate isn't "WinTel" per se... it also runs Mandriva
Linux.

* OLPC's former CTO announced yesterday that she is setting up
a for-profit organization to make a $75 laptop for developing
nations.

[i]"If XO-class laptops do spread Windows, start buying anti-
virus companies stocks."[/i]

I have a better idea - do that, and while you're at it buy a Mac.
Or install Linux. That way you won't have to worry so much
about it.

Meanwhile, let's bring in the developing countries into the
computing world anyway. We can always use more engineers
and scientists. :)

/P

[Commander_Spock]

News: "Microsoft squashes talk of dual-boot XO laptop"

http://www.news.com/8301-13579_3-9848512-37.html?tag=nefd.top

This is completely understandable; and. not unexpected.

[jabailo]

The eee is not even considering Windopes

Meanwhile, in the business world, the ASUS people seem to have quietly forgotten Windows entirely for their OLPA (one laptop per adult) lightweight portable, the eee.

Why do we have to forcefeed Windows on people when Linux is perfectly adequate and free?

It makes no cents...

[Phillep_H]

Just watch

MS is going to promise pie in the sky, if the customers just wait a month, or two. And not just yet, but shortly. It'll be out real soon now and it's going to be better than ever. Just a few more weeks, honest.

Meanwhile the FUD machine is going to be going full blast, and so will the bribery machine.

[mikemikef]

1. Some kids need to advance beyond survival.
2. There are too many free windows programs on the net to pass up.