TWWOC

[Edward Cherlin]

Let's get clear on what the Windows XO will be. It's going to run
Windows CE, not XP or Vista, which can't possibly fit. It could use
LinuxBIOS, of course, but why would Microsoft want to do that? Oh, of
course, if somebody wants to license a proprietary BIOS to them, maybe
Microsoft wouldn't want to do that for a $3 sale. But on the third
hand, maybe Microsoft already owns a proprietary BIOS, and would
prefer that.

I see every indication that Negroponte will continue to sell the Linux
version hard, and mention the Windows version to governments only for
form's sake, or if they specifically ask. For example, OLPC is putting
all of its resources into the Linux version (including contributions
of money and time from Red Hat, Google, and others), but letting
Microsoft do all its own lifting.

Microsoft and the Gates Foundation can do what they like to present
their case for spending extra money in order to get locked into
proprietary software, to countries where people live on $1/day or
less. Of course. Who are we, or OLPC, to say them nay? But the
governments get to register their own opinions here. I can't imagine
President Lula in Brazil or President Kagame in Rwanda buying from
Microsoft. Some minister in Thailand was talking about going with
Microsoft after the coup, so who knows?

See also Slashdot,
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/04/28/0658206&from=rss

On 5/2/07, MARTIN WOODHOUSE <hokusai at btinternet.com> wrote:
> Hello all LinuxBIOS lads and lasses,
>
> well, that's The Wonderful World Of Computing for you !
>
> regards, respect and love,
>
> Martin Woodhouse   www.martin-woodhouse.co.uk
>
> *   *   *
>
> Even if they use LinuxBIOS I don't think they will produce anything ready to
> be shipped with linuxBIOS and ported for different architectures. So I guess
> I still have a lot of work for GSoC :).
>
>
>
>
>
> On 5/2/07, Quux <pawn2be.wild at yahoo.de> wrote:
> > from what I understand they try to get MS into the boat. For cost
> > reasons LinuxBIOS will still be choice #1. --Q
> >
> >
> > Myles Watson schrieb:
> > > The Register is reporting that OLPC is going to produce a version that
> boots
> > > windows.  Does anyone know how they are planning to do it?  Are they
> still
> > > going to use LinuxBIOS? Will it affect the Google Summer of Code
> project?

No, Microsoft is producing the Windows version to run on OLPC
hardware. GSoC is unaffected.

-- 
Edward Cherlin
Earth Treasury: End Poverty at a Profit
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Earth_Treasury
WIRE AFRICA  http//www.wireafrica.org/
http://www.linkedin.com/in/cherlin