XP on OLPC - a contrarian view

[Walter Bender]

There is an underlying assertion in your post (and much of the press
coverage of the Windows XP announcement) that the XO has not been
selling well to date. I would assert that 600K units in the first 6
months is pretty good by most measures. It is a far cry from the 100M
units that Nicholas predicted, but so what? It is a great start and
there is every indication that laptop-for-learning programs on a
variety of hardware platforms are springing up around the world--with
or without Windows. To the extent that the community can work to make
these programs successful, more children will be reached--our
goal--and more laptops (XOs and others) will be sold.

-walter

On Fri, May 16, 2008 at 12:27 PM, Robert Myers <rmyers7 at mindspring.com> wrote:
> There's a lot of discussion about whether OLPC is an education project,
> or a laptop project. Many folks here think that recent developments show
> that the balance is tipped to the latter rather than the former.
>
> It's neither. It's a _sales_ project. If people don't buy them, it
> doesn't matter how pure our hearts are.
>
> The folks that are buying them, Ministries of Education, governments,
> charities all have their own agendas. They do not necessarily line up
> with the agendas of our real customers - children and educators, or our
> own. If we have to give them some of what they want, so that we can get
> some of what we want to to the children, it's a fact of life.
>
> Selling constructionism is hard. The theory is attractive, but the data
> is _not_ compelling. The buyers are probably not convinced going in that
> it's something they want or need. OLPC would probably have an easier
> time selling $100 Apple ][ clones with drill and practice software than
> the XO as it stands. If the buyers demand a machine that can run
> Windows, tell them that the XO can run Windows.
>
> Look at the reaction of the general press to the announcement. It's
> overwhelmingly favorable. To outsiders this looks like the feature that
> can put the XO over.
>
> So put XP on as a dual boot. It won't fit in the flash, so buyers for
> the foreseeable future will still get Linux, Sugar, and all the OLPC
> activities. The Windows guys are talking about a 2G SD card to put XP on
> for that $7 hardware point. That won't fly. I had an Win98 machine with
> specs similar to an XO. It had a 8Gb drive.
>
> The buyer gets to tick Windows off his must have list. OLPC sells a
> machine with XP on a card, a crippled and storage limited XP that still
> doesn't run current first world productivity applications well. XOs get
> out, still loaded with Sugar. Children get them. OLPC gets revenue that
> can help its educational mission. What have we lost but some innocence?
>
> That being said, I believe Bill G is a prime example of 'Daniel
> Plainview' capitalism -- it's not enough for him to win, everyone else
> has to lose. So OLPC has to be careful.
>
> Bob
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