[Olpc-open] More details...40 MS employees working on it (Win XP on XO)

[M. Edward (Ed) Borasky]

Ed Montgomery wrote:
> Another article on Win XP on XO project:
> http://www.news.com/beyond-binary/8301-13860_3-9829735-56.html
> 
> 
> 
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Well ... XP runs dog-slow on my 512 MB 1.6 GHz Athlon XP, but that's not 
a processor or RAM limitation -- it's the hard drive that's slowing it 
down. So you *might* be able to get a stripped Windows XP to run in a 
433 MHz processor with 256 MB and 1 GB Flash / 2 GB SD, as the article 
states. But why would Microsoft put the effort into doing all that 
kernel work? They already have a huge lineup of educational software 
already -- why not port that to the XO? Squeak, Python, and most of the 
libraries on the XO run fine on Windows, so they could easily cross-develop.

If they want to build a low-cost lightweight Windows XP / Office machine 
for adults, they can do that easily. I had a Toshiba Libretto 70 that 
ran just fine with Windows / Office 95, 32 MB of RAM and a 1.5 GB hard 
drive. Today's technology ought to be able to do the 2008 equivalent, 
and the only place where you really have to make any hard decisions is 
whether to put in flash or a rotating disk drive.

BTW, I still have that Libretto -- it runs Debian Woody and whatever KDE 
version Woody had native. I could probably upgrade that to something a 
little newer, but I haven't been able to find a replacement battery for 
it so it didn't seem worth the time. The XO has a way better electrical 
footprint, a way better screen, more RAM and a USB port and doesn't need 
Windows any more than my other computers do. :)