[Olpc-open] June-August XP tests (was Re: Language support for dual-boot trials)

[Edward Cherlin]

On Sat, May 17, 2008 at 6:44 AM, Nicholas Negroponte <nn at media.mit.edu> wrote:
>> The June-August tests are small pilots and not dual boot. Open Firmware
>> for dual boot will be ready in about 45 days. Qualification follows. So it [dual-boot XO]
>> will be after September.
>
> Would you say so publicly, please? Or may I quote you?
>
> Ed,
>
> That has been said publicly.

Not anywhere that I or those I talk to saw or heard it.

> You are welcome to repeat or quote it.

Thanks.

> Nicholas


Filling in some gaps in our conversation: Mitch Bradley got XP to boot
from a modified Open FirmWare that transparently supports Windows
Interrupt calls to the BIOS. As Fred Brooks pointed out in The
Mythical Man-Month, there is a huge difference between something that
works in the lab, and something you can ship, the more so if it's
system software.

Microsoft plans trials in three or four countries of Windows-only XOs
with a regular BIOS. I think Egypt is one of them, but that has not
been confirmed. I have no information on the others.

Apart from these trials, OLPC has no further plans for Windows-only
XOs. For one thing, there is no cost saving to countries from removing
Linux and Sugar. For another, that's contrary to the mission. Not
everybody believes Nicholas on this point, however, and nearly
everybody expects Microsoft to try to weasel a way to sell XOs with
Windows only. There are things Nicholas could do to establish
credibility, most of them involving talking to the community, and more
importantly giving evidence of listening. Answering questions is a
good start in that direction.

Open-Sourcing Windows is about the only thing that would get anybody I
know to grant Microsoft any credibility. Assuming that it was a
genuine Open Source license, approved by rms's lawyers, and not "You
can look but you better not touch". (That's a 1950s song reference,
among other things.)
-- 
Edward Cherlin
End Poverty at a Profit by teaching children business
http://www.EarthTreasury.org/
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it."--Alan Kay