Engadget - XO XP Shenanigans

This from engadget today: "Rumor is that Nicholas Negroponte is going to transition the OLPC XO entirely to Windows XP to spur sales soon."
Why would an XO have to run XP? Could it run dual OSs? Infighting and Bender not bending over... but resigning instead makes me think the child-centered Sugar design will never get a real test. Seymour Papert, please get well and talk sense into OLPC!

Tags: olpc, xo

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Terry Smith on April 25, 2008 at 7:33am

On we go... another article is here - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/24/olpc_windows_bender/ - a few points about the changeover/blend. I can only wonder what it will mean. The end of OLPC? I can't imagine a for profit company like behemoth Microsoft will really do anything humanitarian. So, if we do get OS changes, what about he Linux base already in place? How will the XO have to change to run massive XP? Add a hard drive? That adds cost, maintenance, etc etc etc....bloat the filesystem.... hmmm. I can only wonder.

Permalink Reply by Laura Gibbs on May 16, 2008 at 8:46am

There is an EXCELLENT long essay by Ivan Krstic, who recently resigned from OLPC, about the Windows and open source issues at the project - and the points he makes are extremely good ones. His complaint is not about lack of loyalty to an open-source operating system, but instead about the lack of focus on EDUCATON ITSELF. His reason for resigning was not the collaboration with Microsoft, but rather the lack of focus on educational goals as the purpose for that collaboration.

I posted a comment there, and learned a lot not just from the essay but from the other comments - anybody interested in OLPC, its history, its future, will find much of interest here.

Sic Transit Gloria Laptopi

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Permalink Reply by fwc on May 24, 2008 at 11:49pm

yes, you should be able to dual (or multi) boot..

sugar has been released, for other linux packages:

http://mobile.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/16/1948207

$100 Laptop Platform Moves On

..... It has already been bundled with the most recent releases of the Ubuntu and Fedora Linux operating systems.".....

if you havent played much with linux, everyone should try, a "live cd" ..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_CD

http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php

you will be awed.. it is a VERY POWERFUL, OS!

far more advanced, than virtually all, commercial OSes.. ( they dont want you to realize this..)

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