Microsoft's One Laptop Per Windows Project
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There has been quite a bit of blog banter over the last four or five months about whether or not Microsoft would put Windows on OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) XO laptops. C`mon, of course. What isn't obvious about that? |
Late today, Microsoft issued a statement about supporting Windows on flash-based computers, including OLPC. Microsoft is working on something, but that has been known for many months.
In April, Orlando Ayala, senior vice president for Microsoft's emerging segments market development group, told me: "We are now running Windows on that device." He also said that there had been some discussions with OLPC's Nicholas Negroponte about Windows on the laptop.
A week later, in a public press meeting, Negroponte acknowledged that Microsoft had received OLPC units.
No one should be surprised that Microsoft would want to run Windows, in this case XP, on the laptops. The company's Unlimited Potential project seeks to bring Windows into the same places OLPC wants to bring its devices. The real question: Would any OLPC recipient want Windows on these computers that ship with Linux?
"There will be limited field trials in January 2008 of Windows XP for One Laptop per Child's XO laptop," according to Microsoft's statement. "Microsoft's goal is to provide a high-quality Windows experience on the XO device; if this is achieved, then Windows XP for the XO could be available as early as the second half of 2008."
In a blog post today, Microsoft's James Utzschneider contradicted what Ayala told me in April about Windows running on the OLPC laptop. "That's not really the case yet," he wrote.
"With the attention the OLPC's 'Give One Get One' campaign is getting, along with the strong level of interest we are receiving from some Ministries of Education and NGOs [non-government organizations] in buying a version of Windows for the XO, we thought it would be useful to provide some clarity on the topic," he wrote.
So Utzschneider answers my earlier question. There are groups receiving the laptops that would prefer Windows to the preloaded Linux. But Microsoft isn't yet sure that it can deliver an adequate end-user experience, which is what the upcoming testing will be about.
"Nothing would please us more than seeing hundreds of thousands of these XO computers that are now starting to be deployed all running Windows given the very high interest that has been expressed in the market for it," Utzschneider wrote. "We are committed to developing a quality port of Windows XP for the OLPC XO computer, but we still have a lot of work to do to complete the effort."
Are Microsoft's intentions clear enough now?
Related Posts:
- What Is Africa's Unlimited Potential, Microsoft Watch, June 7, 2007
- Unlimited Potential's Potential, Microsoft Watch, April 24, 2007
- When Is Three Bucks Too Much?, Microsoft Watch, April 20, 2007
- Microsoft's $3 Anti-Linux Weapon, Linux Watch, April 19, 2007
- How Will Microsoft Reach Its Unlimited Potential?, Microsoft Watch, April 19, 2007
- Why Is Microsoft's Unlimited Potential?, Microsoft Watch, April 19, 2007
- What Is Microsoft's Unlimited Potential?, Microsoft Watch, April 19, 2007
Comments (6)
"Peru signs up for 260,000 OLPC laptops"
Posted by n0neXn0ne | December 5, 2007 10:47 PM
Again, is this not another indication that Micro$oft cannot make Vista work well enough on low end machines, and therefore must continue supporting and releasing XP in some form or another, for the forseeable future? Beyond June 2008 that is.
Vista is simply too big of a bloated dog to run on the same computers that XP and Linux can run on.
Posted by chips | December 5, 2007 11:33 PM
Have you not noticed that the OLPC has been just the beginning? There is now a whole new market category of budget Linux-based laptops. And the current king of the hill is the Asus Eee 701 PC. Asus claims they're shipping one every 6 seconds, or, conservatively, that they'll put out 3 million over the coming year.
Can you see the problems this is causing for Microsoft? Adding Windows makes for a significant increase to the price--which will put a lot of buyers off. Not only that, but it has to be Windows XP, not Vista--the latter is just too resource-hungry to be usable on these budget machines.
All in all, this is a major shift in the marketplace--a shift that has left Microsoft completely unprepared.
Posted by Lawrence D'Oliveiro | December 6, 2007 1:30 AM
My question is: Why replace free with proprietary?
The benefit of using Linux on the OLPC laptop goes beyond just bringing down the total cost of the package. Using Linux introduces the Third World's poor users -- and the governments that govern them -- to a world of free alternatives. By getting children to use free software, they become accustomed to thinking as critical users instead of just mere consumers.
Some of these users may also find that they can influence the development of software by using what suits their needs instead of using what is given to them; by interacting with an accessible developer community; and by actively contributing to development efforts (through documentation, localization, advocacy, etc.).
The bottom line is that free software will help poor people realize that technology empowers them. They become more than individuals in lucrative markets. They become agents of progress and change.
Giving poor children laptops with Windows, on the other hand, will introduce them to the world of proprietary software -- a world of vendor lock-in, dependence on the corporate interests software manufacturers, exorbitant licensing fees, endless upgrade cycles, and interference by foreign commercial interests, and manipulation by savvy advertisers and marketers.
Make no mistake. Putting Windows on the XO will help capture a new market segment for Microsoft that will be lucrative when it matures -- a segment that could spend the little money it has on better things!
Posted by Maddog | December 6, 2007 3:55 AM
Would the OLPC be the driver behind the SP3 speedtweaks?
Sounds plausible to me.
Posted by Henk | December 6, 2007 6:14 AM
Microsoft feeling heat from Linux in budget flash PC market
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071205-microsoft-feeling-heat-from-linux-in-budget-flash-pc-market.html
Quotes from the link:
"It is important to note that this initiative focuses on Microsoft's Windows XP, rather than Microsoft's latest OS, Windows Vista. For companies like Asus, Linux appears to be a more future-proof option and is much easier to modify to fit within the constraints of devices with low hardware overhead. Asus and Microsoft have already announced plans to sell XP-equipped versions of the Eee PC, but Microsoft is scheduled to end sales of Windows XP next June, and should the company hold fast to that deadline, the roadmap for Windows on budget, ultramobile PCs is unclear.
Interest in low-cost educational computing devices like Intel's Classmate PC and the OLPC XO laptop are obviously also driving Microsoft's increased attention on this market, but the company is clearly concerned about mainstream commercial offerings like the Eee PC and upcoming Intel MID products for which Intel is vigorously promoting Linux. Windows may have a hard time keeping up."
Posted by chips | December 6, 2007 8:17 PM