OLPC will not run Windows
Rumors have been flying for the past several months that the OLPC laptop, XO, would support Windows. The rumor more specifically was that Microsoft and OLPC had reached an agreement to ship some OLPC laptops with Windows XP Starter Edition on the OLPC. Walter Bender, president of software and content at OLPC, has thankfully squashed this rumor. Ars Technica breaks the news:
According to Walter Bender, president of Software and Content at OLPC, there is no agreement in place between OLPC and Microsoft to offer XO laptops with any version of Windows. Bender also indicated that Microsoft has not contacted OLPC regarding its $3 software bundling program, nor have any governments requested that the XO be outfitted with Windows. In short, there is no existing collaboration between Microsoft and OLPC aimed at outfitting the XO laptop with Windows.
“We are a free and open-source shop. We have no one from OLPC working with Microsoft on developing a Windows platform for the XO. MS doesn’t get any special treatment from OLPC,” Bender told Ars.
OLPC project clarifies: no plans for Windows support – [Ars Technica]
In the past 2 days or so the brain dead press has be running this story. The story mentions Linux 2 times, and mentions Windows 18 times. It’s Microsoft’s marketing machine in high gear. They make it sound like: “Oh no! OLPC can’t run Windows? What are we going to do? Don’t worry, Microsoft and OLPC will find some way around this technical problem, it just might take a lot longer”.
I waiting/hoping for someone like Matt Asay or Don Parris to do a write-up on this nonsense.