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$100 laptop: Microsoft pushing for Windows XO
All those schoolkids might get used to Linux...

By Reuters

Published: Friday 26 October 2007

Microsoft has made progress in getting its Windows software to work on the $100 laptop which currently runs on rival Linux software, an executive has said.

The world's largest software company is now working to adapt a basic version of Windows XP so it is compatible with the not-for-profit One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Foundation's small green-and-white XO laptop.

Microsoft corporate vice president, Will Poole, said: "We're spending a non-trivial amount of money on it.

"We remain hopeful with our progress to date, we still have significant work ahead to finalise our analysis and testing processes. At the end of the day, there's no guarantees."

The OLPC Foundation, a spin-off from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, plans to start producing the $188 machines in China next month and eventually manufacture millions per year for elementary school children in developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

The Foundation is also selling the machines in Canada and the US for $400 apiece through a fundraising campaign.

The laptops were designed specifically to run Linux programs. If the machines run only Linux, Microsoft will lose an opportunity to expose tens of millions of children worldwide to its Windows system.

Poole said: "We've made progress."

If the Foundation is able to meet its goal of producing millions of laptops for school children around the world and they are all loaded with Linux software, then they would end up being more comfortable with those programs than with Windows, said Wayan Vota, who publishes a blog that monitors the project.

Vota said: "People will realise there is an alternative to Windows and they might like it better."

But the new laptop uses some technologies developed by the Foundation that haven't previously been used in PCs, Poole said.

He added: "We still have plenty of work to do in determining if the highly constrained performance, power, and memory in the first generation XO laptops will be compatible with Windows and popular Windows applications."

Originally dubbed the $100 laptop, which is the group's target price for the machine, the XO features a string pulley to charge its battery, a keyboard that switches between languages, a digital video camera and wireless connectivity.

The laptop's designer, Mary Lou Jepsen, said in an interview earlier this month she expects the price to drop in the first quarter of next year because prices of memory tend to fall dramatically during that period.

The computer requires just 2 watts of power compared with the typical laptop's 30 to 40 watts and does away with hard drives, relying instead on flash memory and four USB ports to add memory devices.

The XO laptop's component makers include AMD and Marvell Technology Group. Software maker Red Hat helped develop the device. Quanta Computer will manufacture it.

The Foundation will start taking orders for its Give 1 Get 1 campaign on 12 November at laptopgiving.org.