Microsoft Want's A Piece Of The OLPC Pie...
Submitted by YorNamHere on Tue, 02/19/2008 - 18:38.
I just got my new issue (Feb. '08) of Nuts and Volts magazine and I found this news segment that, to me at least, shows why Linux will always be the better alternative. This was the paragraph that just got me fumeing:
"In a December press release the company announced that it will publish 'formal design guidelines early next year that will assist Flash-based device manufacturers in designing machines that enable a high-quality Windows experience.' The problem is that even a stripped-down, Flash-based Windows XP will likely need 2GB of memory, and the XO has only 1GB. Accordingly, Microsoft is now putting the squeeze on OLPC, asking that they redesign the computer with another memory slot. This, of course, would increase the cost of the hardware and dodge the open-source part of the concept."
Leave it to Microsoft to try to force a charity to increase the price of their computers (which is completely contradictory to their mission statement) so they could run XP which OLPC would then have to spend more money on to purchase the XP OS from Microsoft. And what happens when an updated version of the OS comes out? Next thing you know, Microsoft is going to want the XO's to be able to run Vista! I truthfully would not be surprised if Microsoft tries to sue OLPC because the XO's can't run Windows!
Sorry, I just needed to vent and wanted to get other people's reactions to this article.
I think the big tragedy here
I think the big tragedy here will be the impact on children in third world countries. In my mind, the genius behind the OLPC project is that these kids will learn on an open platform, so that they can continue their education in these open technologies without having to spend money, which they do not have. By putting windows on these things you're subjecting them to the proprietary grind. Shameful.
Thanks for the rant duder. Good stuff.
Chad