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One Laptop per Child is announcing an agreement with Microsoft
This page exists to answer questions about the agreement between OLPC and Microsoft announced today, 15th May 2008.
to make a dual boot, Linux/Windows, version of the XO laptop. In
addition, our intention is to engage one or more third parties to port Sugar to
run on Windows in order to reach a wider installed base of laptops. In the
meanwhile, OLPC remains fully committed to our goal: a completely free
and open learning platform for the world's children. The mission
statement of OLPC has not changed in three years (attached).


== Articles about the agreement ==
Sugar is the first user interface specifically designed for children and
teachers to learn and collaborate, and remains central to our strategy.
Broadening Sugar's reach to as many children as possible remains key to
OLPC's mission.


* [http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/05-15-2008/0004815108&EDATE= AP article]
To enable the Sugar environment to reach as many children as possible,
* [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/16/technology/16laptop.html?_r=1&oref=slogin New York Times article]
particularly in the poorest areas of the world, OLPC must be able to bid
on educational technology contracts, some of which require that
Microsoft Windows be able to run on our hardware. The increased volumes
will lower the XO-1's price, already lowest in the industry with
capabilities no other laptop shares.


== Questions here ==
OLPC is substantially increasing its engineering resources and all
software development continues entirely on GNU/Linux. We will continue
to work to make Sugar on Linux the best possible platform for education
and to invest in our expanding Linux deployments in Peru, Uruguay,
Mexico and elsewhere.


== Message from Nicholas to the community lists ==
No OLPC resources are going to porting Sugar to Microsoft Windows,
although as a free software project, we encourage others to do so. The
Sugar user interface is already available for Fedora, Debian and
Ubuntu Linux distributions, greatly broadening Sugar's reach to the
millions of existing Linux systems. We continue to solicit help from the
free software community in these efforts. Additionally, the Fedora,
Debian and Ubuntu software environments run on the XO-1, adding support
for tens of thousands of free software applications.


One Laptop per Child is announcing an agreement with Microsoft to make a dual boot, Linux/Windows, version of the XO laptop. In addition, our intention is to engage one or more third parties to port Sugar to run on Windows in order to reach a wider installed base of laptops. In the meanwhile, OLPC remains fully committed to our goal: a completely free and open learning platform for the world's children. The mission statement of OLPC has not changed in three years (attached).
Open Firmware V2, the free and open source BIOS, is now capable of
running Linux, Microsoft Windows XP and other operating systems, and was
developed by Firmworks with support from OLPC. This will enable dual
boot of OLPC XO laptops with Microsoft Windows XP in addition to the
existing Fedora-based system and will become the standard
BIOS/bootloader for all XO systems when completed. With this "free
BIOS," the XO-1 continues to be the most open laptop hardware currently
available.


Sugar is the first user interface specifically designed for children and teachers to learn and collaborate, and remains central to our strategy. Broadening Sugar's reach to as many children as possible remains key to OLPC's mission.
----


To enable the Sugar environment to reach as many children as possible, particularly in the poorest areas of the world, OLPC must be able to bid on educational technology contracts, some of which require that Microsoft Windows be able to run on our hardware. The increased volumes will lower the XO-1's price, already lowest in the industry with capabilities no other laptop shares.
This page exists to answer questions about the [http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/05-15-2008/0004815108&EDATE= agreement between OLPC and Microsoft] announced today, 15th May 2008.


OLPC is substantially increasing its engineering resources and all software development continues entirely on GNU/Linux. We will continue to work to make Sugar on Linux the best possible platform for education and to invest in our expanding Linux deployments in Peru, Uruguay, Mexico and elsewhere.
Please add questions below the line.


No OLPC resources are going to porting Sugar to Microsoft Windows, although as a free software project, we encourage others to do so. The Sugar user interface is already available for Fedora, Debian and Ubuntu Linux distributions, greatly broadening Sugar's reach to the millions of existing Linux systems. We continue to solicit help from the free software community in these efforts. Additionally, the Fedora, Debian and Ubuntu software environments run on the XO-1, adding support for tens of thousands of free software applications.
----

Open Firmware V2, the free and open source BIOS, is now capable of running Linux, Microsoft Windows XP and other operating systems, and was developed by Firmworks with support from OLPC. This will enable dual boot of OLPC XO laptops with Microsoft Windows XP in addition to the existing Fedora-based system and will become the standard BIOS/bootloader for all XO systems when completed. With this "free BIOS," the XO-1 continues to be the most open laptop hardware currently available.

Revision as of 23:51, 15 May 2008

This page exists to answer questions about the agreement between OLPC and Microsoft announced today, 15th May 2008.

Articles about the agreement

Questions here

Message from Nicholas to the community lists

One Laptop per Child is announcing an agreement with Microsoft to make a dual boot, Linux/Windows, version of the XO laptop. In addition, our intention is to engage one or more third parties to port Sugar to run on Windows in order to reach a wider installed base of laptops. In the meanwhile, OLPC remains fully committed to our goal: a completely free and open learning platform for the world's children. The mission statement of OLPC has not changed in three years (attached).

Sugar is the first user interface specifically designed for children and teachers to learn and collaborate, and remains central to our strategy. Broadening Sugar's reach to as many children as possible remains key to OLPC's mission.

To enable the Sugar environment to reach as many children as possible, particularly in the poorest areas of the world, OLPC must be able to bid on educational technology contracts, some of which require that Microsoft Windows be able to run on our hardware. The increased volumes will lower the XO-1's price, already lowest in the industry with capabilities no other laptop shares.

OLPC is substantially increasing its engineering resources and all software development continues entirely on GNU/Linux. We will continue to work to make Sugar on Linux the best possible platform for education and to invest in our expanding Linux deployments in Peru, Uruguay, Mexico and elsewhere.

No OLPC resources are going to porting Sugar to Microsoft Windows, although as a free software project, we encourage others to do so. The Sugar user interface is already available for Fedora, Debian and Ubuntu Linux distributions, greatly broadening Sugar's reach to the millions of existing Linux systems. We continue to solicit help from the free software community in these efforts. Additionally, the Fedora, Debian and Ubuntu software environments run on the XO-1, adding support for tens of thousands of free software applications.

Open Firmware V2, the free and open source BIOS, is now capable of running Linux, Microsoft Windows XP and other operating systems, and was developed by Firmworks with support from OLPC. This will enable dual boot of OLPC XO laptops with Microsoft Windows XP in addition to the existing Fedora-based system and will become the standard BIOS/bootloader for all XO systems when completed. With this "free BIOS," the XO-1 continues to be the most open laptop hardware currently available.