AnnounceFAQ
This page exists to answer questions about the agreement between OLPC and Microsoft announced 15 May 2008.
Articles about the agreement
Questions here
- What changes, if any, will be made to the XO hardware specs in order to accommodate Windows?
No hardware changes are needed. Windows runs from an SD or SDHC card in the existing slot on the XO. A 2GB SD card costs about $8 at retail. In a Youtube video, MS says it runs on a 2GB SD card. That's the only hardware cost.
- Will multiple versions of the XO hardware be available simultaneously?
No need; the hardware is unchanged.
- Can G1G1 participants buy a version? Are beta testers needed/welcome?
The answer is probably no. Microsoft is concerned about this $3 version of Windows XP leaking into the overpriced proprietary software market. People might wonder why they are paying hundreds of dollars for the same thing. Eventually some "pirate" will probably grab and publish the drivers needed to adapt an ordinary XP installation to the XO, at which point US and European consumers could jury-rig something. Life is so much simpler with free software.
- How many machines are we talking about here when you say "increased volumes" that will "lower the XO-1's price"? Tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands? Millions?
- Will you continue to sell XO laptops without Windows to those countries who (have the wisdom to) prefer it?
- And so get a lower price for each XO?
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.