14 DAY TRIAL // OLPC chairman Nicholas Negroponte has stated earlier these days that the OLPC Project builders remain undecided about what SO to ship with the $100 machines. It seems that Windows XP has stepped into the arena with several OLPC laptops being shipped to Redmond in order to install XP on them. There are however some problems here.
Linux won't be a glitch for the tiny laptop because it fits nicely into the 512MB of flash the system has. But with Windows, things take a nasty turn because it can hardly fit in 1.5GB (and I mean a stripped version of it). As you remember, Negroponte noted that the XO has an integrated SD memory card slot for flash memory expansion; something that he says was Microsoft's idea. "We put in an SD slot in the machine just for Bill [Gates]. We didn't need it but the OLPC machines are at Microsoft right now, getting Windows put on them," said Negroponte.
The OLPC group is still undecided about what system to use. Microsoft however seems pretty interested about this project and is already on its way to develop a special designed version of Windows XP especially for the XO. Simple and intuitive are the words here. And the recent presentation regarding the Linux edition that runs on XO proved just that.
So you have the following scenario: Red Hat is already shipping a Linux version for the XO while Microsoft is still on the drawing board. While things can still change on this sector, one thing is for sure: the XO will be priced at $140 at least, although Negroponte hopes the price will eventually drop down to the original $100 mark once production and shipping increases. Rumors say that the actual price may climb up to the $200 mark. I for one think that such a high price won't help OLPC. And I don't believe that Windows XP for the XO will be free of charge. Add the fact that a fully functional budget laptop costs $350 and you'll understand the idea.