Re: [Fsfe-uk] Time to boycot OLPC?

[Alex Hudson]

Noah Slater wrote:
> Aside from the hilarious spelling mistakes, is this real?
>
> Are OLPC really about to scrap "Linux" for Windows?
>   

Just to play Devil's Advocate...

... we know that they've been trying to get Windows to run on this 
device for ages (or, at least, Microsoft have been working on it). 
Presumably this indicates no small demand for Windows running on the 
OLPC. In a situation where customers want Windows, it makes some sense.

It might be a brazen assumption, but I would guess that they have two 
types of customers: those who will only buy if it runs Windows, and 
those who will buy it either way. I don't think they have a third type, 
those who will only buy if it doesn't run Windows: that is to say, I 
think those customers who care about the operating system only care 
about it being Windows; the other customers don't care what it's running.

It doesn't make much sense to dual-boot systems for space reasons, and 
if you look at the current stuff that OLPC is shipping, it really 
doesn't matter what the underlying operating system is.

Sugar is (as I understand it) almost wholly written in Python and 
portable C, so there's no obvious problem with running the Windows OS on 
the OLPC, but having two separate "modes" - a normal Windows mode, and 
the Sugar UI. For all intents and purposes it's like having a dual-boot, 
without the extra expense of the Linux-based OS.

Granted that I doubt very much Windows will run as well on the hardware 
as Linux does, but if they're not selling many units then they obviously 
need to change the product.  I also think the innovative features in the 
OLPC like the mesh networking and stuff are likely much less attractive 
than might be expected.

Cheers,

Alex.