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No Windows for the OLPC Project

May 05, 2007
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Since last year when was launched the idea of a $100 laptop, most big companies in producing technology involve themselves in this project. It passed some time to produce this laptop and to fix the price of $175.

Now there is more information about this OLPC project, after a media event passed in Cambridge during last week.

At the event was clarified the rumors related to a possible shipping of XO-laptops with a Windows XP Starter Edition. Walter Bender, president of Software and Content with OLPC, Microsoft and OLPC have nothing to share. According to Bender, the rumor according to which Microsoft contacted OLPC regarding its US$ 3 software bundling program is false and so is the one according to which some governments requested XO laptops with pre-installed Windows.

This mis-information regarding a possible collaboration between Microsoft and OLPC for the distribution of XO laptops outfitted with Windows operating systems might have started because of the fact that Microsoft is one of the developers in the OLPC developer program and it has access to the XO prototypes. However, OLPC officials claim they are not aware of any XP or Vista Starter Edition for the laptops.

The XO laptop, also known as US$ 100 laptop or Children's Machine is said to contain flash memory and not a hard drive and so far, a confirmed fact is that it would run Linux as the operating system.

OLPC considers a new concept of a graphical user interface for the XO laptops and relies on Red Hat Software for developing Sugar.

One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Association non-profit organization, set up by some faculty members of the MIT Media Lab, aims to develop the low-cost (US$ 100) laptops and distribute them among children all over the world, especially to those in less developed countries, through the governments and schools.

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