[Foundation-l] OLPC & Windows

[SJ]

Hello, briefly:

On 12/5/06, Anthere <Anthere9 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> galwaygirl wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > I just came across this worrying news item:
> > http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2170209/microsoft-looking-windows-olpc
> > 
> > Does anyone know more about this? Is it really true?
> > 
> > Galwaygirl
> 
> Uh ???
> But...
> How disappointing if true. And what about the cost of the windows 
> licence on top ?
> 
> Ant

That article is misleading.  OLPC has an open hardware model; MS and other operating system developers are welcome to make their systems run on the OLPC laptops.  The article makes a big deal of Negroponte's quip that an SD slot was added to the design just for Microsoft; but there were many good reasons to have an expansion slot, and it has been in the design for a while.  

Gerard writes:
> > Pro memore, the standard OLPC hardware needs a hardware extension to run
> > Windows in the first place.

> what kind of hardware is missing?

No missing hardware; though any OS will have to develop the necessary drivers and power management libraries.  (It would be nice to see more attention paid to power managment by just about everyone.)  

-- SJ