Alienating Microsoft?

Story: Microsoft denies dual-boot Linux/Windows XO laptops are on its agendaTotal Replies: 26
Author Content
jezuch

Jan 10, 2008
3:33 AM EDT
Hmmm, weren't they already "alien" for OLPC?
hughesjr

Jan 10, 2008
4:07 AM EDT
Come on, did anyone REALLY think Microsoft would condone / allow an official dual boot solution ...
Bob_Robertson

Jan 10, 2008
4:20 AM EDT
> did anyone REALLY think Microsoft would condone / allow an official dual boot solution ...

I'm surprised they would admit such a thing _could_ exist.

Promoting ignorance of F/OSS functionality is their business model right now.
Abe

Jan 10, 2008
6:45 AM EDT
Quoting:did anyone REALLY think Microsoft would condone / allow an official dual boot solution ...
If Microsoft makes XP to boot and run on the XO, it wouldn't be their call to make a dual boot XO. It will be FOSS community's call.

It seems that MS has been working hard on stripping XP to a point where it could run, but in the process, it could also make it useless to run on the XO as it is designed currently. I believe that is why they are setting minimum hardware requirements, which they call it helping hardware vendors.
Quoting:publish formal design guidelines early this year that will assist flash-based device manufacturers in designing machines that enable a high-quality Windows experience.


I think Negroponte is trying to please MS so he could get some financial help from the great philanthropist. I am sure he was given a hint as a bait. Now he is being reeled in to change the XO design and increase hardware resource so XP & Vista could run on it. Sort of the same way they did with Novell when they signed their famous contract. They let them taste the bait to slam them with the patent stuff at the last minute. MS knows how to do their job to get what they want. The question is, do we ever learn??!!

Negroponte said himself that his brother in the government convinced him to work with Intel, I guess MS has more leverage on his brother. Is Negroponte going to show MS the door or open it? We shall see.

Any how, Mary Lou Jepsen might be the best hope for a miniature but resourceful and low cost XO style laptop.

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080107182525297

hkwint

Jan 10, 2008
8:21 AM EDT
Quoting:Come on, did anyone REALLY think Microsoft would condone / allow an official dual boot solution ...


To be honest, I did (wishful thinking), and now I'm ashamed...
dinotrac

Jan 10, 2008
9:10 AM EDT
>Come on, did anyone REALLY think Microsoft would condone / allow an official dual boot solution ...

Come on, now. This paranoid, fact-avoiding, prattle about Microsoft only serves to reinforce the view of some that FOSS folks are just raving conspiracy loons.

The truth is that Micrsoft must be **ABSOLUTELY MUST BE** aware that nobody could wade through all of their cr** without two boots.
ColonelPanik

Jan 10, 2008
1:51 PM EDT
Two boots and a cast iron pith helmet.

gus3

Jan 10, 2008
8:38 PM EDT
This whole FUD business is really pithing me off...
tuxchick

Jan 10, 2008
8:42 PM EDT
You misunderstand- pithy means no juith.
gus3

Jan 10, 2008
11:59 PM EDT
No, I didn't myth-underthand. I underthtood quite well, thankth.
dinotrac

Jan 11, 2008
5:15 AM EDT
OK you guys --

Thtop thith thit and thtop it now!!
Bob_Robertson

Jan 11, 2008
5:24 AM EDT
Ack- Pthpthpthpthpth!
ColonelPanik

Jan 11, 2008
5:43 AM EDT
I'm sorry
Bob_Robertson

Jan 11, 2008
6:22 AM EDT
> This whole FUD business...

Shhhh! Be vewy vewy quiet. I'm hunting wabbits. hahahahahaha.
dinotrac

Jan 11, 2008
7:35 AM EDT
Bad Bob. Very Bad Bob. You're despicable.
azerthoth

Jan 11, 2008
8:24 AM EDT
Well, I say, well, I do declare. This is, I say, this is a fine pickle. All these speech, I say, speech impediments.
Steven_Rosenber

Jan 11, 2008
8:49 AM EDT
It's a tough spot for Negroponte. Nobody's got the kind of money Bill Gates has and is willing to spend for "good" causes. And nobody appears to need that money more to get his enterprise going than Negroponte. With that Gates Foundation money, the $100 laptop could really cost $100, or less, right away.

And if he can get MS to build a custom Windows for the XO that does everything the Sugar OS does now, Negroponte might feel like he "won" by bending MS to his will and getting that darn money, too.

And if Gates wants it to happen, it probably will.
dinotrac

Jan 11, 2008
8:58 AM EDT
>And if Gates wants it to happen, it probably will.

This is one of those places where I can live with Gates getting his way. Like robber barons of old, he wants to burnish his legacy with good works.

The way I see it -- we've already suffered mightily at the hands if Evil Bill, maybe a bunch of kids can get some benefit from Good Bill.

Presuming, of course, that they can actually pull it off.
Sander_Marechal

Jan 11, 2008
10:20 AM EDT
Quoting:Like robber barons of old, he wants to burnish his legacy with good works.


If he would want to do that, he'd give Negroponte the money no matter what OS the laptop runs on.

I think of the B&M Foundation as little more than just another arm of Microsoft. Just like their marketing department. Or the BSA. All for the glory of the monopoly.
ColonelPanik

Jan 11, 2008
10:59 AM EDT
When the m$-OLPC crashes can we put Linux on it? Hell yes!
Abe

Jan 11, 2008
2:44 PM EDT
Quoting:he'd give Negroponte the money no matter what OS the laptop runs on.


@Sander, have you forgotten that there is no free lunch from BG!!

Sander_Marechal

Jan 11, 2008
3:33 PM EDT
@abe: Which is exactly why I don't believe the purely charitable intentions of the B&M Gates Foundation.
dinotrac

Jan 11, 2008
4:01 PM EDT
Sander -

One must apply the right standard.

Purely charitable intentions are worth about as much as I am -- pretty much nothing.

Helpful acts, however, are valuable regardless of how pure the intentions are.
tuxchick

Jan 11, 2008
4:42 PM EDT
Quoting: Helpful acts, however, are valuable regardless of how pure the intentions are.


So the trick is evaluating how helpful the acts actually are, and how manipulative and self-serving, which one expects from Billg. I doubt that anything Microsoft or the Gates Foundation contributes to OLPC will actually benefit OLPC.
Abe

Jan 11, 2008
5:14 PM EDT
Quoting:Which is exactly why I don't believe the purely charitable intentions of the B&M Gates Foundation.
I wasn't sure. I thought you were getting influenced by Dino. :)

Quoting:Purely charitable intentions are worth about as much as I am -- pretty much nothing.
They could be worth a lot to the receivers when they need a "Lift me up" moment.

Quoting:Helpful acts, however, are valuable regardless of how pure the intentions are.
I hope you are not insinuating that BG is being helpful to OLPC, are you?

ColonelPanik

Jan 11, 2008
7:35 PM EDT
In Haiti they have a saying: "We have unlimited impossibilities."



dinotrac

Jan 12, 2008
4:25 AM EDT
>I hope you are not insinuating that BG is being helpful to OLPC, are you?

No insinuations needed now or ever.

So far we have talk and a demo. Pretty much equivalent to intentions.

If he does what he says he's going to do -- ie, create a functional XO with XP, one that does the cool stuff XO does, then yes.

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