RJM62
Touchdown! Greaser!
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Geek on the Hill
Interesting:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=7261&tag=nl.e539
In summary, a private group, One Laptop per Child, is trying to build sturdy, cheap laptops for third-world kids. They use a flash ROM rather than a hard drive, and (until this announcement) were almost certain to include an open-source operating system (probably a Linux variant customized for the laptop's small storage capacity and limited resources).
So along comes Microsoft saying, "Whoa, there. Maybe we can come up with a version of Windows XP and MS Office that will actually run on those little laptops of yours -- and give it to you for free, even." The article examines what the author believes are Microsoft's true motives for their largess.
Personally, I think MS is barking up the wrong palm tree. I doubt that the OLPC developers are particularly interested in Windows. Many of these nations are pondering standardizing on open-source, and I imagine that OLPC want the kids to learn on systems that are similar to what they'll likely find in the real world.
It'll be interesting (to geeks, at least) to see where this goes.
Rich
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=7261&tag=nl.e539
In summary, a private group, One Laptop per Child, is trying to build sturdy, cheap laptops for third-world kids. They use a flash ROM rather than a hard drive, and (until this announcement) were almost certain to include an open-source operating system (probably a Linux variant customized for the laptop's small storage capacity and limited resources).
So along comes Microsoft saying, "Whoa, there. Maybe we can come up with a version of Windows XP and MS Office that will actually run on those little laptops of yours -- and give it to you for free, even." The article examines what the author believes are Microsoft's true motives for their largess.
Personally, I think MS is barking up the wrong palm tree. I doubt that the OLPC developers are particularly interested in Windows. Many of these nations are pondering standardizing on open-source, and I imagine that OLPC want the kids to learn on systems that are similar to what they'll likely find in the real world.
It'll be interesting (to geeks, at least) to see where this goes.
Rich