XP for the XO?

The chairman and founder of the One Laptop Per Child initiative said in an interview Tuesday that the XO laptop may switch from using Linux to eventually running Windows XP, according to several reports.



Windows XP could soon be available on the XO.

(Credit: OLPC)
In an interview with the Associated Press following the departure of the OLPC project's president, Nicholas Negroponte said the open-source Sugar software, developed expressly for the XO, could run on top of XP. Negroponte cited weaknesses in the XO's current open-source operating system (right now the XO can't support the latest versions of Flash animation) as well as the Linux community itself (for being too "fundamentalist") as the reasons for a possible future shift.

He said the laptop's open-source software had actually scared away potential adopters.

An XP-only version of the XO could come soon enough. In December Microsoft said it would begin running limited tests in January to see if the operating system would be a good fit for the low-cost device. At the time, Microsoft said it could have XP running on the XO by the second half of the year.

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Ballmer: You want XP, we'll keep XP

The death of Windows XP may have been greatly exaggerated.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said the company could re-evaluate its plans to phase out Windows XP by June 30, if customers demand that it stick around. So far, they have not.

"XP will hit an end-of-life. We have announced one. If customer feedback varies, we can always wake up smarter, but right now, we have a plan for end-of-life for new XP shipments," Ballmer said during a Thursday news conference in Belgium, according to Reuters.

Big-name computer makers are still scheduled to have to stop selling models with Windows XP installed by the end of June. Mainstream technical support will continue to be available for Windows XP through April 2009, and more limited support will continue through April 2014.


Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on Windows XP's impending demise: "If customer feedback varies, we can always wake up smarter."

(Credit: Dan Farber/CNET News.com)Microsoft does plan to continue selling Windows XP for a limited class of PCs it calls "ultralow-cost PCs." It's a category that covers machines with slower processors, smaller screens and, in many cases, flash memory, rather than a traditional hard drive, for storage.

Ballmer said most consumers are choosing to buy the current version of Windows, Vista. Many acquire Vista by default, however, since most new PCs ship with the operating system. Businesses have been slower to catch on, as many have clung to Windows XP and older versions of Windows.... Read more

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Dell: We'll install XP for you, even after the deadline

It seems that Michael Dell is breathing new life into his company.

A year ago, Dell was brave enough to backtrack on its Vista-only policy for consumer machines (Dell brings back XP on home systems). It also showed some independence from Microsoft by offering Linux to consumers. And again, Dell is innovating.

Fact 1: As of June 30, large computer manufacturers such as Dell and Hewlett-Packard can no longer offer Windows XP preinstalled on new computers, though Microsoft has said it would consider re-evaluating the deadline if there's enough customer demand.


Fact 2: Anyone who buys a copy of either the Business or Ultimate versions of Vista is entitled to also get Windows XP Professional.* Each computer manufacturer decides whether, or how, to implement this.

Until now, consumers who exercised their right to get XP Professional when they purchased Vista got a computer with Vista preinstalled and an XP image CD in the box (an image CD is very different from a retail Windows CD).

Dell's innovation? It will do the XP image installation for you. It may not sound like much, but the net result is that the computer leaves the factory with Windows XP Professional on it, rather than Vista.

Deadline? We don't need no stinkin' deadline.

Microsoft can't be happy about this, though a cynic would note that even though Dell computers leave the factory with XP on them, Microsoft can tally it as a sale for Vista.

It's an interesting power

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Originally posted at Defensive Computing

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