A Windows software suite for the upcoming XO laptop is now being tested on a prototype laptops developed by the One Laptop Per Child Foundation, Microsoft corporate vice president Will Poole said.

The low-cost XO laptops, which are set to be produced in September, were designed specifically by the foundation to run on the Linux operating system and other open-source programs.

Nicholas Negroponte, from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the founder of One Laptop Per Child foundation, is selling the XO machines at $176 apiece to governments, which will then distribute them to poor children.

Apart from not wanting to lose out on an opportunity to eventually expose Windows software to millions of children worldwide, some governments have urged Microsoft to equip those machines with Windows software instead of Linux and other programs developed by the foundation, Poole said.

“They’re coming to us and saying, ‘Hey. If we buy these very nice, low-cost laptops, can you give us a version of Windows and Office … Can you make that available for that nice bit of hardware’,” Poole said. “Our answer is ‘maybe’.”

The XO requires just 2 watts of power and does away with hard drives, relying instead on flash memory and four USB ports to add memory devices.

The machine features a keyboard that switches between languages, a digital video camera, wireless connectivity and a string pulley to charge its battery. A minute of yanking on the pulley generates 10 minutes of electricity.

The Windows software suite for XO has not yet been completed as the foundation as not yet finalize the hardware specification for the model that will go into production, Poole said.

Once the product’s specifications are finalized, Microsoft will seek to adapt its software to run on the system, and then test it out to see how it performs on the machine.

If the machine isn’t robust enough to run Windows, “We won’t go ahead and develop its software for the XO. We have to look at the end experience. If the student is going to turn on the thing and love it, then that’s really what we are focused on,” Poole added.

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Entry was posted on Saturday, May 5th, 2007 at 12:05 am under Technology.

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