The One Laptop Per Child project and Microsoft announced Thursday that indeed the XO laptop will be available in both Linux and Windows varieties. The companies plan to sell a Windows-powered XO in five or six countries starting next month, with a broader release in August or September.
The One Laptop per Child project will make Linux as popular on the desktop as it is on the server today, according to Nicholas Negroponte, head of the project and co-founder of the MIT Media Laboratory.
While the news Microsoft is making progress on developing a version of Windows for the so-called $100 laptop has caused some consternation, the head of the One Laptop Per Child Foundation says the project could not promote openness if it shunned Microsoft.
Software giant Microsoft has said it rejected plans to develop a dual-boot iteration of Windows XP to run on One Laptop per Child XO machines, and instead is developing a version of XP specifically for the XO.
Microsoft said on Wednesday that it is working to develop a version of Windows XP that can run on computers without a hard drive, including the XO from One Laptop Per Child.
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