Microsoft Joins One Laptop per Child

The nonprofit organization's alliance with Microsoft will bring Windows XP to the poorest children, and could give OLPC a much-needed boost

The One Laptop per Child organization was set up to to provide millions of inexpensive laptops for use in schools in developing nations. However after four months have passed since the breakup of the company’s alliance with tech giant Intel (INTC), OLPC has set up another alliance with Microsoft (MSFT). The plan was to make the Microsoft Windows XP operating system compatible with OLPC’s XO laptop. XO was designed to help educate the poorest children of the world. This new alliance can be seen as one with very good timing, and with Microsoft on board, tens of thousands of educational software applications designed to run on Windows can now be used on the XO, making it more useful in schools and acceptable to government ministries. However it seems now that Linux, the open-source operating system that used to be on the XO (before MSFT), is a better choice because it is constantly being improved, whereas Windows XP, first introduced in 2001, is no longer being updated by Microsoft. Also, the idea of XO was to provide a laptop that children could use at school and home. However, the goal was a $100 dollar price tag, but the price tag has risen to just under $200. Some developing countries have been shocked at the price and have turned to other alternatives. This is why only a few tens of thousands have been ordered (compared to the planned 150 million laptops). This is a major setback for OLPC because it seems that the NGO had focused too much on shipping computers in large volumes. However it does not seem to have lost its educational philosophy yet. Microsoft has spent over a year adapting its operating system for the XO laptop provided extra features for the laptop including software that supports electronic books, writing pad, camera, and a display screen that is easily readable outdoors. The good news is that it only costs around $3 to add Windows on the laptop. Also, Microsoft gives the NGO a big advantage because Microsoft is a widely known and accepted operating system so the organization hopes that the introduction of Microsoft will provide a major selling point (advantage) throughout the world.

Microsoft Joins One Laptop per Child

by Steve Hamm

Business Week

May 15, 2008

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