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Filed under: OS Updates, News, Windows, Microsoft

OLPC to dual boot Linux and Windows

OLPCWe've known for a while that the OLPC's XO laptop would be capable of running Windows XP and not just the stock Fedora-based Sugar OS. But we'd kind of figured that once XO laptops running Windows became available you'd have to purchase a unit with one operating system or the other. Now we're hearing that OLPC is working with Microsoft to develop a dual-boot system.

There's not a lot of information available at the moment so we can't tell you how much a dual boot XO laptop will cost or when you'll be able to get your hands on one. But OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte reportedly says the Windows is "very fast," and "very successful."

The XO laptop doesn't have a hard drive, and has a very limited amount of solid state storage, so we're guessing you won't find both operating systems preloaded in the device's main memory. Rather, it's likely that Microsoft is following through on its promise to release a version of Windows XP that will run on an SD card. Of course, you could also just buy an Asus Eee PC today and dual boot Windows and Linux.

Update: Microsoft claims that there are no plans to develop a dual boot device. We think it might just be a matter of semantics.

Filed under: Games, Linux, Open Source

Design an education game for the OLPC

OLPCHow do you get national governments to commit to ordering hundreds of thousands of your new low-cost computer for "educational" purposes? Put more games on it, of course.

The One Laptop Per Child Project is hosting a "game jam" in Needham, Massachusetts from June 8th through the 10th. The goal is to get small teams of game designers together to create open source games that:
  • Take advantage of the XO laptop's mesh networking capability
  • Use the built in camera
  • Use the XO's tablet mode (it's not a touch-screen, but there are joystick-like buttons on the side
  • Oh yeah, and educational games, and applications that let kids create their own games
Right now, the OLPC project has about 2.5 million orders for the XO laptop, which is a bit shy of the 3 million goal the developers had set for themselves in order to begin shipping by September. The laptops might look a bit more attractive if there's more software designed to run on them, such as games that teach young children to read or do math.

[via PC World]

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