The OLPC team yesterday announced plans to load Windows XP on XO Laptops in a handful of countries in June as part of a limited trial. By September, Windows could be available to any developing nation placing orders for XO Laptops. And today, Walter Bender, the former president of software for the OLPC Foundation says the unique software interface that was designed for the XO Laptop will live on. Maybe.

Here's a little background. The XO Laptop was designed to be a cheap laptop that could be distributed in developing nations to help bridge the digital divide. The original plan for the XO was to use Linux as an operating system because it's cheap, works well on low-powered devices, and because it's open source anyone could write software for it easily. A unique desktop environment called Sugar was built to make Linux more user-friendly. But many governments have been reluctant to place orders for the laptops because they don't run Windows, which is the desktop operating system used by most of the rest of the world. So the OLPC Foundation has been working with Microsoft to bring a low cost version of Windows XP to the XO.

But what does that mean for Sugar? Walter Bender says Sugar Labs, a new non-profit will develop new versions of the software. The goal is to continue developing open source software for the XO so that children in developing nations will be exposed to open source applications and ideals as they learn about computing. The question is, if Windows XP is available for just $3 more than Linux, will anybody buy the Linux/Sugar version? Yes, we know that many Download Squad readers would be more interested in the Linux models, but if the goal is to give school-age children in your country computer literacy, wouldn't you want them to use the same software that most students in countries like the US are using?

• 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

It's horrible when truth finally comes out. Microsoft really does want to take over the world. Are we sure that Steve Ballmer isn't just a large suit inhabited by Brain (and Pinky) for just this purpose? All joking aside, Microsoft now wants to put their Windows on the OLPC. I can see why they would want to "educate" the world's children on the finer points of using Windows (the bottom line, community goodwill), but it doesn't seem feasible or cost-effective. Windows has certain requirements that are a bit above what the OLPC can support, and isn't the whole idea to use something that works well for the hardware, the form factor, the user? I'm not saying that Linux is the best choice for a beginner to start using right off the bat unless it is extremely dumbed down and pre-configured, which it would most likely be. Would windows be a good thing for the OLPC, you tell me. On one hand, I feel like Microsoft should leave well-enough alone, but on the other hand, isn't Windows the thing all these OLPC kids will be using in the future when they grow up anyway?