Windows XP tested on the OLPC XO, as slow as you'd expect

Here's the surprise of the century: Windows XP runs excruciatingly slowly on the OLPC XO. We're shocked, simply shocked. The folks at Laptop Mag got to kick the tires on this fruit of the XO and Microsoft partnership, and while to their credit they've manage to build a computer that works and runs real-world applications, it's not a pretty sight. Sure, most of the hardware is (or will be) supported just fine, though Sugar's mesh networking is absent, but boot time off of the 4GB SD card is 1 minute and 24 seconds, and once booted into XP you don't have access to the data on the XO's 1GB of internal storage. Internet Explorer 6 took a mere 5 seconds to start, but Word 2003 takes 42 seconds of thumb twiddling. Even more disconcerting is that the system is pretty much locked to running one app at a time, since things just get too sluggish after that. The upshot of this is that the OLPC folks are considering a new edition of the original machine with more RAM and a new processor, but we certainly feel sorry for kids to who this existing machine will be their first taste of computing. Well, only a little bit. Back in our day...

[Jon MacDoanld @ Aug 6th 2008 9:45AM]

Lawl

[Pochi @ Aug 6th 2008 9:47AM]

Riveting.

[Pochi @ Aug 6th 2008 9:46AM]

The OLPC is, hands down, the ugliest PC I have ever seen in my entire life. I am saddened every time I have to look at it, which is now going on YEARS.

Somebody please make it stop. Remove its twisted, awful green visage from my sight.

[Mikey @ Aug 6th 2008 9:53AM]

Yes, because when you are trying to bring laptops to underprivileged children, aesthetics are really the first thing you should worry about. I believe the order of importance is:
(1) How it looks
(2) Will it make you cooler?
(3) Will it blend?
(4) Functionality

[EricR @ Aug 6th 2008 9:57AM]

(5) ????
(6) Profit!

[Pochi @ Aug 6th 2008 9:58AM]

Relax, buddy. I was just saying that the thing is ugly as sin. Try not to let it ruin your day.

And just because it was designed for the poor, doesn't mean it has to be absurdly hideous.

[tekdroid @ Aug 6th 2008 10:13AM]

I love the design on the whole. Everything is pretty darn practical.

But then again I don't care for the grey/ black-with-silver-accents that most sheep think is business-like or 'smart'.

I like a laptop to be seen in the sun, to not cook in the sun from the dark colours, to not blind me with bling, and if it can act as a tablet like this, sure... I'll take that, too. Battery life and great reception with those antennas... yep, that too.

Well-sealed from dust and liquids other annoyances... robust from drops.. yep, will take that too. Windows XP.... maybe I'll pass on that.

The keyboard they had problems with in the past... maybe I'll pass on that too. But I love the design AND the colours in general. IMO, well-chosen for a variety of indoor and outdoor uses.

[Lane @ Aug 6th 2008 10:40AM]

One of the reasons that it is green is because no other laptop looks like that. If someone would happen to try to steal this, then you could immediately tell that it was a OLPC and was supposed to go to a needy child.

[Sam Welson @ Aug 6th 2008 10:58AM]

While its not something I would buy, the design is there for two reasons:

1) It appeals to younger kids, especially those in third-world countries who haven't seen much technology in their lives. What would they prefer: a dull and gray laptop or one that's bright and colorful

2) They wanted the design to be distinct and recognizable in the states so if you see an adult with one, you know they shouldn't have it.

[Pochi @ Aug 6th 2008 11:12AM]

What's with everyone focusing on the green VS gray deal? I never said it had to be gray. If it was piano black with diamond keys it would still be the ugliest laptop I've ever seen. It looks like a robot alien head from a 1950s sci-fi movie.

[phanbouy @ Aug 6th 2008 11:58AM]

pochi, shhhh. adults are talking here. we know you're 9 years old, but this laptop's not aimed at your demographic, silver-spoon boy

[phanbouy fan @ Aug 6th 2008 12:34PM]

you got him phanbouy, i bet he has a silver spoon in his mouth right now he gets everything he wants not like us we are street

[phanbouy @ Aug 6th 2008 12:45PM]

ah... so that's who you are, you're pochi! fucking loser

[Eckofish @ Aug 6th 2008 9:46AM]

I think a platform like the OLPC would be perfect as a 'Remote Desktop' environment.

Meaning that the machines power is irrelivant as all of the hard computation is done on the server side. Would make a great pitch for a small school.

[BeniRose @ Aug 6th 2008 10:51AM]

I believe, back in the day, these were called "terminals"

[Babau @ Aug 6th 2008 10:51AM]

What happens when the kids try and take the laptop home, though?

[Isaac @ Aug 6th 2008 9:56AM]

Why did microsoft had to come in and totally fuck up this perfectly decent computer?

[Frun @ Aug 6th 2008 9:59AM]

Because they are made of metal.....and they are strong.

[Andir3.0 @ Aug 6th 2008 11:09AM]

I don't understand why everyone complains about XP. It runs fine on my machine. I've never had any problems with it and it has been a great time saver. I only had to go into the control panel and remove x feature and disable y, but after that, it's been a great experience! You just need a machine that can handle it's awesome power!!1!

Oh, sorry... I thought this was one of them "defend Microsoft" threads.

[Ryan Rife @ Aug 6th 2008 10:02AM]

Heck it outperforms my dual core vista machine.

[lordmorgul @ Aug 6th 2008 12:12PM]

No doubt it really does.

[ridahgadgetguy @ Aug 6th 2008 10:15AM]

they should try windows 98:P

[luzzio @ Aug 6th 2008 10:35AM]

I use Windows 98 in the office I'm interning in atm. The programs are by far horrid to work with... but from boot-up to reaching Microsoft Word, it's hands down faster than the Pentium D opposite my table.

C'mon, OLPC needs to take baby steps with this... put in a less demanding OS (I can't believe I said that about XP)

[Billy Bear @ Aug 6th 2008 10:20AM]

The $100 laptop is a stupid idea all around regardless of the OS. If we are talking about giving this to the 1/3 of the world living on

[Jason @ Aug 6th 2008 10:28AM]

Is anyone surprised? Place a crappy OS on sub-standard hardware, and expect what?

[Kizorblade @ Aug 6th 2008 10:42AM]

Substandard crap?

I'm grasping for straws.

[Sam Welson @ Aug 6th 2008 10:58AM]

Are you saying XP is crappy?

*gasp*

[n74jw @ Aug 6th 2008 11:13AM]

Yes, somewhat

[matt @ Aug 6th 2008 3:23PM]

you are stupid xp runs on 7 MHZ machines

http://winhistory.de/more/386/xpmini_eng.htm

[Teon @ Aug 6th 2008 10:30AM]

Put vista on... like that PS3. No... it won't fit in 4GB. :P

[Marcus Hesse @ Aug 6th 2008 10:51AM]

This isn't designed to run WIndows XP right - just the small OS that was custom designed for it?

[Venlaw @ Aug 6th 2008 10:57AM]

Office is slow because Learning Essentials is install on the machine.

[Adderz @ Aug 6th 2008 11:06AM]

You mean this wont run Aero with Vista Premium?

Those kids are getting cheated. Substandard notebook barely capable of running itself let alone any programs.

It might be "nice" and all but im sure these multi billion dollar multinational corporations could of been a little more charitable to the cause.

[Cris @ Aug 6th 2008 11:27AM]

That is funny they found it so slow. Nickolas Negropronte himself let me play with an official version with the XP and I didn't find it that slow. Granted, I didn't play with it much.

Anyway, the computer with the standard Sugar OS is just fine, in my opinion. I have been using it as my main computer for two months now. Of course you'd want something better, but you deal with what you got.

[ShadowKain @ Aug 6th 2008 11:36AM]

I absolutly love seing people attempt to run other OS's than what was intended for the hardware. Makes me wonder why they even try it, experiment? Or 15 min of fame?

[lordmorgul @ Aug 6th 2008 12:20PM]

Do you not realize this hardware was 'designed for XP' according to OLPC who has now chosen to sell it with XP? This is not some tweaker's stupid little project; its a tragic reality that a greedy microsoft has meddled in the success of OLPC at delivering a usable device to the third world.

[Conor Kirkpatrick @ Aug 6th 2008 3:25PM]

Start em early!

[cdavenport4 @ Aug 6th 2008 12:08PM]

I personally don't like the Sugar UI. It doesn't conform the current platforms that are menu based. This will only server to confuse the children when they get older and start to work on MacOS, Windows or Linux. If anything they should have developed something that looked like Linux for the XO. If Windows does become available for it I will buy it.

[Benson @ Aug 6th 2008 1:12PM]

Something that "looked like Linux"? How, pray tell, could it look like a kernel? You've got to have some kind of shell, at minimum. (Remember, that's one of the great innovations characteristic of UNIX; using a shell process instead of a monitor built into the kernel?)

I suppose the simplest shell and UI possible would be one involving a row of toggle switches and a pushbutton, and that would leave it closest to Linux. But somehow I think that's not what you meant.

And as for the notion that any "real" computer interface must be a typically WIMP interface, I call hogwash! The way to avoid them being confused is to ensure they understand what's going on at a deeper level; one of the best ways to ensure that is to have them perform equivalent tasks through different interfaces, which helps them distinguish a task from a sequence of interface actions. While some will just learn three sequences, others will get it, understand what they're making the computer do, and innately grasp the notion of abstraction in a computing context. They'll be writing the software you use 20 years from now.

[Paulmichael @ Aug 6th 2008 4:24PM]

Ok Benson, it's pretty obvious from his comment that cdavenport4 was thinking about something along the lines of Ubuntu, no need to be an ass.

[Ariel @ Aug 6th 2008 3:00PM]

Why does OLPC even *think* about Windows? Linux is just fine.

[Cassini @ Aug 6th 2008 3:55PM]

XP on an OLPC? You can't fit a pig inside a golf ball.

This device was designed from the ground up to run Sugar.

MS wanted this distro opportunity so badly, but now that they have it, I wonder how they feel knowing that they're somewhere they don't belong?

[Paulmichael @ Aug 6th 2008 4:33PM]

lol @ the pig and golf ball thing, in this case it makes sense. Wonder why Microsoft doesn't just work on making a special edition for this and other similar computers? It'd give them a nice PR boost for sure, especially if it worked right...

[bradwarren @ Aug 6th 2008 5:01PM]

It's such a waste that they bought into Microsoft's "help" and decided on XP instead of Sugar. Everyone said ,"Oh Windows will be better for these children because it's the industry standard!", but are we forgetting these laptops are going to a place where there is no industry?

Even if one could claim it's best to associate the kids with the popular OS, don't they realize the experience will be the same regardless of the OS? A word processor is a word processor, and internet is internet.

[maff @ Aug 6th 2008 6:08PM]

1m 24s, woah, thats like a whole WEEK! ;)