Ever since it got the cold shoulder from those open source junkies over at the OLPC project, Microsoft has been sort of
sour grapesey about
the whole thing. Now it looks like they've changed tacts: instead of
offering up Windows CE to power the fledgling
Children's Machine CM1 2B1 B1 XO WhateverTheHeckItsCalled, Microsoft is trying to stuff the entirety of Windows XP into the little box. According to NickNeg, the OLPC has an SD card slot specifically at Bill Gates' behest, since Windows XP requires a minimum of 1.5GB of memory for installation, while the OLPC only packs 512MB of storage. Microsoft has apparently been provided a number of OLPCs to this end, but still hasn't managed to get the thing working. In a perfect world, Microsoft would realise the error of its bloatware ways and prep a stripped down version of the OS to delight enthusiasts the world over with speed and minimalism, but somehow we're thinking that's just a bit unlikely.
[Via
Slashdot; thanks
simosx for the pic]