27 October 2007

Oh, Well Done, Microsoft

Look: little Johnny Microsoft is doing *ever* so well in his plucky attempt to catch up with that clever GNU/Linux chap:

Microsoft Corp has made progress in getting its Windows software to work on a low-cost laptop computer for poor children that currently runs on rival Linux software, an executive said on Thursday.

The world's largest software company is now working to adapt a basic version of Windows XP so it is compatible with the nonprofit One Laptop per Child Foundation's small green-and-white XO laptop.

"We're spending a nontrivial amount of money on it," Microsoft Corporate Vice President Will Poole said in an interview on Thursday."

But be warned:

"We remain hopeful with our progress to date, we still have significant work ahead to finalize our analysis and testing processes," he said. "At the end of the day, there's no guarantees."

So, just remember that: when you're dealing with Windows XP, there are no guarantees. Unlike with GNU/Linux, of course, since it runs rather nicely on the XO already. Now, which would *you* rather have?

4 comments:

porl sheean said...

the most frustrating thing is that now that microsoft sees that the olpc is not going away, they look like they are doing everything they can to support it. when it was first starting out, however, they were criticising it every chance they could (bill gates, for instance, said something about how no one would want to use a crank to power anything), as they were releasing their own 'low cost' (around $900US i think it was going to be) laptop. the double standards of those people sicken me.

porl

Anonymous said...

Happy birthday to Bill Gates-52yrs.p

Glyn Moody said...

Indeed - nothing new there, then....

Glyn Moody said...

@anon: well spotted....