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Written by: George Ou 5/17/2008 3:53 AM
Here's a video clip showing Windows XP on the OLPC XO. To get Windows XP on the OLPC XO, an additional SD flash card slot had to be added to supply enough storage for Windows. A fully functional version of Microsoft Office is also included and I'm sure that is a huge incentive for buyers of these notebooks to choose Windows. One thing that was relatively impressive was the 50-second boot times. While that's slow by normal PC standards (the Asus Eee boots in under 30 seconds), the video claims that it's 4 times faster than the OS that originally shipped with the OLPC XO. I don't recall the exact boot time but I remember in 2007 that it took a few minutes to boot up so Windows XP being 4x faster on boot up than Linux and Sugar sounds about right. The tablet mode on the OLPC XO with the e-book daylight reflective mode screen looks pretty interesting. The video playback on the XP-powered XO looked fairly decent. We do have to remember that this laptop is still $200 at per unit at quantities of 10,000 or more so it's probably priced around the same price as the cheapest retail $299 Asus Eee PC. While the Asus Eee runs a lot better, it doesn't have as advanced a screen as the XO. Children won't have a say on whether Windows goes on the OLPC but so what?
Here's a video clip showing Windows XP on the OLPC XO.
To get Windows XP on the OLPC XO, an additional SD flash card slot had to be added to supply enough storage for Windows. A fully functional version of Microsoft Office is also included and I'm sure that is a huge incentive for buyers of these notebooks to choose Windows.
One thing that was relatively impressive was the 50-second boot times. While that's slow by normal PC standards (the Asus Eee boots in under 30 seconds), the video claims that it's 4 times faster than the OS that originally shipped with the OLPC XO. I don't recall the exact boot time but I remember in 2007 that it took a few minutes to boot up so Windows XP being 4x faster on boot up than Linux and Sugar sounds about right.
The tablet mode on the OLPC XO with the e-book daylight reflective mode screen looks pretty interesting. The video playback on the XP-powered XO looked fairly decent. We do have to remember that this laptop is still $200 at per unit at quantities of 10,000 or more so it's probably priced around the same price as the cheapest retail $299 Asus Eee PC. While the Asus Eee runs a lot better, it doesn't have as advanced a screen as the XO.
Children won't have a say on whether Windows goes on the OLPC but so what?
10 comments so far...
Re: What Windows XP looks like on the OLPC XO So this is what OLPC has devolved into: cheap tablet PCs. As if the market were incapable of this on its own.
Re: What Windows XP looks like on the OLPC XO
So this is what OLPC has devolved into: cheap tablet PCs. As if the market were incapable of this on its own.
Re: What Windows XP looks like on the OLPC XO Just to be clear, I'm not disagreeing with you about the relative value to students of XP vs Sugar. I've been cynical about the whole OLPC idea from day 1. People who invested in this and gave them grant money are complete suckers.
Just to be clear, I'm not disagreeing with you about the relative value to students of XP vs Sugar. I've been cynical about the whole OLPC idea from day 1. People who invested in this and gave them grant money are complete suckers.
The tablet PC and e-book reflective screen is the best part The tablet PC and e-book reflective screen is the best part of the XO. The mesh is absolutely worthless and the keyboard is very unreliable and nasty to type on.The OLPC is the PC you can't ever criticizehttp://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=801
The tablet PC and e-book reflective screen is the best part
The tablet PC and e-book reflective screen is the best part of the XO. The mesh is absolutely worthless and the keyboard is very unreliable and nasty to type on.The OLPC is the PC you can't ever criticizehttp://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=801
Re: What Windows XP looks like on the OLPC XO I didn't watch the full video, but thie would be a great laptop for schools. My school could use these, LOL. They have many difference versions of XP out there one being a "slim" one which is around 300 megs. It may have alot of things taken out of it but what else would a student use(assuming this is for a school). Everything would be saved to a Network Drive. And they make bigger SD cards then 2GB. Do these have USB ports?
I didn't watch the full video, but thie would be a great laptop for schools. My school could use these, LOL. They have many difference versions of XP out there one being a "slim" one which is around 300 megs. It may have alot of things taken out of it but what else would a student use(assuming this is for a school). Everything would be saved to a Network Drive. And they make bigger SD cards then 2GB. Do these have USB ports?
These do have a USB port but they lack a hard Ethernet port These do have a USB port but they lack a hard Ethernet port. The CPU is a bit too slow for my taste and the keyboard is useless for touch typing in my experience and they're very unreliable. The screen technology is very good though because it's fairly high resolution and it has a daylight e-paper mode.
These do have a USB port but they lack a hard Ethernet port
These do have a USB port but they lack a hard Ethernet port. The CPU is a bit too slow for my taste and the keyboard is useless for touch typing in my experience and they're very unreliable. The screen technology is very good though because it's fairly high resolution and it has a daylight e-paper mode.
I do like my Asus Eee PC compared to the XO I think the XO does have a very rubbery keyboard similar to some of the cheap Acer laptops that I have seen for sub $400. Flash is a very nice thing, especially when you have boot times of less than a minute. Linux is even acceptable at that point.
I do like my Asus Eee PC compared to the XO
I think the XO does have a very rubbery keyboard similar to some of the cheap Acer laptops that I have seen for sub $400. Flash is a very nice thing, especially when you have boot times of less than a minute. Linux is even acceptable at that point.
Windows XP will boot in 30 seconds on the Eee PC Windows XP will boot in 30 seconds on the Eee PC. I tested it and it was impressive. I am wondering what happened to the 15-second Linux boot times they had during one of their first demos or is that just that stripped down Linux OS that comes with certain Asus motherboards?
Windows XP will boot in 30 seconds on the Eee PC
Windows XP will boot in 30 seconds on the Eee PC. I tested it and it was impressive. I am wondering what happened to the 15-second Linux boot times they had during one of their first demos or is that just that stripped down Linux OS that comes with certain Asus motherboards?
Linux boot times are still great I thought they were relatively short on the Eee. Fifteen seconds is probably pushing it, but I was surfing in under a minute which was also before I had the configuration for the Wi-Fi network set to start up on boot. This blew away my other laptop which was a 1.6 GHz Core Duo. The SSD was the difference, no doubt in my mind. I wouldn't doubt that the Linux version that I use is very comparable to Windows on the same system. I play the one minute card because I debate on where the boot time begins and ends. If you want to say log-in prompt, 15 seconds is easily made. If you want to say where you begin to fire up the browser or app. 30 seconds is probably accurate. If you want to say when you can first start tabbing through the interface, 20-25 seconds is probably correct. I don't have a Windows model to compare that too though.
Linux boot times are still great
I thought they were relatively short on the Eee. Fifteen seconds is probably pushing it, but I was surfing in under a minute which was also before I had the configuration for the Wi-Fi network set to start up on boot. This blew away my other laptop which was a 1.6 GHz Core Duo. The SSD was the difference, no doubt in my mind. I wouldn't doubt that the Linux version that I use is very comparable to Windows on the same system. I play the one minute card because I debate on where the boot time begins and ends. If you want to say log-in prompt, 15 seconds is easily made. If you want to say where you begin to fire up the browser or app. 30 seconds is probably accurate. If you want to say when you can first start tabbing through the interface, 20-25 seconds is probably correct. I don't have a Windows model to compare that too though.
When I say 30 seconds, that's everything from power button to desktop When I say 30 seconds, that's everything from the time you press the power button to after you log in to the desktop. That's for a clean install of Windows XP of course.Now I've seen certain laptops with very fast BIOS post times actually boot up in 25 seconds from power button till after you finish logging in for Windows XP.Microsoft actually promised FASTER boot times for Windows Vista but they delivered something that took an extra 15 seconds to load. That means the actual Windows Load time excluding BIOS post went from something like 20 seconds to 35 seconds which is nearly double the load time.
When I say 30 seconds, that's everything from power button to desktop
When I say 30 seconds, that's everything from the time you press the power button to after you log in to the desktop. That's for a clean install of Windows XP of course.Now I've seen certain laptops with very fast BIOS post times actually boot up in 25 seconds from power button till after you finish logging in for Windows XP.Microsoft actually promised FASTER boot times for Windows Vista but they delivered something that took an extra 15 seconds to load. That means the actual Windows Load time excluding BIOS post went from something like 20 seconds to 35 seconds which is nearly double the load time.
Still, a Hybrid drive would probably allieviate load times. All though this is slipping further off topic. Apple as a hardware/software manufacturer would be smart to create a laptop or desktop that would use a hybrid drive with the OS loading and write protected to the flash drive while the rest of the system would read and write to the hard drive portion.Say the updates would be similar to a BIOS flash with some sort of encryption that would require authentication to update. Microsoft could try something similar with OEMs, and this would effectively kill the peformance mongers of the BYOC market. Or Microsoft could Bundle their software with various vendors for that drive so that in order to purchase that style of drive, you have to purchase Windows.
Still, a Hybrid drive would probably allieviate load times.
All though this is slipping further off topic. Apple as a hardware/software manufacturer would be smart to create a laptop or desktop that would use a hybrid drive with the OS loading and write protected to the flash drive while the rest of the system would read and write to the hard drive portion.Say the updates would be similar to a BIOS flash with some sort of encryption that would require authentication to update. Microsoft could try something similar with OEMs, and this would effectively kill the peformance mongers of the BYOC market. Or Microsoft could Bundle their software with various vendors for that drive so that in order to purchase that style of drive, you have to purchase Windows.
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