[Its.an.education.project] Microsoft

[Kevin Cole]

Not that I support the Evil Empire (TM) in any particular way, but
with regard to the price of an SD card being a bit higher than quoted,
I seem to recall rumors of a $100 laptop... ;-)


On 5/19/08, Walter Bender <walter.bender at gmail.com> wrote:
> The price often quoted has been $7 for the SD card. Not sure where
> that number comes from. I recall that a $19 high-speed card was used
> in the original testing; at the time it was asserted that a
> standard-speed card was necessary.
>
> I don't know that this is still the case.
>
> -walter
>
> On Mon, May 19, 2008 at 4:20 AM, John Gilmore <gnu at toad.com> wrote:
>>> So... all the new 200,000 XOs that will come to Peru will come with this
>>> new V2 Bios.  and the first 45,000 will be updated?  Or we have to
>>> deal with a mixed enviroment? (no problem... just asking...)
>>
>> Since the V2 firmware is only recently demo-able, not yet product
>> quality, it's too early to tell when it will roll into the Quanta
>> production line.
>>
>> Here's what I expect (which may be total fantasy).  When each child's
>> XO gets a new software update (probably the scheduled August update,
>> suitably augmented by the in-country team), then along with the OS and
>> Activities, they'll also get the latest OpenFirmware update.  That
>> firmware will include the capability to boot Windows, and have various
>> other improvements.
>>
>> "The capability to boot Windows" does not include a copy of Windows
>> itself.  To find out about how and when that will be available, you'd
>> have to talk to Microsoft.  I hear each copy is $3 in some countries,
>> and requires an SD card for more storage, that'll cost a few dollars
>> also.  So if Peru wanted it on every laptop, figure it'll cost US$1.4
>> million or so (200K x ($3 + $4)).
>>
>> Most of that cost is unavoidable hardware cost, unless MS slims down
>> Windows to not need >1GB.  It'd cost US$800K even if MS let everyone
>> in the country "pirate" the OS.  Doing so might well suit their
>> purposes even better than charging $3 per copy, since they wouldn't be
>> expected to provide any support for a stolen product, yet they would
>> still be weaning kids away from Linux.
>>
>>        John Gilmore (not an OLPC employee!)
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Devel mailing list
>> Devel at lists.laptop.org
>> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
>>
> _______________________________________________
> Its.an.education.project mailing list
> Its.an.education.project at tema.lo-res.org
> http://lists.lo-res.org/mailman/listinfo/its.an.education.project
>


-- 
 Kevin Cole                    |  Key ID: 0xE6F332C7   (GPG/PGP)
 Gallaudet University          |     WWW: http://gri.gallaudet.edu/~kjcole/
 Hall Memorial Bldg  S-419     |   V/TTY: (202) 651-5135
 Washington, D.C.  20002-3695  |     FAX: (202) 651-5746

           ". ! 1 |" -- Rene Magritte's computer