[sugar] Microsoft

Seth Woodworth seth
Thu May 15 20:03:04 EDT 2008


Let's look at this with a slightly different lens before we blow up on NN
and Microsoft.

What does this agreement equate to?  And what are the alternatives to
Microsoft?

If the XO was running a completely closed source stack with no documentation
on hardware, how would the Linux community feel?  They would feel that they
were being shut out and not allowed to run whatever software they wanted to
or develop.  This is something the linux community has speared hardware
companies over for years.

So as a fair practice I think it's clear that no special actions can
ethically be made to prevent Windows or any other OS from running on the
machine.  So a Windows port for the XO isn't something that could have been
preventative.

Furthermore OLPC's sale of the XO hardware doesn't come with any
restrictions for use.  To not allow countries to install windows once they
take ownership would be a completely unethical move given OLPC's commitments
to freedom.




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