Microsoft working to get XP/Office running on OLPC laptops
With more and more OLPC XO laptops being ordered, it’s not surprising that Microsoft wants a piece of the action. According to this News.com article, Microsoft has approximately 40 employees and contractors hard at work trying to get Windows XP and Microsoft Office working on the XO.
However, getting XP and Office to work on the OLPC XO isn’t a simple task. First, since the XO has no built in hard drive and only 1 GB of RAM, Microsoft convinced OLPC to include an SD slot on the laptop’s motherboard. In turn, Microsoft is working to get XP and Office running off of a 2GB SD card. Other hurdles include: writing new BIOS software to get the XP to boot off of an SD card and writing new driver software to support the unique hardware found on the laptop.
So when does Microsoft expect to have a XO laptop with XP and Office? Try the second half of 2008.
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