Articles like this about Microsoft's efforts to run Windows XP on the OLPC XO confuse me.
Of course, XP can run on an XO. It's just software! I don't have the time and energy to make it happen, but assuredly Microsoft does. There seems to be some question as to whether the "quality" would be high enough. I'm guessing that means performance. Then again, hasn't this been something worth addressing in Windows anyway---Windows running on low-end hardware? This seems like a great opportunity to me. Why the negativity? If you want to be negative, just let everyone run Linux on small devices and be done with it. Say "we don't do small devices--only full-sized laptops, desktops and servers." It would sound terrible, but this "we're not sure stuff sounds even worse from an engineering standpoint. I'll say it again, of course XP can be made to run on a low-end device--that is, if Microsoft and its engineers have the will power to do it.
Now in terms of Office, this seems like a whole other matter. I'm not sure why Microsoft is mushing this together. Office has its own issues. Are we talking about a MacOffice style Office, without its scripting and the like? I can imagine that would fit nicely. Also, doesn't it seem like incremental efforts would work here best? Oh, well. Let's see what the team comes up with.


Incremental Blogger