Microsoft takes a razor to XP

Anonymuos:

The fact that wherever performance/lightweightness is concerned, they choose XP over Vista is itself acknowledging that Vista is a resource-hungry monstrous beast.

Anonymous1:

Lmao, Vista is XP just with a designer suit on! (a very expensive one at that!)

Nymphilis:

have to say vista is not at all xp...it doesnt even use a ms-dos base....its more along the lines of linux and OStiger....open source....thats why it has compatibility issues...because everything that ran on XP is ms-dos based, as everything that is made for Vista...is not ms-dos based...everything has to be revised for vista

Anonymous337:

XP is not based on MS dos, it is based on W2k, which is based on NT. It does however provide an MS DOS emulator to bridge the gap between Win 95/98/ME.

julzzw:

the whole idea of using Linux for the OLPC program is to keep overhead costs low, including that of Operating System costs.

So how are Microsoft going to work that out, I do hope that they do not charge one cent for using XP on these machine, or even better, dont use it at all, because that would defeat the purpose of the program

Anonymous2007:

I do not know what exactly Microsoft's strategy is, in regards XP for OLPC, but one of the things in helping shape business strategies is looking at the potential lifetime business of a target market. Making money in selling XP may not be the aim. If they happen to subsidize the cost of XP (to whatever degree), then i would see that as as buying into a market. Getting into the minds and habits of a new user on a computer can be quite valuable when you consider the other products they could force down people's throats, perhaps without realizing other options available due to being newbies, uhmm, ooooops, i meant sell. It also means consumers can become use to using licenced media formats, as compared with free formats that Open software offers through Linux for example. (hmmm. ok be gentle if you are going to start canning what i just said; you get the gist of it though?) Any free media formats that were to become established through Linux, i think would are a threat to part of Microsoft's licencing part of their business. I mention media formats, but generally i am refering to settting a standard which others have to follow, and that to them i think put them in a controlling position in their eye, i would think. There could be more, but that is some of what i see that relates to it

Wes:

To keep costs low they will need to offer it as cheap as possible or if possible free though I doubt that very much.

Wrecktum Likka:

MS trying to sleaze it's way into the lives of NEW consumers......

Bahhhhh Humbug..... A Pox on their OS.

miffed???:

Do you blame MS for trying? A billion future users is a lot, especially if some of them actually pay for their software.

I am amazed at the anti-MS sentiment...it is as if Bill Gates personally came into your home, placed Windows on your computer and destroyed your life in the process...

...and i am positive the machine you used to reply to this story isnt running a variation of windows???

Tim:

To answer some of the other posts.

They'd give mini-XP away free. Why? 2 reasons - 1) advertising with the potential for upgrades, 2) stopping an installed linux base that would drive increased development. By keeping the open source community small they stop developers profitably working with it.

XP not Vista. If they know they'll have to open the code there's no way they'd use Vista. XP has been leaked in the past so people already know what's in there anyway.

Mark:

They wouldn't open the source to XP, you realize that Server 2003 is based on XP SP2, and Vista on Server 2003 (NT 5.1, NT 6.0). Opening the source for XP would mean opening a huge chunk of the source for Vista.