[olpc-software] $100 laptop and Microsoft Windows CE operating system

[Kevin Purcell]

Not a technical question ... but there is a Wired News story authored  
by the AP

<http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70584-0.html>

In which amongst the usual fodder (and errors, it's a 366MHz AMD  
Geode) says:

> Microsoft chairman Bill Gates has criticized the computers' design,  
> including its lack of a hard disk drive — though many people in the  
> tech world believed he was more irked by the laptops' use of Linux,  
> the free, open-source system that competes with Gates' proprietary  
> Windows systems.
>
> [...]
>
> Negroponte expressed frustration with Gates in particular, saying  
> that the $100 laptop designers are still working with Microsoft to  
> develop a version of the Windows CE operating system that could run  
> the machines.
>
> "Geez, so why criticize me in public?" Negroponte said.
>
> Microsoft did not immediately return calls for comment.

A second OS for the $100 laptop? WTF?

Given a goal of the OLPC is open source I wonder what's going on  
here. If they changed their mind now and switched to Win CE you'd see  
the external software effort support drop to epsilon (though Squeak  
would still be there with no porting effort :-).

Any comments from people closer to Negroponte? Did he say this? Did  
he mean this?
--
Kevin Purcell
kevinpurcell at pobox.com