Due to a recent and very controversial decision, the XO will very soon be available with a choice of two operating systems: the Linux-based Sugar that was specifically developed for it, and Windows XP. This move will certainly cost the OLPC community dearly as far as the hearts and minds of the geek community are concerned, but if it helps to keep the OLPC project on track with its task to deliver low-cost laptops and quality education to children in need, it may be a good thing. One has to wonder, though, how this affects the overall concept of this venture (the previous focus on complete openness and hackability, as well as trying to break out of established business partnerships between poor countries and First World corporations come to mind), and how much different the XO is now from other ultra-portables, or second-hand regular computers.

The version of XP is apparently the same that is being offered on the Asus Eee, with Microsoft having spent some serious developer time to add support for various XO hardware features, such as the rotating screen. The innovative mesh networking, however will initially not be supported. The price of the machine will increase by ten dollars (3 dollars for Windows, 7 dollars for the extra memory that it needs).

The current operating system, which so far has failed to make too good a job of integrating with the device, will still be available as an option, probably also as a dual-boot solution. The Sugar developers have meanwhile set up Sugar Labs, with the stated goal of bringing Sugar to the next level of usability and utility, on or off the OLPC.

Myself, I am waiting for Update One of the OLPC software to bring much-needed power management improvements and iron out some of the minor annoyances I have been writing about.