OLPC and Vole hatch ebony and ivory plan
SOFTWARE Giant Microsoft and the One Laptop Per Child project are working together on a cunning plan which will mean that both Linux and Windows will work together on the portable cut-price computer.
While dual booting is fairly common on Linux machines, the OLPC has baulked at attempting it on the machine.
Part of the problem is the cost. What is the point of cutting the price of the hardware to under $200 if you are going to have to add another $100 or so for proprietary software?
Now according to Computerworld OLPC seems to want Windows running on the XO.
Nicholas Negroponte, chairman of OLPC said it was only possible because Microsoft has mellowed about Open Sauce software lately.
His idea seems to be that if you let Vole into the project, on a dual boot, then there is less likely to be competition from anything that rivals might try to push out there.
Asustek Computer is marketing its XP compatable Eee as having an advantage over the XO.
More here. ยต
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Interesting, Since when do charitys worry about competition? or is when charitys compete with legitamate busineses like Intel and Asus? hmmmmmmm and all under the guise of helping the poor kids!!
While all the high flying rhetoric is great the best U.N. initiative would have been the One Meal Per Child Per Day. Of course if you feed the bastards today they're hungry again tomorrow. Give them an OLPC and they're good for a lifetime (especially if that life is shortened by starvation and malnutrition).
The main (only) advantage the EEE has over the OLPC is its available now. And perhaps that it's got a stronger CPU.
S Chauhan: You are being short-sighted. If the goal is to run Windows, perhaps the EEE is better. If your goal is to help children in underdeveloped areas, the OLPC is far superior to a price-reduced Wintel box. You probably haven't looked enough at what OLPC is doing and so have an incorrect idea of it. They have built a tool for enabling education in difficult conditions, not a traditional PC. BIG difference. 

And to the other two commenters: You are wrong, too. You seem not to understand what the OLPC project actually is doing.

The effort by Microsoft to put Windows on the OLPC is probably the Embrace stage of Embrace, Extend, Extinguish. The OLPC project should be VERY careful of any interaction with Microsoft.