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Windows XP On OLPC Gets Slowly Tested
Posted by John Mahoney at 12:30 AM on August 7, 2008
We showed you the first footage of an OLPC booting the official Windows XP installation back in June, but now Laptop has given the XP-sporting XO a quick round of testing, and unsurprisingly, things are a bit sluggish. The XO's hardware has gone unchanged for the XP edition, so Windows boots off of an SD card which also packs Office, IE, and other apps. While IE fired up in five seconds, the OS took 1 minute 24 seconds to boot, and no one should be surprised that multitasking on the little guy's 256MB of RAM was not fun. Mesh networking is also not making it to the Windows version, unfortunately, but kids can still dual-boot into the Sugar OS for that. [Laptop]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
TendoMentis
Posted 12:55 AM 7/8/08
256 MB RAM? You shouldn't run XP on that....you'll end up killing yourself in the end.
The OLPC is more suited for a lean Linux OS, maybe a little meatier than damn small, but leaner than full Heroe's Hardon.
TendoMentis
pastrychef
Posted 12:40 AM 7/8/08
Sounds like how my old Atari 800 used to run.
pastrychef
strider_mt2k
Posted 12:38 AM 7/8/08
I had similar experiences running WinXP on limited hardware.
Not impossible, but you'd have to really think about how it would be to live with it on a daily basis.
I imagine it would get frustrating pretty quickly.
strider_mt2k
iPhoneGroupie
Posted 1:52 AM 7/8/08
will this work on the original OLPC laptop? I mean is the original capable of running XP of a USB drive? or even replacing the original HD?
iPhoneGroupie
14limes
Posted 2:02 AM 7/8/08
@iPhoneGroupie: Reading for content, this time: "The XO's hardware has gone unchanged for the XP edition, so Windows boots off of an SD card..."
14limes
14limes
Posted 2:00 AM 7/8/08
I had a Vaio with similar specs to the OLPC (192MB RAM, 700MHz CPU), and while it was no speed demon on XP, it did great with Win2k, including Office2k. Seems like they could have gone that route. But then, no, you wouldn't be able to hook new kids on that fancy-schmancy XP UI then, would you?
14limes
iPhoneGroupie
Posted 2:33 AM 7/8/08
@14limes: i read that but i'm here holding my olpc in my hand and don't see a SD card slot only usb ports.
iPhoneGroupie
tenio
Posted 3:00 AM 7/8/08
@iPhoneGroupie:
maybe the sd card slot is inside the case?
tenio
jrghoull
Posted 3:37 AM 7/8/08
@iPhoneGroupie:
"will this work on the original OLPC laptop?
yes it will. the hardware hasnt changed in the slightest since the original release.
I mean is the original capable of running XP of a USB drive?
yup.
or even replacing the original HD?"
i dont quite know what that means. i am guessing you are saying to just use a flash drive or sd card instead of the built in 1 gig of flash. I do believe you can...though it requires some degree of work. I THINK (though am not sure) that eventually they are planning on actually putting a feature into sugar which allows you to easily treat the sd card or flash drive as a sort of second ssd for the XO. i am not sure when this is getting released or if it has already
until linux really takes over the world...or at least the business world...i think this is actually needed. businesses rely on MS and all its products. So if a kid is coming into the working world knowing how to run windows and office, that actually could help them quite a bit in the long run.
jrghoull
RowenaOrpheus
Posted 3:54 AM 7/8/08
Microsoft might want to reconsider the whole DOS/Windows 3.1 thing about right now.
RowenaOrpheus
jrghoull
Posted 3:41 AM 7/8/08
@iPhoneGroupie:
heres how you find the sd card reader...
grab onto the right side of the monitor (the part with the game buttons) and turn it 90 degrees. then look at the bottom of the monitor. you'll see a small slot. thats the SD card reader.
:-)
jrghoull
iPhoneGroupie
Posted 4:33 AM 7/8/08
@jrghoull: thanks i see the sd card reader now. the idea of booting xp off it makes much more sense now.
iPhoneGroupie
OMG! Ponies!
Posted 4:30 AM 7/8/08
@RowenaOrpheus: I still have 5 1/4" floppies for DOS 3.2 if you're interested.
That's MS-DOS 3.2, not PC-DOS. PC DOS was for suckers, like idiot Packard Bell owners with TabWorks.
OMG! Ponies!
craighyatt
Posted 7:48 AM 7/8/08
if he thinks that's slow, just wait till he upgrades to Vista
craighyatt
gareththefab
Posted 3:03 AM 7/8/08
@iPhoneGroupie: It's under the screen - rotate it 90 degrees and have a look underneath.
gareththefab
aliskaba
Posted 12:47 AM 7/8/08
I am glad that some of us are going back to the basics. Some newer computers are too fast. Working to fast is of the devil. I wish the government would step in and control processor speeds.
If I am made president, nobody will have anything faster than an 80286. Dos will be the limit of the OS. If you want anything fancier, you will have to program it in GW-BASIC.
aliskaba