Microsoft squashes talk of dual-boot XO laptop
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Microsoft and the OLPC are working on a laptop that would be capable of running Windows and Linux, but it's not a dual-boot system. Sort of.
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Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Friday it will ship the next version of Windows in 2006, but scaled back plans to include a new system for finding
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The up-and-coming virtualization specialist says Microsoft is using its Windows clout to restrict customers choice. Sound familiar?
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Speculation is mounting over what will be in the next version of Windows and when the update will take place.
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Microsoftâs upcoming Windows for clustered computers operating system will not support Intelâs powerful Intanium 2 chipset according to News.
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Microsoft is staking everything on its new OS. What will work, and what won't? You tell us. In Monkey Bites.
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Microsoft announces end of support for the upgrade, urges move to SP2.
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Is Microsoft working on building a laptop for the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) program? Yes, but the intended machine will run Windows XP only, rather than both Windows XP and Linux, Microsoft officials said today.
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Microsoft says it plans to broadly release the long-awaited update to its flagship Windows operating system, dubbed &#39;Longhorn&#39;, in 2006.
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The core code for Microsoft&#39;s Windows OS is undergoing a rewrite to make it slimmer for use in a wide range of future products, including&#160;Windows 7, the OS that will succeed Vista.The internal project, code-named &quot;MinWin,&quot; is not being readied for a product just yet but will be part of&#160;Windows 7, said Eric Traut, a distinguished engineer, during a recent presentation at the University of Illinois. A video of his talk has been posted online.The kernel is the fundamental code underlying an OS that manages services for applications such as drivers, file management and memory.&quot;A lot of people think of Windows as this large, bloated operating system, and that&#39;s maybe a fair characterization, I have to admit,&quot; Traut said. &quot;But at its core, the kernel, and the components that make up the very core of the operating system, is actually pretty streamlined.&quot;Traut showed a demonstration of MinWin, which lacks a graphical user interface. It takes up just 25M bytes when stored on disk, compared to the massive 4GB the full Windows Vista OS needs, Traut said.MinWin can run on under 40MB of RAM, he said. &quot;That&#39;s kind of proof there is actually a pretty nice little core inside of Windows,&quot; Traut said.But Microsoft still wants to shrink it. &quot;It&#39;s still bigger than I&#39;d like it to be,&quot; Traut said.Microsoft uses its kernel in a range of products, from its client Windows OS to servers. Keeping the kernel as small as possible enables it to be used in OSes for lower-memory environments, such as embedded devices.&quot;This will provide us the ability to move into even more areas,&quot; Traut said.Microsoft has said it will release Windows 7 by 2010, although the company has not revealed much detail on its features.&#160;
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The software maker erroneously posts a note on its developer site saying a "release candidate" version of the Vista service pack was being made available. Microsoft does plan one eventually, but it's not imminent.
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Two weeks ago, InfoWorld launched a petition campaign to save Windows XP. So far we?ve gotten more than 70,000 signatures, thanks to a passionate response from a wide range of XP users. We hope we can persuade Microsoft to keep selling XP licenses indefinitely, past the June 30 deadline, after which Microsoft has said no more shrink-wrapped or OEM licenses will be available for retailers, computer makers, and others to order. (Vendors can continue to sell by June 30 any XP licenses they ordered from Microsoft, but when they run out of those, they can't get more to sell.)We fully acknowledge that, even if we get a million signatures, Microsoft may stick with its original plan. If new Windows XP licenses come to a screeching halt after June 30 as currently planned, what can IT do to get more XP seats? The answer depends on your licensing arrangement with Microsoft. The short answer for most users, though, is that Microsoft will let people with Vista Business or Ultimate "downgrade" to Windows XP Pro under specific circumstances.Here, based on Microsoft's published documentation and on the company?s responses to our questions, is InfoWorld's guide to how you can get new XP licenses after Microsoft officially pulls the plug. Note that some of Microsoft's answers to us differ with what has been published on its Web site. Microsoft had changed some of its "downgrade" policies in summer 2007 and appears to have missed updating some of its documents.Retail licenses If you?re Joe XP user and you want additional upgrade or full-install packages, your only option is to stock up before the deadline. Only until July 1 can retailers order shrink-wrapped boxes of new XP licenses and upgrade licenses -- what Microsoft calls FPP (Full Package Product) licenses -- to sell to customers like you. Chances are these last licenses will sell out quickly after the June 30 order cutoff.Also until July 1, individuals can buy XP licenses online from Microsoft (such as when you have an installation CD and need an extra license for it, or when you need to load the software on a second computer). But not after that date.OEM licenses PC makers largely stopped selling XP preinstalled on new consumer-oriented desktops and laptops in spring 2007, although they remain available to business customers who order online or have a business account with OEMs such as Dell Computer or Hewlett-Packard. (Microsoft calls preinstalled copies of Windows "Direct OEM" licenses.) So larger businesses have by and large kept ordering XP-equipped PCs, although many individuals and small businesses bought Vista instead because they didn't know they had a choice.Today, people who have already bought Vista systems have two choices to get XP instead. One is to buy an FPP XP license before June 30 and install it over Vista.The other is to "downgrade" to XP Professional, using an XP Pro install disc you already have or a "downgrade" XP Pro install disc supplied by the PC maker. Essentially, Microsoft lets you use your new Vista license for an XP Pro install. You have such "downgrade rights", however, only if you bought Vista Business or Vista Ultimate.Note that you can't run both Vista and XP using the same license (so you can't, for example, install Vista on a virtual machine if you're also using the XP "downgrade" install as your boot OS). You get only one license and have to choose one OS or the other. And OEMs don't have to make the "downgrade" discs available to you.Also note that any version of Windows preinstalled on a PC is licensed only for that computer and cannot be transferred to a different machine, so you cannot use such "old" licenses on new PCs, even if you no longer use the old hardware. But you can use your old XP discs under the "downgrade rights" conditions above.After June 30, OEMs can no longer order new licenses of Windows XP. (The deadline is January 31, 2009 for white-box PC makers, who have what Microsoft calls a System Builder license. Other than the date, the limitations and options for installing XP are the same as for Direct OEM licenses.) So how do you get XP on PCs you buy after these cutoff dates?After the cutoff, OEMs may still install Windows XP Pro (not Home) on users' systems, but only for orders of 25 or more PCs. In this case, the systems must come with a Vista Business or Ultimate license, which is then transferred to the XP Pro install. Essentially, you're buying a Vista PC that the OEM can then put XP Pro on instead, using the Vista license to activate XP Pro. (Again, the OEMs don't have to provide this option.)If you buy fewer than 25 PCs in an order, the OEM can install only Vista. You can still get XP Pro on those PCs, though, if they came with Vista Business or Ultimate. Those two Vista versions include the "downgrade rights" that let you apply the Vista license to your XP Pro installation. You can use your existing XP Pro install discs or get an XP "downgrade" disc from the PC maker (if it wants to supply it). Remember that "downgrade rights" are not available in OEM licenses for other versions of Vista, and they do not let you install XP Home.Enterprise licenses Businesses that have volume Windows licenses can also install XP Pro after the order cutoff deadlines. If you have a volume license for any version of Vista (not just Business and Ultimate), you may install XP Pro on your Vista PCs using the "downgrade rights" granted in the volume license.To downgrade, you can use your existing copy of the XP Pro installation images. Microsoft will also supply an XP Pro "downgrade" installation disc or disk image after the cutoff dates. As noted earlier, OEMs can also do the "downgrade" for you in some cases."Most small businesses, enterprises, government agencies and educational institutions purchase their software through volume license agreements. As part of those volume license agreements, they get downgrade rights as part of the license," noted a Microsoft spokesperson. Volume licenses are available for as few as five seats."Subscription" licenses Some businesses don't directly license Windows, but instead "rent" it from IT support companies such as CenterBeam that provision Windows, Office, and other software on a per-user, per-month basis under Microsoft's Service Provider License Agreement. The service provider actually owns the license. If your business gets its Windows OSes this way, any XP licenses acquired through the provider will stay active, said Karen Hayward, executive vice president at CenterBeam. For new users after June 30, however, it's not clear if CenterBeam can offer XP, she noted. The service provider license does not forbid provisioning of XP after that date, but neither does it specifically allow it. CenterBeam hopes to have a clarification from Microsoft in February.The Microsoft spokesperson said that such providers' license agreements with Microsoft would specify how long each provider could offer XP, but that the June 30 and January 31 cutoff dates should have no effect on them.What happens to existing licenses Organizations can continue to use any Windows XP licenses they have indefinitely, even after the OS is no longer available for new licenses.For technical support and updates, Microsoft will end mainstream support for XP on April 14, 2009, for most editions, and it will end extended support on April 8, 2014 for most editions. (Extended support is not available for consumer licenses.) Both support mechanisms include free security updates. Hot fixes for other issues are free only during the mainstream support period; non-consumer users wanting hot fixes must buy a hot-fix update plan from Microsoft before July 14, 2009.
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Intel resigned from the&#160;One Laptop Per Child Project&#39;s board of directors&#160;after refusing a request to abandon its Classmate PC program, according to a source familiar with the situation.Intel&#39;s departure from OLPC&#39;s board means that an effort to build a version of the project&#39;s XO laptop based on an Intel processor is over, the source said.Intel&#39;s Classmate PC is a low-cost laptop designed for students in developing countries and competes against OLPC&#39;s XO laptop, which is based on a microprocessor from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). Intel and OLPC agreed in July to work together on the development of technology for low-cost laptops and to stop disparaging each other&#39;s laptop offerings.As part of that agreement, Intel got a seat on OLPC&#39;s board of directors and the two sides began to discuss building a version of the XO based on an Intel processor. At the same time, OLPC also explored the possibility of using an Arm processor from Marvell in yet another version of the XO.But during discussions in the months following the July deal, OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte insisted that Intel abandon the Classmate PC effort in favor of throwing its support behind OLPC&#39;s XO device, the source said. But the Classmate PC is undergoing tests in several countries and Intel was not prepared to walk away from those efforts, according to the source.Intel spokesman Nick Jacobs confirmed that the company and OLPC had parted ways, but declined to comment further on the matter. Negroponte and other OLPC executives could not immediately be reached for comment.OLPC has struggled to win orders for the XO laptop. A rising price tag -- now close to US$200, instead of $100 as originally planned -- hasn&#39;t helped the group make inroads with cash-strapped governments in developing countries.
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New dual-core processors will make conventional software licensing models obsolete. What's next?
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Also: Microsoft plans new BizTalk release for this year. [News.com Extra]
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Dual-core version won't be available until 2006, chip maker says.
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The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) computer, which uses a version of Linux, might soon be available with Windows. According to a Reuters report, a Microsoft corporate vice president has said that the software giant is working to adapt Windows XP for the low-cost XO laptop.