Why Windows on a $188 machine for the children in poor countries!? I agree with Bender if this was the reason to quit.

I also think that initiatives like that are good for Linux to show its advantages.

bender was not in the business of helping poor children in the world to learn computer. His agenda was to spread open source software. Who cares what o/s they use. As long as it's cheap and the poor kids learn something that they can use in the future.
if you give them some strange software to use and when they grow up...they found their skill completely useless....becuase the grown up's computer world is filled with windows....

I think they should help develope or create a version of ReactOS instead of using Windows. ReactOS takes up less space and is not bloated like Windows. It is free. http://www.reactos.org Since it is a Windows clone, it can run Windows programs without being a resource hog.

Once you get in bed with Microsoft your there for a long time. That money they give to Microsoft for Windows could be put to better use like adding some new piece of hardware or software. Microsoft only wants Windows in OLPC's because they see them as maybe one day growing up and buying non-Windows PC's. Just because they are poor now does not mean they will be all their life's. By staying with Linux this could open a whole new market and one day make Microsoft and Windows the underdog. There needs to be something beyond Windows, Apple seems content being where they are at so some other OS needs to step up to the plate and take on Microsoft and Windows. Competition is a good thing and really Microsoft has none right now. If there was real competition you don't think that the peace of crap Vista would had ever seen the light of day.

Microsoft doesn't want kids to know, that there is nice alternatives for Windows. And that many of those alternatives are free!
Linux skills are not useless in "grown up's computer world". Butt, extremely helpful,. And, may be, vital for some of those kids careers if they decide to build their careers in "grown up's computer world".
And Linux is extremely educational. My daughter is in an elementary school. She had a problem how to use Windows PCs in the class. Until, I have installed "some strange software", called Ubuntu, on Windows only PC in her bedroom. Now, she is the girl that knows a lot about computers among her classmates. Few days ago I asked her something about Windows on her PC. She told me that she did not boot Windows on her PC for at list last 6 month. And, she asked me why she still need Windows. And, I said: I do not know.
Now, imagine something like this happening for millions of kids all around the world... What a nightmare for Microsoft...

One could even use FreeDOS and a GUI with it. http://www.freedos.org It uses little resources and it is free.

If I was Walter Bender, I would have quit too. Good for him!
There is absolutely zero advantage to using XP on the OLPC. Asking $10 extra from people in poor countries for something that is actually less functional for them and just serves to put money in Microsoft's coffers is immoral.

Neither kids, nor adults in poor countries should have to enrich Microsoft, not when there is a free, perfectly viable and more functional alternative. This thing was supposed to be $100 for crying out loud, why even think about adding $10 to it before they reach that goal??? And what will they get for it? Great, here's a computer with an OS, now where's the software to actually DO something with it? Linux gives you a complete package, with most software you even need preinstalled and much more software available for free.

I'm disgusted that the OLPC project is even considering this. They obviously don't seem to have their customer's best interest at heart.

YES, it's true that Microsoft's strategy is and has been about anti-competitive behavior. And we can even add, Microsoft has frequently sought to establish proprietary monopolies--and then leverage its dominance into new, adjacent markets...

But, the real question isn't even Microsoft here, it's how the economy is based upon IPR. In the U.S. business function under the laws, of which "Intellectual Property Rights" dictate how businesses conduct themselves. Microsoft like many other corporations are just exploiting the given situation.

In lessor developing countries, even such one as mainland China, where rampant economic development occurs, the need for sharing the works of innovation remains a top priority, and NOT the need of maintaining monopolies such as the MPAA and RIAA content distributors.

Does anyone think in Sudan, for example, the need of preventing others from building upon prior innovation is greater in need? Have you recently been to Sudan?

Have you been to many of the third world developing countries? Where even toilets are missing, where people are under oppression and told IPR like in China needs to be adopted. Why or rather for who's benefit?

The truth is, IPR has increasingly become an instrument for securing huge investments. But for a democratic society, that thrives on a large diversity of freely expressed and discussed cultural expressions, it's succumbs to stagnation and regression, all because of some bureaucratic encumbrance of intellectual property rights.

Copyrights are selfish; they place the good of the one (the creator) over the good of the many (the audience). Instead of allowing a work to be improved and redistributed by those who may be more qualified than the original author, works are restricted in the name of monetary profit.

Supporting open source code, allows everyone to build upon and improve technology. People become enablers, not dependent upon such corporations like Microsoft. Whom dictate with pre-loaded PC client machines their EULA draconian stipulations. The public isn't allowed to review the source code.

How is that better? It just establishes a special market niche for Microsoft to hold on to it's monopolistic business practices...

OLPC shouldn't force developing "cheaper growing adults" with software that is ALL proprietary source code.

If you let OLPC become owned, copyrighted and patent, you're going to create even more dependency upon Microsoft or whatever other IPR corporation.