Microsoft trials XP on XO laptop

[gkd_uk]

Microsoft is to begin field tests of Windows XP working on the so-called $100 laptop, or XO, early in 2008.
It has not committed to offering XP on the XO laptop but hopes to release the operating system in the first half of 2008 if the trials succeed.

The work, undertaken as part of the firm's plans to widen access to technology, forms part of a project to run Windows on flash-based machines.

The XO does not have a hard drive, and uses a lightweight flash drive instead.

Microsoft's James Utzschneider, writing on his blog, said: "We are hard at work on the project here.

"Between Microsoft employees and third party contractors that we have brought into the effort, we have over 40 engineers working full-time on the port."

The XO is the work of the One Laptop Per Child project to boost access to technology in the developing world by building a low-cost laptop designed for educational uses.

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