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Now that the news on the OPLC XO
2.0 project are out, more news just keep on coming, this time not exactly on
OLPC, but on Walter Bender, former president of software and content with the project,
whose Sugar Laboratories are reportedly
talking business with four low-cost laptop manufacturers.
One week after Bender left OLPC,
his organization is in “informal discussions” with Pixel Qi, hopes to get a
deal done with Intel, and as they mentioned on their website last week, they
might keep in touch with Asus.
Bender confirmed for BetaNews
the plan to work with everyone, and even admitted that they are currently
involved in informal discussions, as Sugar doesn’t want to bear the trademark
of any single vendor’s hardware.
The only thing he did confirm so
far was that discussions with four-laptop manufacturers are currently under way,
without revealing any of their names though.
Bender left OLPC last week, when
he unveiled his plans to form Sugar Laboratories, a non-profit organization to
carry on the Linux-based platform.
Last week, Microsoft and OLPC
unveiled their agreement to make the XO a dual-boot low-cost laptop, tu support
both Linux and Windows operating systems.
Rumors that everything could
turn at a later date into an exclusive deal with Microsoft and Windows began
circulating prior to the announcement, and some have reasons to believe the
agreement with Microsoft is a step in that direction (although they didn’t
confirm it).
Earlier this week, OLPC founder
and president Nicholas Negroponte said that by 2010, we will have the XO 2.0,
smaller, faster, dual-touch, e-book-like next generation of low-cost laptop for
just $75 (which is rather hard to believe, considering they failed to meet the
$100 promise for the first XO).
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