Peru to test run Windows XO laptop

Microsoft and the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project announced Monday that Peru will be the first country to try out XO laptops running Microsoft Windows as part of a nine-month pilot programme.

The companies said they are still trying to determine the size of the trial. Microsoft has been working for some time to port Windows onto the XO devices and the two companies announced in May that OLPC would start selling a Windows-based XO laptop to interested countries.

Peru's education minister, Jose Antonio Chang Escobedo, said in a statement: "We are extremely excited to take part in this historic educational pilot that will benefit school children throughout Peru.

"Integrating technology into our school curriculum will help to advance our knowledge economy, improve access to information and will generate opportunities for our students, which, through governmental policies, aims to improve the learning process we are offering our children, as well as closing the digital divide which currently exists between schools in rural and urban areas."

OLPC had initially focused solely on Linux but began working with Microsoft after a number of countries indicated they were only interested in the XO if it could run Windows.

Charles Kane, president of One Laptop per Child, said in a statement: "This pilot in Peru represents an important milestone in the evolution of One Laptop per Child. It demonstrates our ability to collaborate with Microsoft to provide governments a choice of operating system on the XO laptop."

Microsoft, meanwhile, is working with XO but has also backed the use of Windows on other education-oriented machines, such as Intel's Classmate PC.

Original article: Peru to try out Windows on XO laptops from CNET News.com