Remember OLPC project?, project has a new version of The One Laptop Per Child Project’s (OLPC’s) XO laptop will run both Linux and Windows. Microsoft Operating System that run on OLPC is low cost student version of windows XP. Then for Linux will using the traditional Linux-based Sugar operating system.

OLPC Chairman Nicholas Negroponte has referred in the past to a dual-boot XO model, but this is the first official announcement of such a system. The XO was developed by OLPC for children in developing countries, and Negroponte hopes to eventually make it available for $100. The availability of Windows on the system will give customers more choice in operating systems and let them use Windows-based educational software and tools, the parties said. Customers and partners worldwide have asked for Windows on the XO, they said.

OLPC XO laptop review

Austin said the dual-boot system will have Sugar and Microsoft’s Student Innovation Suite, a $3 software offering that Chairman Bill Gates announced last year. Gates said the suite would include a version of Windows XP, Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007, Microsoft Math 3.0, Learning Essentials 2.0 for Microsoft Office and Windows Live Mail.

A Microsoft representative confirmed the XO would have a version of Windows XP but said the specifics were yet to be determined. Trials of Windows on the laptops will begin in June in select countries, they said. During the trial, Windows will reside on an SD (Secure Digital) card in the laptop’s SD slot, according to Austin, but in the final shipping machine, both OSes will be on the hard drive. OLPC is working with third-party developers to have the XO’s distinctive Sugar user interface placed on top of Windows, but the dual-boot systems coming later this year will use the Windows interface for Student Innovation Suite, Austin said.

I have a question ‘why in this laptop need dual boot?, I hope the price is lower than $100 because until now Microsoft and OLPC did not specify the price of the dual-boot system. Or, could OLPC give an option to sell the OLPC laptop only with Sugar Linux.