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The move was prompted by countries which demanded the operating system before placing an order. Trials of laptops loaded with Windows will begin in "four to five" countries from June, the organisations said.

The founder of One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), which developed the machines, denied the move was a "desperate new measure" to secure more orders. Who wants to bet that government education departments, already far more familiar with Microsoft's operating system, will now opt for the Linux alternative?

"While it is certainly true that it has not taken off as fast as I would have hoped and publicly stated, certain countries around the world... have always been very, very insistent that they want Windows as an option," Nicholas Negroponte told BBC News. Until now, the XO machines, as they are known, have only been offered with an open-source Linux operating system.

However, others have been less forthcoming with praise about the opportunities Windows affords.

"[OLPC] should not believe the nonsense about Windows being a requirement for business after the children grow up," wrote Ivan Krstic on his blog, who recently resigned. "Windows is a requirement because enough people grew up with it, not the other way around. If OLPC made a billion people grow up with Linux, Linux would be just dandy for business."

Mr Krstic said that he was enthusiastic about Sugar being made available on the "most widely used operating system in existence" but was opposed to Windows becoming "the single OS that OLPC offers for the XO".
"[OLPC] should not become a vehicle for creating economic incentives for a particular vendor," he wrote.

Whilst Professor Negroponte said this was not the intention, he could not rule out the possibility of XP becoming the sole offering in the future. "If that's the way it unfolds, that's the way it unfolds. We are in the learning business and what the operating system is underneath is less germane," he told BBC News.

"A lot of it will end up as what governments and educational institutions choose to use," added James Utzchneider of Microsoft.

Извор: BBC News  " '$100 laptop' embraces Windows XP "