@Tom and @John
The machine I buy would have Linux on it (because that would be the choice for such a machine).
The profits therefrom will go toward whatever deployment necessary. Monies have already gone into retooling the OLPC just so that it can actually fit a really stripped down XP on it. R&D that would not be necessary.
Money has already been spent on some small OLPC rollouts with Windows on it.
If it were for a Tech college, this would not be a problem.
If it were for the computer science classes, it would be a small but arguable problem.
It is for the enablement of general teaching capability the OLPC was designed. And MS solutions want desperately to remove the interoperation necessary to cheap and effective discovery of how to do this, so that you have to buy an MS solution to solve your problem and MS profit thereby.
It will hold 100 textbooks. No need for MS for that. It will hold homework for all the years at school. No need for MS for that. It will share work. MS don't like sharing unless you share to them. OLPC is a computer because the alternative would be books that cost more to send out than they cost to make, get out of date and wear out quickly. Notebooks of paper cannot be reused. But if you use electronic books, they can be updated.
OLPC is not a computer. It is a learning device. You don't buy your type and spell from MS. And that it doesn't use the MS UI or produce MS Office documents doesn't mean your kids educational toy is worthless.
But politics and pressure has been put to bear on ensuring that if there's a new market for computing devices, MS MUST be part of it.
And I don't want my money used to help a company that can sell to the third world as it sells to the first, without having to shoehorn itself into a system it is completely unsuitable for.