April 27, 2009 18:10
For the XO, I've read of windows, linux (various flavours), and other *nix including FreeBSD (which would thus include Darwin - the underpinnings for MacOS.)
However, the XO hardware is not powerful by current computing standards. Sugar (the linux OS which the XO ships with) is optimised for this specific platform, and is reasonably swift. Friends report minimalist Linux environments are more than powerful enough for usefulness, but relatively cuddly environments (KDE) are sluggish.
Unfortunately, I still haven't got one so I can't comment directly.
However, you have to realize the Mac Air is a netbook. It just happens to have a full-sized laptop footprint. So, big screen/keyboard, but lightweight, somewhat less powerful.
However, the XO hardware is not powerful by current computing standards. Sugar (the linux OS which the XO ships with) is optimised for this specific platform, and is reasonably swift. Friends report minimalist Linux environments are more than powerful enough for usefulness, but relatively cuddly environments (KDE) are sluggish.
Unfortunately, I still haven't got one so I can't comment directly.
However, you have to realize the Mac Air is a netbook. It just happens to have a full-sized laptop footprint. So, big screen/keyboard, but lightweight, somewhat less powerful.