Windows for just $3

Makes me wonder, why they would even attempt to sell Windows for just $3. The reason might be obvious, simply Microsoft is plagued by nightly fever dreams of thousands of kids in developing countries running Linux? The package will include the basic Windows XP Starter Edition, Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 and other as-yet-unnamed educational software applications. The $3 Windows pack will be available later this year, and it will be sold exclusively to governments.

This might be an attempt to get Windows running on the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) project. The OLPC XO Children's Machine has its own specially-developed Linux-based platform called Sugar. The XO project has embraced open-source ideals, and is touting OSS's advantage as a teaching tool. According to the OLPC camp, if kids get a Linux-based machine they'll be more likely to hack it and learn how to write code. Also, wiki-based textbooks will give the kids more incentive to write.

My question is why would anyone choose the $3 Windows , which will be so much limited in features (example no network printing, etc) and chunked down to Linux? So it comes down to Free, flexible/powerful Linux and $3 Windows edition. The new estimated cost of the OLPC is $175.

Other related project include the Classmate PC by intel.