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After the divorce of Intel and OLPC, Microsoft has finally entered the bid of incorporating its operating system into the XO laptop. Earlier, we had reported that Microsoft and OLPC are working together to offer Windows on XO laptops, which have been developed for developing countries.

The One Laptop Per Child organization and Microsoft have now announced their merger to develop a dual-boot system that would enable both Linux and Windows on the low-cost laptops that are aimed at poor children.

“We are working with them very closely to make a dual-boot system so that, like on an Apple, you can boot either one up. The version that’s up and running of Windows on the XO is very fast, it’s very, very successful. We’re working very hard to do both,” said Nicholas Negroponte, chairman of OLPC.

At present, OLPC works on Linux, a Fedora-based OS. There were speculations that the non-profit organization would offer two separate laptops for the Linux version and Windows XP version. Now, it seems that the dual-boot system would help to eliminate it.

In addition, the non-profit foundation is also in talks with Microsoft, more precisely the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to integrate some of the educational programs that are run by Microsoft onto the OLPC laptop.