Just when you thought that Linux was finally starting to make some major headway into the mainstream, all the subnotebook makers in the world are shifting their focus toward a more widely recognizable operating system. You can get the Asus Eee PC with XP pre-loaded and now it seems that Negroponte and the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project is taking a similar approach, shoving Windows XP into the XO Laptop.

The original goal of the OLPC XO Laptop was to provide “simple, efficient, and low-cost computing” to developing countries, but it seems that the inclusion of the Linux-based Sugar operating system is turning off investors and buyers alike. Negroponte also points out that Sugar does not support the latest Flash framework, which is required for many children’s sites.

The hope is that by switching to Microsoft’s operating system, OLPC will be able to attract a few more investors and they may be able to get closer to that magic $100 price point.