February 21st, 2007 Benjamin Horst
Network World reports that Quanta has received orders to produce the first million OLPC XO laptops for the One Laptop per Child project.
One million computers is just the beginning:
“Quanta said it could ship between 5 million to 10 million units this year because seven nations have already signed up for the project. That may be enough to reduce the costs and meet the $100 goal sooner than expected.
The governments that have committed to buy laptops for their schoolchildren include Argentina, Brazil, Libya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Thailand and Uruguay.”
Posted in Free Culture, GNU/Linux, OLPC, Open Source | Comments Off on Production of One Million OLPC XOs to Begin
February 20th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
Government-supported efforts to get low-cost desktop computers into the hands of Brazilians has led to 50,000 Linux desktops deployed so far, growing by 10,000 a month.
“The Computers for All project is part of the Brazilian federal government’s “Program of Digital Inclusion,” initiated in 2003. The project’s objective is to provide low-cost computers to the population and to boost technological development, EnabledPeople said.
Linux XP Desktop is described as a user-friendly desktop operating system for home and office users. With a preinstalled version, a user gets an application set that includes the OpenOffice.org office suite, the Evolution email client, the Firefox web browser, and the GAIM multi-protocol instant messenger, among other software. According to EnabledPeople, Linux XP Desktop is a Red Hat-compatible operating system, and is compatible with Red Hat’s application set.”
Posted in GNU/Linux, Open Source, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on 50,000 New Linux Desktops in Brazil
February 19th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
On Friday I attended UbuCon 2007, an “unconference” held at Google’s offices in Manhattan.
Joey Stanford posted some pictures and his summary on his blog. (I took no photos; it’s not permitted anywhere in Google’s office except the lobby.)
Besides learning more about my favorite Linux distro, I also saw a number of attendees carrying Nokia N800s (there were three in the morning, and then someone returned from lunch with a freshly-purchased one in a box that he opened), Mako Hill brought a prototype of the OLPC project’s XO computer, and we had a quick tutorial on using GIMP, Inkscape and Blender.
A fun and informative conference, and my first visit to the inside of a Google office complex.
Posted in GNU/Linux, Maemo, Open Source | Comments Off on UbuCon 2007 on Friday
February 15th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
DesktopLinux.com reports that eight countries will receive a share of the initial 2,500 OLPC machines in February.
“The experiment is a prelude to mass production of the kid-friendly, lime-green-and-white laptops scheduled to begin in July, when 5 million will be built.
State educators in Brazil, Uruguay, Libya, Rwanda, Pakistan, Thailand and possibly Ethiopia and the West Bank will receive the first of the machines in February’s pilot before a wider rollout to Indonesia and a handful of other countries.”
With a goal of 150 million delivered by 2010, OLPC will alter the landscape of computing around the world. Further, it could help Linux marketshare reach 20% or more globally, entirely as a side effect of the project’s primary purpose. No wonder Bill Gates can’t stop trying to critique it!
Posted in Free Culture, GNU/Linux, OLPC, Open Source | 1 Comment »
February 14th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
Yahoo News reports that 175,000 USB Flash Drives loaded with open source programs will be distributed to Parisian high school students next school year (fall 2007).
The drives will contain Firefox 2, Thunderbird, OpenOffice, an IM client and audio and video players. (Based on the explanation, it sounds like they will be the portable versions of these applications.)
“The sticks will give the students, aged 15 and 16, the freedom to access their e-mail, browser bookmarks and other documents on computers at school, home, a friend’s house or in an Internet café — but at a much lower cost than providing notebook computers for all, a spokesman for the Greater Paris Regional Council said Friday.”
Slashdot also discussed the story in its usual energetic way.
Posted in Free Culture, Open Source, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on 175,000 FOSS USB Flash Drives in Paris
February 12th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
Vassar College’s Miscellany News has just published Microsoft Office gets a free replacement with open-source.
Matthew Leung introduces OpenOffice.org to the paper’s audience of Vassar College (my alma mater) students, faculty and staff.
He writes, “Upon opening Writer, I was immediately surprised by how similar to Word it appeared. Many toolbars and formatting options are almost identical between the two programs. Even some advanced options are found in the same menus. Writer and other applications are able to open all the Office documents without distorting formatting or layout. Even though OOo applications save files in their own format called the OpenDocument Format (ODF), they can also save files in all Office formats, such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint…
In addition, OOo applications have some extra features. All of its applications can export documents to Adobe’s Portable Document Format (PDF). For PC users this is a boon, since Windows does not offer an in-house option to export documents to the PDF format.”
It’s great to see OpenOffice getting more exposure on college campuses for an audience that truly stands to benefit from its free cost, broad compatibility, and ability to run on the OS that users choose, whether Mac, Linux or Windows.
Posted in Open Source, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on Vassar Misc Reviews OpenOffice
February 7th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
Our friends at In Pictures have helped a school in Durban, South Africa, set up a computer lab running Linux Terminal Server with Ubuntu and OpenOffice.
Inpics’ role was to provide a local installation of its online tutorial for student use, while a local group, eTux, found the recycled hardware, set up the machines as thin clients, networked the systems and installed the OS and applications.
“Craig Adams, the leader of eTux, wanted to use the free online OpenOffice tutorials at inpics.net, but the lab had no Internet access. He contacted In Pictures, who provided the tutorials to him as a download. He then installed them on the lab’s server.”
Posted in Free Culture, GNU/Linux, Open Source, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on Inpics Helps South African School Adopt Linux
February 6th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
Gregory M. Lamb of the Christian Science Monitor has reviewed the concept and prototype of OLPC’s XO, the “$100 Laptop”.
“It’s an astonishing experiment: Design a cool computer, unlike anything on the market, loaded with innovative features. Manufacture it for not much more than $100 apiece, a fraction of what other computers cost. Persuade government officials in developing countries to buy millions of them, and hand them to schoolchildren. Then stand back and see if you’ve done what you hoped – created a revolution in the way kids learn.
The next step in turning this techno-dream into a reality begins in February when prototypes of the XO laptop go out to be kid tested in a dozen or so countries from Brazil to Rwanda, Libya to Pakistan.”
Mesh networking, extremely low power consumption, and water- and dirt-resistant construction are some of the interesting and important hardware features being pioneered by the XO machine. However, the distribution and usage models are where the most unique innovations will occur.
Posted in Free Culture, GNU/Linux, OLPC, Open Source | Comments Off on CS Monitor on the OLPC XO, the “$100 Laptop”
February 5th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
OSAlt.com (“Open Source as Alternative”) helps computer users find the open source alternatives to proprietary software programs they already know. Enter the name of the proprietary software, and OSAlt lists the best FOSS equivalents.
It also displays the top ten most requested apps on both the Open Source and proprietary sides, for quick reference. Overall, a handy tool.
Posted in Open Source, Uncategorized | Comments Off on OSAlt.com Helps Users Find Open Source Alternatives
February 3rd, 2007 Benjamin Horst
Solveig explains why MS Vista is being ignored by educators. No surprise, really: the high cost, upgrade headaches, and lack of compelling features form the biggest trifecta since George W. Bush’s (audio plays at this link).
Solveig writes, “One public organization with 3,000 employees is saving 2.8 million dollars over the next six years, just by switching to OpenOffice.org. That’s a lot of money.”
She also quotes a piece by Wesley Fryer that delves into the same questions and concludes that Mac OS X or Linux, running OpenOffice.org, provide better value propositions.
Posted in GNU/Linux, Mac, Open Source, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on Educators Ignoring MS Vista