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LinEX !
Dunno.. The Extremadureans seem to use it for agribusiness.

So, having RTFA, it seems to me that at the very least, the little nasty is designed to work with the windows boot process, and currently would at least cause a grub based system to puke, giving you notice of a situation. Then you could use ahref=http://supergrub.forjamari.linex.org//rel=url2html-8983http://supergrub.forjamari.linex.org//>to fix your loader? On a sidenote, while SuperGrub isn't going to win any points for graphic style, it did an excellent job of fixing my Fully Ryobi'd windows/Fedora situation, and is a nice little tool written by some nice folks in Italy, http://forja.linex.org/ .

Obviously, a bad guy could extend the approach and anticipate Grub as well, trying to side step that, but it would probably be a much more complicated task, figuring out how to hide from all the kernel variants of Linux.

If a person wanted to be sure, couldn't you burn a boot loader onto a CD, have the CD boot first, and have that direct the loading? IANLWK (I am no Linux Whiz Kid), but in my imperfect knowledge of the world, that seems like it would completely defend against this type of attack. I yearn for correction of my ways if this wouldn't work.

Super Grub Disk is extremely easy to use and... Well, I assume it can fix a lot of stuff. It sure restored GRUB after I reinstalled windows.

It is certainly true that some people might use Linux as a negotiating strategy; in fact, I would argue that a CIO that doesn't try this manoeuvre is failing due diligence :)

I am sure that there are cases where people failed to execute the Open Source strategy, and in the resulting retrenchment MS gained the customer back. Management support is another issue: the first ever FOSS implementation back in mid-1990's was Greg Wettstein's Roger Maris Cancer Center. Sadly, a management change resulted in Dr. Greg leaving, and the Center switched back to MS. No IT implementation is ever finished or permanent, so changes forth and back should not be a surprise. Really large installations, of course, require some sort of commercial support which has been hard to come by, but between Novell, IBM and RedHat one can find it now.

I think it is clear by now that a FOSS switch is quite possible given a reasonable budget, competent execution and management support---all the factors required for the success of any project.

Somehow it is funny: when we try to be nice and offer you a boot-loader, leaving your existing system fully intact, even adding your existing system to the menu, you don't say 'thank you !', but cry if it doesn't work one time or another. But when Microsoft blatently overwrites anything that was there before, does not even bother to ask about installing its boot-loader into the MBR; of course without adding your other operating system to the menu, you guys don't yell at Bill. You graciously accept as fate what the gods had in mind for you.
Don't you think, we could do a syslinux-thingy for you as well ? Not asking, just overwriting your MBR with a sure, direct boot into your new system ? Like Microsoft does ?
At least, please measure with the same yardstick.

And I don't suggest Live-CDs, nor even KNOPPIX for such cases. There is a much much smaller utility for all those grub-related problems; one that offers you almost any tool w.r.t. boot-loading, and that is Super Grub Disk. http://supergrub.forjamari.linex.org/ should get you going.

• Primer arranque (First boot): Allows graphics booting using gfxboot, something quite nice for "normal" users, as I remember my flatmate got scared at the Ubuntu screen boot, with the list of the [OK] and [FAILED] services status (background here).
  
• Instalación (Installing): Just a graphical installer with graphical partition resizing, I saw this already when installing Ubuntu and Mandriva.
  
• Más comodidad (More confortability [is that a word?]): Just the old root/user password option with automatic login.
  
• Un Escritorio más vivo (more alive desktop),Mantente a la última (stay at the edge), El nuevo Actualizar LinEx (New LinEx Update): Some desktop backgrounds, system update and package installer. Nothing too fancy IMHO.
  
• Aptéalo con APTZILLA ("Aptate it" with APTZILLA) : This is something which I believe is worth to mention, I have never seen something simillar in any other distribution. It seems to be a Firefox extension that enables to install software from an internet page. It would be very interesting to try it because from what it seems it would be a way to achieve the "click+download+click^x+install" behaviour in Windows for the end user (my father for example wont be able to install Repast framework in Ubuntu because it is not in the repositores, whereas to install it on Windows he just have to download the installer and run it).
  
• El Panel de Control de gnuLinEx: A control panel similar to what a lot of other distributions have. HOWEVER I find quite relevant that they embed the WINE emulator (which btw I.N.an E.), I imagine they try to make as easy as possible to enable Windows applications to run in Linux. That is the other property worth to note, as I have not seen any distribution that gives so much importance to it (well, besides the commecial distros like xandros, lindows [ya ya I like to call it Lindows], etc).
  
• El wiki personal (The Personal Wiki [see, spanish is not that hard]): That is the other interesting application, which a wiki like note taker (the application seems to be Tomboy.
  

Here is the original document from the Junta de Extremadura:

http://www.linex.org/mocion_consejo_gobierno.pdf

And here is a free translation of that document:

http://www.hispalinux.es/files/mocion_consejo_gobi erno_english.pdf

Here you can find the "home-user" version.
And here (PDF Warning!!),
https://www.linux-magazine.com/issue/64/Linux_Maga zine_DVD.pdf
you can read an English language article describing this special
home version called JuegaLinex (Play LinEx).

It gives an option at install-time to d/l nvidia or ati 3D drivers.
I put this on a 800mHz mini-itx box for my niece and nephew--
They loved it!
(You can easily localize this version to English)
Many educational apps and a ridiculous number of games!
I recommend to try it on any small people you may know.

Based off here it looks like it's basically Debian Sarge with a set of useful applications - I assume the ones that have different names eg Zurbarán (Gimp 2.2) are localised builds.

Yes the education market is there to prepare people for life, that is exactly one key reason NOT to use windows.
Because one thing is certain, k12 students or event first year university students will NOT use the "current industry standard OS" in their professional life.
Even if by a total disaster microsoft is still the dominant platform in 5 to 15 years (i.e. when the potential student has finished his or her studies and is working) the chances that this environement will be similar to what we have today is quite slim.
Early 80s I and others convinced my colleages at the university to choose Unix as the standard operating system instead of what the MoE very forcefully recommended.
Our student should have been learning the "industry prefered OS", well 5 years latter they where very thankful that they had learned Unix and not GCOS Mod 400 (if you do not know what it is have no regret :-)).
Moreover even for non CS students having an open environement with a variety of possible tools and potentially the capacity to modify them is making a real positive difference, and helps then to really understand their future jobs.
Nevertheless it is true that efforts need to be done to manage the "mass management" of PCs, and to make more software disponible.
But this is exactly what the Gouvernment of Estremadura in Spain is doing very successfully. see http://www.linex.org/index.php?newlang=eng
Another point is that many school district do not want to go away from Microsoft because they do not have the technicians to manage the move, but maybe if some of the money that goes today in licences would go into jobs they would have the ressources, but this means also transforming "licence money" into "head counts", wich is "not trivial" :-).

Use LinEx.

It's a Linux distribution developed by the regional government of Extremadura (Spain) for elementary schools and high schools.

It's in Spanish and it's currently being used by hundreds (if not thousands) of schools. It's exactly what you need. And you can do a centralized remote management of the computers.

that a larger project in Extremadura, Spain, doesn't get this kind of attention (Some background for the spanish-impaired). It's already working (I thinks it's a little over two years now), it's been distributed to hundreds of thousands (including every desktop in the schools, one computer for every two students, mind you)... it even has inspired at least one already working project in Andalucía, Spain (and seeds of several others, as in Madrid, Zaragoza or Valencia; it seems all education in Spain is migrating to linux in the next few years).

that a larger project in Extremadura, Spain, doesn't get this kind of attention (Some background for the spanish-impaired). It's already working (I thinks it's a little over two years now), it's been distributed to hundreds of thousands (including every desktop in the schools, one computer for every two students, mind you)... it even has inspired at least one already working project in Andalucía, Spain (and seeds of several others, as in Madrid, Zaragoza or Valencia; it seems all education in Spain is migrating to linux in the next few years).

that a larger project in Extremadura, Spain, doesn't get this kind of attention (Some background for the spanish-impaired). It's already working (I thinks it's a little over two years now), it's been distributed to hundreds of thousands (including every desktop in the schools, one computer for every two students, mind you)... it even has inspired at least one already working project in Andalucía, Spain (and seeds of several others, as in Madrid, Zaragoza or Valencia; it seems all education in Spain is migrating to linux in the next few years).

Not knocking Spain (I lived there 3 years and LOVE it), but with an average income ~70% of the EU average, and Extremadura being the poorest region of Spain, and unemployment running at near 30%, 'extremely poor' might well be a valid descriptor.

However, they did win a 2004 European Regional Action Award with their GNU/LinEX project.

Hopefully, more projects like this will help them boost their economy.

The change that I asked Debian developers to make, some years ago, was to separate the two, such that we could refer people to Debian GNU/Linux without in the same act referring them also to the non-free software. This would make it possible for us to refer the public to Debian GNU/Linux. If in the future Debian GNU/Linux does not include the GNU manuals, this reference could not be wholeheartedly positive, but we could still make the reference.

In fact, the success of LinEx is being so great that it inspired other spanish communities, so that in Andalucia they've got Guadalinex. In Malaga, Andalucia, there was recently an Open Source World conference. There, about 5000 copies were distributed. Further 100.000 copies of Guadalinex will de distributed in 2004. Free software is alive and well in Spain, thank you :) We didn't get the press because Ballmer didn't visit us to offer 90% discounts.

Links:

Linex (their custom distro): http://www.linex.org/ (in Spanish); here's Google translation to English
Reprint of a Wash. Post article
a Wired article

Oh, yes! Right here! The average Joe can handle Linux just as well as he can handle Windows. Teach a little boy Linux from the very first moment he touches a keyboard and he'll be just fine. The sad part is the national government is in bed with Microsoft. Let's hope that little project keeps going.

Brilliant idea. Take a look at Linex which stands for Linux Extremadura a region of Southwest Spain on the Portuguese border. A lot of the site is available in English

The regional Government is strongly supporting the project and the idea is to have Linux in every school and government office. They are also supporting the neighbouring region of Andalucia in a project to install 15,000 computers running Linex in their schools.

ZB

I was under the impression that -no- distribution was 100% open source

RMS recommends GNU/LinEX as a completly Free Software(TM) distribution.

Well, just to be fair, I'll quote the "GNU/LinEx Technical Specs":

GNU/LinEx is based on GNU/Debian, a Linux distribution that, thanks to its design, makes it easy to create other distributions that can inherit its advantages and get rid of some of its faults [...]

In other words, GNU/LinEx is a modified version of the Debian GNU/Linux operating system. No, I don't even want to think what the proper name of the system should be if the GNU concept of proper credit is followed.

Debian still stands out as the distro most reflective of the GNU philosophy.

Actually, that's not true anymore. Things have changed and Debian is not the best example of free software or GNU. Check out GNU/Linex instead.

You'll not see a link to Debian from the FSF/GNU sites for this reason. Debian still distributes non-free software. Yes, you can install Debian without the optional non-free stuff, but they really do encourage installing non-free software on your system easily.

While RMS currently has a machine running Debian (without the non-free bits, I'm sure), he claims that it's because this new all-free distro (GNU/Linex) wasn't available at the time. See this recent RMS interview for more.

"I think considering Debian to be anything less than pristine free software is vaguely silly."
---
Especially as GNU/LinEx is simply a modified version of Debian and presumably allows the installation of the same (separate, clearly labelled and completely optional) non-free packages as any other Debian-derived system (even if such packages are not part of the base distribution). And why is their domain name 'linex.org, not 'gnulinex.org'? :-)

Only took a single google search to find this out.

The actual interview is already slashdotted, but from the discussion it seems that he reserves his endorsement for the "GNU/Linex" distribution (Linex's site also seems to be down at the moment -- collateral slashdotting?), because it doesn't even provide the option of installing "non-Free" packages. This is just nuts -- it's clear to me why RMS uses the word "Free" instead of "free" at this point: because the meaning of "Free" (and I defy anyone to give a consistent definition of the way that RMS uses the term, aside from "Whatever RMS thinks it should mean at the moment") has shifted so far from what any reasonable person would expect the word "free" to mean.

RMS: Linex is more Free because it doesn't allow you to install certain programs by default!

Use:: But since it restricts my ability to do things, doesn't that make it less free?

RMS: No no no. We're talking about Free, not free here. . .

(As an aside it's funny to see people denouncing michael for describing RMS as a zealot. For goodness sake FSF-guys, michael is on your side. That kinda attitude doesn't bode well for how this comment will be moderated, I suspect.)

This week, Steve Ballmer donated 25 million euros on licenses to Spanish govt to put Windows in schools (English ) (French), one of the places in which Linux is spreding more thanks to Linex and other projects that other places here in Spain are starting.

But as I see it, this is positive. This means they're afraid anough of Free Software that they have to give for free Windows licenses.

• CORBA is an OO-RPC system.
  
• ORBit is one of many open source implementations of CORBA.
  
• Bonobo is a set of interfaces ("contracts" if you will) to create compound-document applications and reusing "controls".
  
• D-BUS is a system-bus, more along the lines of Tooltalk than anything else. Its a broadcast system.
  

name one easy to use non profit linux thats designed for newbies. Just one

Linex, the government-sponsored linux from Extremadura, Spain. If I understand correctly it's basically a newbie-ized Debian.

Linex is not exactly a nonprofit as in an ngo or grassroots community project, so your point is well taken. However, now that so much work has been done it's easier to make a newbie-friendly distro than it was, for example, at the time when Stampede was trying to get off the ground.

linex.org appears to be using Slash for their website interface :-) Nice co-incidence!

Appears that these guys actually have their own Linux distribution called Linex. I think this is actually the distribution that will be distributed to schools etc. I expect it is based on Debian.

If you can read Spanish, there's more discussion about this on the Spanish version of Slashdot, Barrapunto And here's the Extramadura LUG.

It's great they have their "own" version of Linux - people are more likely to use it because they are proud of their region. Of course because 95% of people are clueless when it comes to computers, they will probably think that it has been invented there, just as many people believe Bill Gates invented "Windows". But in this case it's a good thing if people use it out of pride and it boosts uptake of Linux.

By the way, Extramadura is I believe the poorest region of Europe, not just Spain. But they have great weather, wine and food there, and the people really know how to have a good time (which could be why it's one of the poorest regions...)