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Macedonia Deploys 5,000 Ubuntu Desktops in Schools
vladoboss writes "The latest GNOME Journal is running a story about the deployment of 5000 Ubuntu desktops in public schools. The Republic of Macedonia is a small country in Southern Europe with a population of around 2 million. Internet penetration is only around 5% and software piracy rate is rampant. Also, the government does not play any major role in the development of the ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) and a private sector is dominated by Microsoft technologies. Given the circumstances, one would not expect any free software related stories to make the headlines. Yet the presence of a small volunteer organization by the name Free Software Macedonia is making a big difference in this small country."
Simple. Local markets. They sell them there, the police don't bother with them for the most part, its pretty much the same as markets in china, all the software you could ever want for a few pennies (or cents).
"I may be full of crap about this game, and I may be wrong, and that's fine." -Jack Thompson
I assume you're referring to the apt-get package management tool when you say that you must use the CLI to upgrade packages. Are you not aware of Synaptic, KPackage, Adept, and other graphical and easy-to-use frontends for apt-get? I believe Ubuntu even has it's own 'update-manager' program used specificically for upgrading packages (as opposed to general package management).
Also, I didn't RTFM, but I would imagine this 'Free Software Macedonia' group mentioned in the blurb will be providing them whatever trivial support they require. I don't see why the rollout wouldn't succeed.
Huh? The only time I had to go to a CLI in an Ubuntu installation was once when the computer had some oddball hardware. Nine times (or more) out of ten, Ubuntu installs and runs without a hitch.
Great victory for Ubuntu, and Linux in general. I have to wonder if Ubuntu wouldn't be even more popular if it didn't have such a stupid name. Sometimes I think that's the only reason that RedHat ever took off...only Linux distro without a strange name.
You ask why they would put KDE on Ubuntu instead of using Kubuntu? Uh, Kubuntu *is* just Ubuntu with KDE put on it. You can do apt-get install kubuntu-desktop on a Ubuntu box.
Kubuntu is just the name of the Ubuntu install cd that installs KDE instead of Gnome by default.
So the parent post was right in saying that "that setup is always just a few mouse clicks away".
You know, Microsoft's street address also says a lot about their mentality.
They are, unfortunately, being killed, constantly, but by Albanian separatists. They were promissed help by the U.S. , but since they have no oil they got nothing. Most of Macedonians still live in fear of Albanian terorists, who rampage, kill people, raid vilages and bomb cities allmost every few days.
The only ones the U.S. helped there are the Albanians. Islamic extremist and terorists are allways welcome in Europe, by the U.S., especially when they have drugs money to pay for CIA instructors.
Here are some other good links
An Interview with Peter Cemerikic, CEO of Macedonian ISP On.Net
Arangel Angov of Free Software Macedonia talks about Linux
Lessons from Macedonia's national school wi-fi network
It is not really a matter of greek nationalism. What we are trying to avoid is nationalism. I have no objection to an official name including the term Macedonia. But the name "Republic of Macedonia" is misleading and could lead to FYROM demanding greek grounds in the future (a part of the geographical area Macedonia is now in Greece and another one in Bulgary). Take into consideration the fact the imperialism always needs rivalries between nations and takes advantage of situations like this one...
;-).
Anyway, congratulations to the Free Software Macedonia group! I would have no objection to them promoting free software in our part of Macedonia too
Something to keep in mind about the Balkans:
They are - and have been - and probably will be - a political and religious powderkeg.
Greeks in particular have a few things to be pissed about. The religious leader of their faith is in a different country because of how the lines were redrawn post-WWI. Hundreds of thousands were massacred in Asia Minor during the '20s by the Turks, but no one there will admit to it. (And yes, I know, they didn't get the worst of it. It was still brutal.)
In 1452, they (and the rest of the Orthodox world) lost their highest cathedral to the Ottomans, who desecrated parts of Hagia Sophia and turned it into a mosque. (Think of it as though St Peter's were conquered by Iran.) Now it's used solely as a tourist site.
The name of Macedonia was assigned to the former southern province of communist Yugoslavia in 1952 by Tito.
There's no historic basis for the name; the region of Macedonia whence Philip and Alexander came from was much further south.
Yes, at the time, there was no concept of Hellenic unity; that developed mainly after the Latin conquest of Constantinople in 1204, which put the final nail in the coffin of unity between Rome and Constantinople. However, there was this understanding that they spoke the same tongue, they learned the same thought (pop quiz: who taught Alexander?), they spread the same ideas and believed in the same faith as everyone else on the peninsula now known as Greece.
The Balkans as a whole are rife with religious and ethnic hates going back centuries. The Catholics hate the Orthodox, and both hate the Muslims. The Croatians and Albanians and Serbians are at each others' throats, the Greeks hate the Albanians for taking part of their country, the Turks for the same reason as well as the historical stuff, and everybody hate the Roma (gypsies).
The only thing that kept a lid on Yugoslavia's ethnic groups, well, was the iron fist of Tito.
I used to be someone else. Now I'm someone better.
Real life is underrated.
Whereas we could go into any of the CD shops in town and get the same disks for just a few cents more. Or we could even go onto the NATO Base where there was a CD shop and again pay that same cheap rate. With the exchange rate in 2001 it cost $2.50 per disk and thats how everything was sold, on a per disk basis. A CD with hundreds of MP3's or a direct bootleg of a just released Album, or a copy of the latest version of MS Office or any other software you wanted was just $2.50.
And as to bringing said bootleg CD's home, all Customs cared was that you were not bringing multiple copies of the same product back to try to sell.
I'm too lazy to compose a creative sig.
After installing Ubunu I have had to use the CLI for the following reasons:
:)
1. To compile ndiswrapper for my wireless card
2. To install the official ATI drivers
3. To use vim
I'm very impressed by the polish of the Ubuntu distribution and will recommend it to others