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."

Comments

Office Apps

[fembots]

The friendly article didn't say it, but I assumed these schools will be using OO.o, not MS Office on WINE?

This is a strong movement because children tend to come back home and fiddle with home PCs (like installing games/trojans), so it's now more likely that more Macedonian homes will be running Linux too.

What I am not sure is the career future of these children of the future. Will they be better off in their career now that they are primed with OpenSource ideas, will they become the valuable elites in "knowledge-based exports" market, or will they be forced to re-learn MS once they enter workfoce?

Re:Office Apps

[dwillden]

I was stationed with the US Army in your beautiful little country in 2001 when the NLA tried to spread the Kosovo Fighting into Macedonia. Unlike most troops there I had a job that allowed and even required me to travel around your country extensively rather than remaining stuck on Camp Able Sentry or limited to the supply route to Kosovo

The US did not then and has not since supported any Albanian terrorists or even seperatists who were operating, or who even wanted to operate in Macedonia. We really haven't even supported those so inclined who live and operate in Kosovo, since we entered into Kosvo, if anything most of our effort is spent protecting Serbs from harassment and discrimination. We supported the Lawfully elected Macedonian Government (though we did encourage a few reformations to reduce the discrimination the Albanian minority thought it was suffereing, sometimes truthfully sometimes not.)

The funniest thing about that entire Insurgency/Civil War/Call it what you will, is that the entire time the NLA was certain that any day we were going to start helping them either actively with troops, or with weapons or supplies. But we never did. The US always supported the government, mostly with monetary aid.

Your accusation at the end of your post is unfounded and uncalled for. Although not really unexpected. Most the time we were there we were constantly being asked if the US still hated the Serbs. Which of course we the US never did, we just hated what some of them had been doing to Kosovars, and what they had done to non-Serbian Bosnians and Croats.

As to supporting Macedonians, we've had troops in Macedonia since it declared independance and asked for UN Peacekeepers to keep Serbia from trying anything like it did when other states broke off from Yugoslavia. We joined that mission and supported it until the Kosovo War. We transitioned our base to be the rear support base for our main force in Kosovo. We remained there until a couple years ago when we moved those support personnel up to Pristina in Kosovo.

Since the day The Republic of Macedonia (I heartily disagree with the politcally correct FYROM) declared independence, the US has supported the it and it's lawfully elected Government, and thus the majority of the people. We have supported your troops and police. We poured tons of money into your economy, and we definatly did not help the NLA or any follow-on groups.

Oh and as to the original article, yea Piracy is big there, I myself brought home a few disks with software and music on them. Hey, they were cheap and it poured some money into the economy. Oh, and on a non-piracy note, my wife really likes the custom tailored tux I got there that I wore on our wedding day. $100 (US) for a hand tailored Tux, awsome for a really skinny guy like me who has trouble finding clothes that fit.

Re:Office Apps

[steeviant]

Why you haven't been modded as a troll is beyond me, it's clear that you have no idea what you're talking about and you're just trying to stir up a hornets nest of replies. Anyway, here's some help for those moderating your drivel.

"Linux development is BUILT on providing support. I'm convinced that keeping the whole thing confusing and back-ass-ward is the thing driving the support-based business model. I mean... without delving too deep into the details... let's just look at the names chosen for software.

The current topic is application/package updating... you mentioned 'Synaptic' 'KPackage' 'Adept' and 'apt-get'...

Now... These programs are probably wonderful for what they do. I'm sure that they're useful, secure, lightweight, etc, etc. But all of the engineering in the world can't save a system if the human interface people goto sleep. How would any person (who doesn't already know) know to run 'Adept' to upgrade their software? or 'Synaptic'? or before all of this GUI stuff, 'apt-get'? Especially when anyone switching from Windows or OSX is accustomed to a system that allows them to install programs by double clicking on a 'install' file on their desktop."

Those who use OS X are used to dragging applications into the /Applications directory as a matter of fact, Windows users are used to the Next,Next,Next,Finish method, and Linux users are used to installing applications via a package manager built into their distribution of choice. They are different operating systems with different methods of installing software. No surprises there.

In Ubuntu, the apt front end Synaptic is described in the menu as "Synaptic Package Manager", there's also another (easier) front end to apt get is included, called "Add Applications". I can see how that might be confusing for people who have trouble reading, but it seems pretty obvious to me.

As you so rightly point out, simple, intuitive labling of applications seems to be the accepted route to making things a little easier on the users, and that's (unsurprisingly) the way that Ubuntu has gone.

"I know as well as the next guy that there's a fun 'secret-club' mentality to the OSS crowd. It really seems as though most software names are chosen to be intentionally missleading (or random as hell). Clever names that don't give a clue as to the nature of the program don't enhance the software. They detract from it. There are a few things that could be learned from MS/Apple... (what? most everything else has already been stolen... and re-stolen. There's a reason your KDE/Gnome desktop has an application menu in the bottom-left corner... not all of you... but i'm sure most lol. It's the default afterall.)
"

So the gist of your rant is that some Linux programs are badly named because their names don't describe their purpose? Yeah because Oracle, PowerPoint, Visio and Quicken are really obvious names that describe exactly what you're getting right?

You're acting like a buffoon, you can't expect to migrate to another operating system and instantly know the name of every application you need, programs aren't named "File Manager" and "Word Processor" because you'd run out of names pretty damn quick. Any operating system requires you to learn about it before you can use it effectively, and one of the things you need to learn is what applications do what, and which of the 10 zillion applications out there that do the same thing fits best with your workflow. You can't expect all of them to be called the same thing, but expecting them to be clearly labelled in the Applications menu isn't unreasonable. Nor, however is it uncommon, especially on Ubuntu.

One more thing... Ubuntu (like most other GNOME based distros) puts the Applications menu in the top left by default, not the bottom left. Perhaps you might want to try actually using Ubuntu before you criticize it with complaints that just don't apply.

"Apple -> System Update
Microsoft -> Automatic Update
Open Source Community

Re:Office Apps

[ddimas]

WTF are you talking about? Macedonia, or as you would obviously prefer it, FYROM is an independent country, geographically located just between Serbia and Greece. What would their name or territorial claims have to do with Serbia?

They are a Bulgarian (dialect) speaking sub-population of old Serbia. The ethnic composition is nearly 100% Slav or Albanian. They are no more Macedonian than Queen Elizabeth I. Certain Pakistanis have a better claim on calling themselves Macedonians than those people, as they are decended from Alexander the Great's soldiers and ACTUALLY SPEAK THE ANCIENT GREEK DIALECT!

Macedonians are a Greek speaking people of ancient hertiage, they are mainly concentrated in NW Greece, southern Bulgaria, and Albania. Oh yes, a small portion of them live in the southern parts of the Former Yugoslav Republic Of Macedonia. Their cultural center is the port city of Thessalonika, and that city is what this is about.

Glad to see...

[DimGeo]

Glad to see our south-western brothers get it right. Nothing better than teaching children to use C++ with KDevelop + QT Designer, and in Ubuntu that setup is always just a few mouse clicks away.

Mutual Exclusion?

[Pantero Blanco]

How exactly do you have such a high software piracy rate when only 5% of the people have Internet? Yeah, I know people can copy things at home and hand them out or sell them, but it seems like that couldn't spread things fast enough to come close to the rate in other countries.

Re:The Article

[MrApples]

I also question whether that what gets installed is also that what gets used by the pupils or schools later on. Once their infrastructure is getting better, people start to experiment (even pupils at home). That's how we all learned about Linux and I doubt that the 468 schools and some 182 computer labs continue staying with GNOME once they find themselves trap into many problems that they can not solve. I think from the 5000 Desktops that are planned - only half of them will remain with GNOME (in best). The other half will continue piracing Windows or switch to something else.

I found Linux because of experimentation yes, but I was only experimenting because of my disgust with Windows. My thought is that if these kids are introduced to Linux before they become acustomed to Windows, they will be much less inclined to switch to Windows after experiencing the (subjective) benefits of Linux.
As for finding themselves trapped in problems, I do not agree. I have done my fair share of deploying Ubuntu for inexperienced Linux users, and it has always turned out well. I feel that both Gnome as a desktop environment and Ubuntu as a distribution are easily mature enough for this scenario.

I hope them the best in their endeavor, and that others follow suit.

Operating System classes

[Freaky Spook]

It used to be the argument between rich & poor schools. "We have a gym, swimming pool, theater, you don't have anything!!!" Now its, "We run Windows, your poor, you run Linux!!!" Open Source is a really good idea though, it will give pepole many more opportunities to access & use computers.

FSM did a great job

[Karaman]

Free Software is a winner once more. Alas, not everywhere. I live in a neighboring country, Bulgaria, and it looks like our last government made a life-contract with MS for our schools and state administration. Corruption, you will ask, yes, a contractor which is in close relation to the government supplied all the MS products and there was no public auction for this contract. The MS products were even bought at higher than normal prices. And one more thing: There are computers in the state administration somewhere in smaller towns, that can only run DOS, but they still have bought MS WINXP for these PCs. And the contract being for life means as long as MS suppllies products our children will be forced to use Windows at school and call themselves computer-skilled. For me it is the worst nightmare. Go go go, Free Software Macedonia! I wish you more success!

Re:Who's laughing now?

[wile_e_wonka]

Do you trust Wikipedia?

If not, how about the CIA's World Factbook?

In one last ditch effort, if Wikipedia and the CIA are too shady for you, how about the self declared First Macedonian WWW Page? (I might note that the bottom of this page mentions that it "was rated in the 'Top 5% of the Web'")