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French Kids Get OSS on USB Sticks

Posted by Zonk on from the fun-way-to-travel dept.

daria42 writes "To help make kids aware of alternatives to proprietary software the Ile-de-France, the political district of greater Paris, will give 175,000 school children and apprentices USB keys loaded with open-source software. With a word-processing program, audio and video playback capabilities, an email client and an IM client, these are essentially computers on a stick. The council touts this as 'represent[ing] for students a tool of freedom and mobility between their school, cybercafes and their home or friends' PCs'." With the prevalence of internet cafes in Europe, that might work better than in the US ... but do you think such a project would work here as well? If so, what software would you want to see loaded up?

3 of 313 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I bet this USB sticks will be used... by fyoder · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...to store just music or other files.

    Yup. When I was a lad back in elementary school many years ago, they gave us all copies of the New Testament. A friend of mine carved through the pages of his to create a secret compartment.

    You can lead a kid to the gospel, be it Christianity or OSS, but you can't make him use it. At least not as you might intend.

    --
    Loose lips lose spit.
  2. Boot from USB? by DavidD_CA · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't the point here be to boot fromthe USB to run the OS that is pre-loaded on the stick?

    If it's just OSS apps, and you're still requiring Windows OS, then it's not that revolutionary. Why would the user bother with te USB stick if the computer is already booted into Windows and has popular apps loaded?

    Not to mention I would suspect that most Net Cafes would prevent booting from a USB device because they want you to run the special "cafe" software they usually have that prompts for your credit card, tracks your time, etc.

    Now, if an entire university had a bunch of computer labs with absolutely no pre-installed OS, and gave all their students these USB sticks (with an OS to boot from), then that might be something.

    --
    -David
  3. Re:We Hate France by tomhudson · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "Hehe .. the French weren't hot about it because it wasn't in their fucking interest."

    Maybe the french weren't hot about it because:

    1. ... it was contrary to international law ...

    2. ... it was stupid even then (but stupid is as stupid does) ...

    3. ... not all alternatives had been exhausted (many countries were ready to back the Canadian initiative)

    4. ... it was seen as blatantly war-for-oil and a porkbarrel war (Blackwater, etc)

    5. ... there was (and still is) no exit strategy ...

    6. ... the public pronouncements were already known to be lies (Colin Powell's UN presentation, for example)

    7. ... "a quick war" my arse ... only an ID-10-T would say or believe that ...

    Or you could look at the latest polls http://www.ipsos-na.com/news/client/act_dsp_pdf.cf m?name=mr070122-2topline.pdf&id=3334

    1. 2/3 of those polled said the country was on the wrong track
    2. 65% disapprove of Bush's handling of iraq. Only 17% "strongly approve", compared to 42% who "strongly disapprove"
    3. his party is behind the dems on every topic polled as to "who would do a better job"
    4. 83% perceive George Bush as stubborn, the majority (54%) also said he wasn't honest

    The majority of the US doesn't like Bush. It's not a "French thing." Get over it.