Slashdot Mirror
French Kids Get OSS on USB Sticks
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?
Well...I just spent 2 unsuccessful hours trying to get a new monitor to work under Fedora. It took a matter of minutes with XP. Sure, I've Googled the problem, and I probably am on the road to getting it working...but not yet (I've had enough for one day). It's a monitor! It should be the easiest thing in the world to install!!! Honestly, live CD's are neat, various distributions are fine, but Linux has to get a helluva lot easier to use. Developers need to stop saying "Well golly gee it's easy for me, it should be for you" and start focusing on what is actually easy for someone that is unfamiliar. Endless editing of configuration files is not going to win over users. My current monitor install is only my most recent issue. But "issues" seem to come up all too frequently. Usually I fight it out until things are working...but this is an unpleasant process when I have to sit there knowing I could resolve the same problem under Window in minutes. Sure, it comes down to familiarity with the system, but even after using Linux for several years I still find it to be a royal pain in the ass whenever I have to do something new or change anything...Sure, the answers are out there, but it usually requires consulting multiple books, lots of googling, hoping that someone else has had the same problem as me, and LOTS of time spent. I have no problem learning new things, but I (and many other people) don't have time for this much screwing around. Honestly, I think anyone that considers that to be an acceptable state of "ease of use" for the hypothetical "someone" thats never used linux...is out of their mind. When thing work...they work great, but sometimes it just seems like the amount of effort required to GET things working is unacceptable. I'm frustrated right now, and maybe this was a bit of a rant...but I think more thought needs to be given to what the knowledge/patience/experience level of the majority of computer users actually is, rather than projecting the "knowledge/patience/experience level" of your average linux user onto them.
First of all, both GP and P (from your post's perspective), are moderated Flamebait, so that particular problem is solved.
Second, a disagreement with a specific moderation is a very bad reason to condemn an entire site.
Preserve old classics: copy your collection onto all hard drives.
It's ok. Some people read their Weekly Taboo Words lists. They can then rev up to righteous outrage mode whenever one of those no-no words is mentioned. They can't do other than that, only parrot latest memes and feel they belong in some group.
Mob/herd mentality at its finest, I'm so proud of them. They showcase how year 2000 is another 2000 years away from when human mind will be as developed as our current technology. We don't live in trees anymore but we're still half monkeys, pushing patches of fur here and there.
So don't feel bad if some people label your posts flamebait or troll. They're trying their best to be useful parts of their communities, like we all do.
Another banana, anyone?
Preserve old classics: copy your collection onto all hard drives.
I noticed on the news a couple of weeks ago that Britain has just made it's last payment on a loan from the US to pay for reconstruction after WWII, the final payment was around £85 Million and I think the last of 50 payments ( each one paid annually from 1950 ).
I think Britain needed this loan because during the beginning of the war it was paying cash on delivery for huge amounts of material from the US which used up its reserves until Britain was having in territory handed over to the US. When the US entered the war then I think lend lease began where Britain got as much stuff as we wanted but anything left over after the war needed to be paid for at 10% of it's initial cost.
So Britains debts to the US for WWII are paid off now but Britan still apparently owes the £885 from the then of World War I which we stopped paying off in around 1930 when the debt was worth £4.4 Billion. In todays money that is around £225 Billion. Lots of countries owed the US after WWI but I think most of them also stopped paying around 1930, the loans haven't been cancelled and are in theory still outstanding.
Even that debt however is dwarfed by the amount owed to Britain for it's help in WWI by other countries which at the end of the war amounted to £2.2 Billion which according to my calculation might be worth today £5.5x10^19. Unfortunately no records exist in the archives saying who the countries are which owe us this.