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23,000 Linux PCs For Filipino Schools
Da Massive writes "Speaking at the linux.conf.au event in Melbourne, Australia, independent open source consultant Ricardo Gonzalez has told of how he has helped bring 23,000 Linux PCs to over 1000 schools in the Philippines: 'Ministers in the Filipino government now understand Linux can do so much for so little outlay.'" The slow process of educating a government that knew only Microsoft is especially well described in this piece.
Let me preface this by saying that I am one of the biggest linux geeks you're ever going to meet. I run gentoo on my laptop, as well as on my Desktop at work. I have installed Ubuntu on my sisters' laptops and my mom's Desktop. I do graphic design work in scribus and inkscape.
I'm a linux geek....but
If the true goal of a computer program for a school is to ready its students for the workplace, then is linux really the best method of doing so? Isn't the school in some way doing its students a dis-service my training them on a computing method that they will very likely never use again?
As much as i DESPISE some of microsoft's products (i admin a damn win2k3 server...do i really need to explain WHY i hate microsoft?) i understand that in order to function in a modern workplace, the ability to navigate microsoft windows is almost as essential as any other office skill.
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The Philippines is such a poor country, it's about damn time they wised up and chose the free option. Although, I can't help to think that with so much corruption in every aspect of the government and business over there. I'll be surprised if this pans out in the end.
No todo lo que es oro brilla
Most of the public and private schools here only computer textbooks that is only related to MS products. What I find funny is that, they can't afford to buy those Office suites and operating systems in the first place, yet they are teaching them. There is nothing wrong with teaching it but then again it boils down to the fact that they had to pirate these software just to be able to practice what they teach \ learn.
Recently, BSA had been hot on companies and large educational institutions here, I have seen some smaller educational institutions switch most of their OS to Fedora since they could only afford to show a number of licenses. There are also raids conducted on local internet cafes but the rumor is that, they are not BSA but the local NBI units trying to make some money. Because of these factors, most cafes that only offer printing and internet surfing switched to Linux also. The only cafes I know in our area that run windows are those gaming cafes and those located at known malls.
Yes, we had been pretty much dependent on MS as a nation. At least this is a good step in the right direction. Even though DSL is pretty much affordable by middle classes here, the combination of OS and Office seems to be much, many just pirate them leading to numerous unpatched systems that are always online, coupled with users who only know the basics.
On second thought, we should really do something about the whole educational mess we are right now. Not just regarding computers / technology.
Or is resistance futile?
As a Filipino - and by the way, the comments here are very very disturbing - I am happy this is pushing through. If you are living here, Microsoft Windows IS the most dominant OS around here, with a few exceptions of other who used Macs. The only Linux users I knew are those that belong to my local Linux user group and programmers like me. But ever since the crackdown of BSA on schools regarding pirated copies of Windows and others, schools here (or at least in my city) reacted by moving some of their machines to Linux, using OpenOffice.org and using Firefox. Of course Windows machine didn't evaporated overnight but at least we are on the right track.
God gave Linux, the devil gave BSD, and a hacker gave Bill the MS-DOS - anonymous
In addition to that, it might be more rewarding in the long term to tech the student solution that they can own themselves.
Teaching Microsoft in 3rd world countries, mean creating a new generation of users that will completely dependant on an foreign solution, and that one day, the workforce of the country will spend significant amount of money which will be spent overboard and will go to the pocket of a foreign company.
This guarantee future bleeding of money : you have a nice new emerging IT environment that strives to develop, and most of the earned money will exit the country in term of license.
On the other hand, teaching open source software will help the new generation realise that these solution exist, and that they can take them as their own. Instead of having a Microsoft unleashing BSA-like dogs to crackdown on unlicensed copies, they have access to FSF software whose philosophy is "do whatever pleases you with it *AS LONG AS* you keep guaranteeing the same freedom when you passes it around".
Once this generation grows and enter into the workforce, a lot of busyness opportunities may appear that don't depend on foreign companies. Thanks to OSS, local solution my be developed, with new emerging companies basing their solution on infrastructure they can own themselves. The earnings from such companies will stay inside the country and help stir up the economy.
Free software empowers emerging countries, whereas proprietary software represents one additional way to lock them into a permanent dependence on foreign companies that will bleed out of the country the earning of emerging IT busyness.
That doesn't matter much for rich countries. But learning that you don't necessarily need to depend on some US company is very important in emerging markets.
Also, as you said, given the difference between Office 2007 and, let's say, Office 97, and given that these children will also be at least 10 years away from entering the workforce (and much more for those few who'll manage to go to universities) learning a specific interface implementation is completely pointless. What they need is to learn some basic concept in computing (what is word processing vs. which button should be clicked). And Linux is just as good as anything else for that.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
This is good news, yet I wonder why they went with Fedora instead of a localized distro?
( http://bayanihan.gov.ph/ )
My rights don't need management.
The Philippines is pretty low on budget. Not because we lack certain industries or we have a crappy economy, but because those dumb-ass politicians we have keep most of our tax money in their pockets. Mostly, they don't start projects they wouldn't profit from. When a certain amount of money is alloted to a certain project, they find ways to cheapen the price and keep the change for themselves. They see Linux as their cash-cow. They get praise for computerizing the public school system (which gets them votes) and they keep the remaining amount of money they save from not purchasing licenses from Microsoft.
Anyway, in the Philippines, Computer Gaming/Internet shops are quite ubiquitous. These shops are often jam-packed with students of all ages from different walks of life who play MMOGs for 20 pesos an hour (about 50 cents). And the kids with computers have cheap 100 peso (a little over $2) pirated copies of Windows in their systems. This already provides them with enough Windows know-how.
Linux is really a lot better anyway, and the kids here today have to learn to realize that.
Well, Linux in such a context ("to ready students") isn't a method. It can be a tool (and so can Windows) of a given method. And the method can be adequate or inadequate.
As to the method, who knows what students will use in the future? At work or at home?
Schools (if they are not to be short-sighted) should enable students with skills that will allow them to use any tool, existing ones and specially future ones, unknown ones. Training to use one program instead of another based on current market shares is short-sighted.
I read a circa 1969 book by Lauro de Oliveira Lima commenting on a 1960 text by Marshall McLuhan. Both wrote how education would (or should) be in the future (and wrote about the future itself). Lauro de Oliveira Lima made quite a compelling argument about how education is about the future and the unknown. For the students are supposedly being prepared for a future life, work and a society that is unknown and unpredictable.
My point is, training someone to use Windows or Office is short-sighted education (and possibly inadequate education, if the student doesn't develop skills to learn to use any tool he may encounter. And he may encounter Windows, Linux, Solaris etc).
But the point of using gnu/linux or any other free or open source software in an education context is goes beyond the possibility of using certain tools. It's about the possibilty of understanding those tools, modifying those tools and creating new tools. It's about empowerment. And even if it remains as an unfulfilled possibility it remains as a door that can still be opened.
From such a point of view the use of linux, inkscape etc in an education context could be part of an open-ended education effort which aims at the future. And then comes to mind a Robert Heinlein quote:
Education should not be about Windows or Linux, but about being able to use any one of them, understand the differences, be prepared to choose and to deal with whatever the future brings.
Cheers,
P.S.: I use Ubuntu at home since 2004. And before that Gentoo and Debian.
'Ministers in the Filipino government now understand Linux can do so much for so little outlay.'
There. That just about sums it up.
Seven Days with Ubuntu Unity
"We wanted to use Fedora 5 and it went all the way to office of [the Filipino] President and they kept passing it around saying 'why would they offer something for free, and how would they support and teach it'," Gonzalez said. "The project dragged on for four to five months to a point where Microsoft matched the price by offering Windows XP for $US20 a copy and throwing in Office for $US30, but we still came out cheaper. Microsoft was also providing free training to high school teachers."
That is the sound of inevitability.
If I have seen further it is by stealing the Intellectual Property of giants.
Having been born in the Philippines and still have most of my family there (last time I was there was 2006), I can tell you that it's not going to make any difference.
Every business is still tied to windows, and every kid's PC at home is still windows (God forbid you give them a PC that can't play Ragnarok!)
Trying to find a computer reseller that will sells pre-loaded boxes with linux is needle in a haystack work.
If you want to really effect change, then you need to change the thinking of the chinese filipinos, they are really the ones running the country (seriously!), not the locals.