KDE Desktops For 52 Million Students In Brazil

An anonymous reader writes "Mauricio Piacentini writes about a deployment of systems running Linux and KDE in Brazil's schools; some 52 million students are to be served by this initiative. 'What is interesting about this project is that it not only provides infrastructure (computers and net connectivity) but also open content to students in public schools. The software installed on these systems is "Linux Educacional 2.0," a very clean Debian-based distribution, with KDE 3.5, KDE-Edu, KDE-Games, and some tools developed by the project.' The distro comes in Portuguese only at this time." quarterbuck notes that Linux is making other inroads in the BRIC economies (Brazil-Russia-India-China): India and China are getting a custom-designed Ubuntu laptop from Dell, and Russia is making their own Ubuntu laptop this year.

Comments

A major win for Open Source

[elh_inny]

This is very important.

Back when I were in school, we had no other choice than to use Windows. Even back then, I realized the clever tactic of Microsoft - if everyone is taught to use Windows the have plenty of market.
But Microsoft is just too greedy, instead of giving the software away to educators, which, in the en would result in bigger market share, insist on licensing and charging everyone - which in turn makes initiatives like these worthwhile.

The only marketing methods I've been exposed to as admin for a bunch of libraries, is the scare and bribery methods they used on a country-wide level, which resulted in M$ centric solutions being shoved down our throats.

The director of the libraries I've working on, has been told that installing Linux will result in BSA audit. We did, nothing happened, obviously, but all the other libraries are still using Windows servers.

And paying for that, instead of buying books or journals.

This has happened in EU approx 3 years ago.

Re:A major win for Open Source

[penguin_dance]

Back when I were in school, we had no other choice than to use Windows. Even back then, I realized the clever tactic of Microsoft - if everyone is taught to use Windows the have plenty of market.

But Microsoft is just too greedy, instead of giving the software away to educators, which, in the en would result in bigger market share, insist on licensing and charging everyone - which in turn makes initiatives like these worthwhile.

Early on in the US, Apple was donating systems to schools in order accomplish the same thing. But by the time MS got involved, they already got a foothold on business. Most people wanted a computer that was compatible with the type they used at work. MS gave some licenses away, but just like a crack dealer they just gave them enough to replace Apples with PCs. The next hit you pay for. Then it became the defacto OS and so the school hierarchy thought--no sense teaching children the Apple when business are all using Windows....

The director of the libraries I've working on, has been told that installing Linux will result in BSA audit. We did, nothing happened, obviously, but all the other libraries are still using Windows servers.

Yes, I'm sure the MS rep told him that!

If this was not Linux or F/OSS

[zappepcs]

These press releases would also state how many millions of dollars these contracts are worth to the company supplying the products.

What is even better about this is that not only is there no dollar value in the story to make it worth hearing, but millions and millions of people will be using F/OSS software rather than beginning a life of paying for the privilege of 'using' software.

So the story is about success and growth rather than money and contracts. A positive story. Sure, it's good for Dell monetarily, and Ubuntu too but it's not all about money, profit, and contracts. Just reading it make me feel the world is a bit more free.

(cynicism on) How long before we see stories about MS doing deals to counteract these successes? (cynicism off)

Re:If this was not Linux or F/OSS

[zappepcs]

While I agree with you on the point of both being exploited, having used both I have to say that GNU/Linux (Ubuntu) is far more securely set up right out of the box than any Windows installation. period.

There is nothing in the Windows world that ever gave me the joy that I experienced last night: I logged into my Ubuntu laptop and up popped a window for updates. It said there is a new version of Ubuntu ready and asked if I would like to upgrade. Sure, it took all night to upgrade, but it was FREE! All I had to give was my consent.

This morning I had a cup of coffee, scanned the news, and checked out Ubuntu 8.04 briefly. This is an experience that Windows users will never have. Specifically I mean free upgrades, improvements, patches (free for both-ish, but you never know exactly why or what MS is patching) and security improvements. The sense that I get from GNU/Linux and F/OSS is that they are working to HELP me, not the other way around.

Point of info: I donated to Fedora, Ubuntu, DSL, Puppy, OOo, Gimp, ClamAV, and will probably donate to others this year if I find I'm using their code regularly. So when I say free I don't mean I'm freeloading. I truly feel that I'm getting damned good value for the money I donated.

Eventually, there will be an exploit but in the meantime I'm not paying someone to put that exploit on my machine for them, I'm donating money to pay for the hard work that went into creating world class software that I use. There is quite a difference between the two cultures, even if both will be attacked at some point.

Back on topic, the F/OSS world is opening up the information age to many people who would not otherwise be privy to it. That means an entire class of people are giving this to them, sharing it with them. RMS should be proud of what he has promoted and done.

Microsoft caught in the middle

[javilon]

Apple is getting the high margin users that want a good desktop experience, and Linux is getting more and more users that need good value deals.

Microsoft is in the middle, giving up market share on both sides.

Re:wrong headline, wishful thinking

[Anonymous Coward]

say what you will, but remember, while these children are not getting the best of linux, they are getting linux experience. Using , linux I've made more friendships and awesome contacts than I ever thought possible. I've had people let me into their homes, knowing very little about me, besides the fact that I was going to help them uninstall microsoft. They knew nothing of linux. Many times linux gave me strange problems with hardware issues. By having them sit with me while I checked the community for help, they saw what I saw: Computer users coming together as a community. This feeling that we shared is now available for 36 million school aged children? No matter what anyone says of the distro, the number of children, or anything else, these children are now given access to the one educational precept that will guide them for the rest of their lives. Each one teach one. The community will only spread with these types of initiatives. Someday, you may see them posting on slashdot, praising that initial step as the reason they went on to higher education. You may see them on IRC, helping one of our own. You may yawn, and this is ill advised. You see, when initiatives such as this arrise, it is up to all of us to collectively stand, and applaud.

Re:Poor Brazilians.

[phpmysqldev]

This summary is a little misleading. According to TFA there will be about 55k labs serving 50mil students. (and i thought labs were crowded at college)
This is definitely a step in the right direction for a developing country, but it doesn't seem to have the large scale plans of say the XO laptop program.
At least its Linux though...wonder if theyll be getting hardy heron anytime soon?

Re:Excellent!

[daliman]

Do you really have such a problem with hardware support?

I only buy hardware with Linux support. The companies I have worked for, when they have decided on Linux, ensure that the hardware they buy will work with the OS they have selected.

Hardware support has not been a large problem for me. Drivers are not a huge problem.

Re:Excellent!

[kebes]

If the numbers in TFA are true (36 million students, growing to 52 million by the end of 2009), then this is absolutely huge in terms of Linux install base. In fact, I think this project would approximately double the install base.

I know that "counting" the number of Linux installs is essentially impossible, but here are some random numbers I've accumulated that point to the approximate size of the Linux user base:
1. The Linux Counter estimated 29 million installs in 2005. This estimate involved numerous assumptions, such as extrapolating from 8 million installs reported by Red Hat in 1998.
2. According to an IDC study, the Linux marketshare for PCs was ~3% in 2003.
3. There are about 1 billion Internet users. Browser logs indicate that Linux accounts for ~0.8% to ~3.9% of web traffic. This gives us an estimate of 8 million to 39 million Linux users. (The upper estimate is undoubtedly an over-estimate since the value comes from W3Schools, which probably has a greater fraction of 'technical' users.)
4. According to Canonical's server logs from OS updates, there are approximately 6 million active users of Ubuntu (see here and here). Assuming that Ubuntu represents 30% of Linux usage (based on this), you can come up with an estimate of 20 million Linux users.
5. According to Fedora's logs for OS updates, there are approximately 2.8 million installations of Fedora Core 6, and 1.6 million of Fedora 7. Assuming Fedora represents 9% of Linux installs (again, based on this), you can estimate 48 million Linux users.

Obviously all of these methods have their own problems. I'm not claiming that any of these estimates are robust. However they do at least suggest a range for the number of Linux users (~20 million) and the marketshare of Linux (~1% to 2%).

So, this single project, it would seem, is drastically increasing (doubling?) Linux usage. This is huge, in my opinion, because a generation of students who have learned Linux will be far more likely to use and improve upon FLOSS when they enter the job market.

Building a new PC vs. switching

[tepples]

I only buy hardware with Linux support

That's good if you're building a new computer. I think timeOday's problem is that (s)he is trying to switch an existing computer from Windows to Linux or from Windows to dual-boot Windows/Linux. In that case, you have to choose software that works with what you have unless you want to have to replace 10 to 50 percent of your hardware.

For those building a new computer, such as the situation of the article, do you recommend particular brands of Linux-compatible desktop or laptop PC hardware?

That must be why

[symbolset]

PC shipments for the last quarter are up 12% over the same quarter last year, and Windows revenues are down 24% over the same period. Serious changes are happening.