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Australian State May Give Students Linux Laptops

Posted by kdawson on from the keep-it-cheap dept.

Whiteox writes "The Australian Prime Minister's plan to equip high schools with 'one laptop per child' may go open source. Kevin Rudd's $56 million digital revolution will include 'laptops [that will] run on an open source operating system with a suite of open source applications like those packaged under Edubuntu. This would include Open Office for productivity software, Gimp for picture editing and the Firefox internet browser.' So far this has been considered for New South Wales and I think other states may follow."

2 of 302 comments (clear)

  1. The real reason behind this... by MavEtJu · · Score: 5, Interesting

    NSW secondary school students could be issued with $56 million worth of Linux-based laptops as part of Kevin Rudd's digital education revolution.

    The real reason behind this is that the federal government would supply the *hardware*, but that the schools would have to pay for the *software licenses* and the *support*. At least the price for software licenses would be greatly reduced now.

    (Despite being a FreeBSD user,) I consider this is a good step forward: Give the children wooden blocks to play with, and they will build bridges with them.

    --
    bash$ :(){ :|:&};:
  2. Re:Times are different now. by cheater512 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    They will not only learn how to use the open source apps, they will also then get on a Windows computer and realize how much it crashes and does quirky things.

    One problem with Windows users is they dont consciously realize when something has gone wrong.
    They just think 'Oh its crashed' and re-open the app.
    They think its just how computers are.