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Free Software For All Russian Schools In Jeopardy

Posted by kdawson on from the borg-not-taking-it-lying-down dept.

Glyn Moody writes "Last year, we discussed here a Russian plan to install free software in all its schools. Seems things aren't going so well. Funds for the project have been cut back, some of the free software discs already sent out were faulty, and — inevitably — Microsoft has agreed to a 'special price' for Windows XP used in Russian schools."

3 of 265 comments (clear)

  1. In Soviet Russia by symbolset · · Score: 5, Informative

    Free software costs too much? Really?

    Somebody needs to explain some things to these folks. It's not that hard: you install LTSP on a server, all the clients boot to the network. Install all the software you want on the server. If instead of (or in addition to) thin client/shared desktop you want an image on the desktop you configure the PXE server to dish an installer image.

    --
    Help stamp out iliturcy.
    1. Re:In Soviet Russia by Captian+Spazzz · · Score: 5, Informative

      Right Click the network manager icon in the top tool bar.
      Select EDIT Connections
      Select DSL (assuming that's the type of connection your using PPPOE for, but it should work regardless)
      Click Add
      Enter username and password and any other settings required.
      Connect
      ???
      Profit!

      Seriously dude I just bridged my DSL Modem and connected using the native PPPOE client in Ubuntu. No command line needed.

    2. Re:In Soviet Russia by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 4, Informative

      Russia is a very large country that has a far richer history than the US. A good Russian church has more years of history than our country has.

      I am Russian, not American, and I grew up in what we call "province" (i.e. not in a big city). I speak from personal experience, so don't throw WP links at me, especially when they're so out of context. Sure, there is a bunch of local languages - they're about as relevant in Russia as Native Indian languages are in the U.S. Aside from that, everyone speaks Russian, and most people belonging to minority nations don't speak anything but Russian as well (with exception of Caucasus republics, Tatarstan, and Bashkortostan).

      And schools? Yes, they do teach English there, in theory. In practice maybe 1 out of 5 people taught that way will know English well enough, say, a year after school, to actually read a random English text of moderate complexity. Spoken English is even worse, especially understanding it.