After reading all of the current comments (including the misguided ones) I decided to seek out the original article as I am interested in the subject. The source of the article was posted on ZDnet in France ( http://www.zdnet.fr/actualites/informatique/0,3904 0745,39366715,00.htm ) and yes it is in French, however you can use Google translator and get the sense of it if you don't have French language skills. It seems that it is aimed at giving the high school kids some personal "ownership" of portable computer resources to be used at school and home, though I doubt that the kids would rush down to the local cyber café and use their Education Department supplied Mandriva bootable USB key http://www.zdnet.fr/actualites/informatique/0,3904 0745,39365885,00.htm after school hours when they could be on-line gaming. And yes, there is a political angle to all of this, as according to other articles referenced by the above original, France is attempting to create a competitive position for Open Source Software, which is not being Anti-American at all (the French are ambivalent at best, toward other countries). BTW I do have a different (neutral) cultural perspective than most posters on this issue as I am an expatriate Australian, living and working in France.
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After reading all of the current comments (including the misguided ones) I decided to seek out the original article as I am interested in the subject. The source of the article was posted on ZDnet in France ( http://www.zdnet.fr/actualites/informatique/0,3904 0745,39366715,00.htm ) and yes it is in French, however you can use Google translator and get the sense of it if you don't have French language skills. It seems that it is aimed at giving the high school kids some personal "ownership" of portable computer resources to be used at school and home, though I doubt that the kids would rush down to the local cyber café and use their Education Department supplied Mandriva bootable USB key http://www.zdnet.fr/actualites/informatique/0,3904 0745,39365885,00.htm after school hours when they could be on-line gaming. And yes, there is a political angle to all of this, as according to other articles referenced by the above original, France is attempting to create a competitive position for Open Source Software, which is not being Anti-American at all (the French are ambivalent at best, toward other countries). BTW I do have a different (neutral) cultural perspective than most posters on this issue as I am an expatriate Australian, living and working in France.