Today, my mother told me that India had designed a computer that would cost $35!!! That IS a cheap device indeed!
Image from The Hindu.
However, when I asked her about the OS those computers would run, she replied that the story didn't cover that aspect. Hmmm...interesting omission. I told her I didn't think it would be Windows since current licenses are quite above that price!
Then, a fellow Mepis user posted this article on the Mepis forum. Just what I thought! Those computers will run Linux and Open Office!
Now what does all this exactly mean?
It means the world is changing. It is changing slowly, but the change is steady.
Why do I say that?
Well, to begin with, those cheap computers running Linux and Open Office will be given to 110 million schoolchildren in India to begin the project. That means around 22 times the whole population of my country!!! And that is just schoolchildren!
A new generation of 22 times the size of my whole country's population will learn Linux. We are talking about schoolchildren, so what do those who claim Linux is "so hard to learn" have to say?
And what will happen when the project extends to the high schools and to the general public in India? And if from there it jumps to all Asia?? I'm pretty positive the Chinese would welcome a project like that.
The world is changing...those who took pride in saying "I only use Windows" will fall behind the technological changes of the new times, for being able to handle more than one OS may be a marketable job skill in the future, as this post well pointed out.
Of course, these are just suppositions. I don't think the Big Redmond Monster will just sit down and watch. I bet it will start its move pretty soon. Will the project survive it?
Anyway, I still wonder why the news did not say anything here about the OS of those computers...
Well, many are predicting that MS will try to bribe them, as they did with the Mandriva case. However, given that India has states in which Linux is official, Ballmer will have it very hard. That's why MS is so desperate to sell hardware, not software.
ResponderEliminarTrue. But hardware becomes cheap fast, so I wouldn't bet to that model, either.
ResponderEliminarIMHO; Anything it takes to save the Wintel monopoly will be done no matter how immoral, unethical and criminal. Microsoft and Intel, if caught, will litigate till the cows come home, pay the cursory fine, and continue as they have been doing in the USA for so long.
ResponderEliminarhttp://techrights.org/2010/07/25/dell-amd-and-gnu-linux/
You're right, pcolon. That's one of the truths that hurt.
ResponderEliminar:(
The good part is that more people are awakening.
Kudos to you and Mechatotoro in helping that awakening. Our kids at the center are reading what you write, they are also discovering their native language due to the dual posts.
ResponderEliminarThanks, pcolon. Great job you are doing at the center, too. What's the name of the center so that I can give the kids a proper greeting?
ResponderEliminarArclight Learning Center. Groups are divided into 6, (12 students; having 2 students per machine, partner-system). Eventually it will go up to ten groups per class.
ResponderEliminarThanks to you and Mecha for the ear and encouragement.
Thanks to you pcolon, and to all the dedicated educators like you! I posted a greeting already.
ResponderEliminar