If Linux Is Dead...this Is a Zombie Apocalypse!

Linux is dead on the desktop...and it died long ago. Who hasn't heard that?

Apparently, the 1,500 school children whose happy faces could not hide the illusion of using a laptop for the first time didn't. They just received their own Linux-powered computers...wow! That's a lot of dead computers!

True...1,500 dead PCs is far too modest to worry about...but the total number of Linux computers that the government will give to students for educational purposes is 25,000! Whoa! Now, that is more than enough to call it a zombie apocalypse!

In other words, a minimum of 25 thousand children will use Linux without even knowing it--just as the student who asked me if I could let her use my netbook to do her registration process at the university--to start their learning about computers.

This is a desperate situation! Dead computers are about to attack the youngest generation in my country! These poor children might even start looking for the dead programs they use at school in other computers...can you picture it? They will look for alive computers and might even prey on them! Furthermore, these kids are going to grow up as mini-zombies unable to think and choose for themselves as we adults do--especially when it comes to computers--because a dead OS will eat their brains up!

The world is about to end!! HELP!!!

25,000 Children Are about to Learn Sugar!

Good news today! I read in the news that the Ministry of Education in my country is about to provide 25,000 laptops for several elementary schools in two years. These laptops are the XO-1 models by the project OLPC (One Laptop Per Child).

The news had written "Top Notch Technology" as a subtitle for the section that described Sugar, the OS of these computers. It also mentioned "fomenting critical thinking." Nice!

What does this mean? Simply put, that 25,000 kids are about to learn computing without Windows. Their first computing experience will be with Sugar, a Linux-based OS. Add that to all the kids who are nowadays using Android and what do you get? A new generation of kids for whom Redmond's OS is not necessarily THE Operating System.

Of course, I'm expecting Microsoft to retalitate...let's see how long it takes! :P

What the news refused to tell...

When this humble blog was just a baby taking its first steps, I posted a news about the One Laptop Per Child project and how it had divorced Windows. You can read that post here (in Spanish). The original news in English is here.

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...

Are the days of the Desktop PC counted?

Apple is well-known for the beauty of their products and its innovations. Their latest child, born in a climate of generalized expectation, is the ipad. Many waited for it impatiently while others kept mumbling and grumbling...asking for the anti-apple trolls to start their destruction of the new gadget.


It started already. They began scoffing at Steve Jobs because ipads were not flash-compatible. "How are people supposed to surf the web without flash when most of the websites simply use it? Jobs blew it!", they said with a fiendish grin.

Then, the second blow came: ipads block Google ads. "Apple is cornering itself more and more. Apple users will be more isolated than they are now...like the bunch of aristocratic idiots they are!" said the trolls showing their filed teeth that resembled stalagmites and stalactites in front of a foul-smelling cave.

However, the launching of the ipad and tablet computers has posed a new concern: what will happen to the good ol' desktop PC? Are we seeing the extinction of the desktop?

Some people say it is inevitable. The big PC will fall prey of the smaller, velociraptor-like devices.

Others disagree. For one part, ipads are too expensive and tablet computers do not welcome Windows as laptops and desktops do (netbooks are not included here because they run a crippled version of windows 7, not the actual system.) According to them, until tablet computers accept Redmond children and their prices go down, the Desktop Rex will keep its reign.

There's another consideration, though. Tablet computers can run Linux with (almost) no problem. If Linux enters the tablet computer scene, things may get complicated to the Desktop PC. The biggest issue Linux would have to solve is compatibility with touch screen technologies. As far as I understand, Ubuntu is taking the lead in this path.

OLPC (One Laptop per Child) announced that their latest product, the XO-3, will run Linux. So, we may actually have to say farewell to our longtime friend and our grandchildren might not get to know it.

Una Laptop Por Niño se divorcia de Windows 7

Entre los proyectos tecnológicos más utópicos y cuestionados que he escuchado, "Una Laptop Por Niño" (One Laptop Per Child /OLPC) está sin duda entre los que se llevan el premio. Aunque el proyecto parece tener buenas intenciones (no están de acuerdo sus detractores), la idea de diseñar computadoras de $100 totalmente funcionales para uso educativo no puede llegar muy lejos en el mundo actual. ¿Por qué? Porque en la actualidad hasta la educación ha dejado de verse como un derecho y se ha convertido en un simple servicio sujeto a las leyes del mercado.

En el pasado, aunque el mismo Steve Jobs ofreció su sistema operativo Mac OS X GRATIS, los desarrolladores del proyecto declinaron su oferta...querían un sistema operativo que se pudiera alterar.

Por ende, las computadoras del proyecto (XO-1) iban a funcionar solamente con Linux (una distribución basada en Fedora), pero Microsoft ejerció presión y logró que les instalaran Windows XP...por supuesto, cuando la licencia era de $15 por computadora. (¿¿Le dijeron que NO al MacOS GRATIS para decirle SÍ a Windows XP pagándolo?? ¡Microsoft sin duda posee sus recursos!)

Lo malo es que ahora, la licencia OEM de Windows 7 Starter cuesta aproximadamente $50 en el mercado...es decir, la mitad del valor de las computadoras iría para Microsoft...y se les instalaría un sistema operativo poco funcional, ya que Win7 Starter viene diseñado DELIBERADAMENTE con limitaciones (así los usuarios tendrán que "actualizar" a la versión "home premium" como mínimo).

Por supuesto, a OLPC no le pareció bien la idea de distribuir computadoras con funcionalidad limitada. Estuvieron prácticamente rogándole a Microsoft que les ayudara con Windows 7; es decir, que creara una versión de Win7 liviana y TOTALMENTE FUNCIONAL para el proyecto.

¿La respuesta de Microsoft?
...

SILENCIO CON RUIDO DE GRILLOS AL FONDO

...

Por lo tanto, OLPC decidió no esperar más y ahora pretende instalar Linux en su nueva computadora de tableta XO-3, que además contaría con el ambiente educativo SUGAR y se vería más o menos así.


La noticia en inglés se encuentra aquí

¡No me sorprendería que Microsoft haga una más de las suyas y las computadoras XO-3 vengan de pronto con Windows 7 Starter!