What is Digg?100 Comments
- inactive, on 02/22/2009, -16/+65Forcing kids to use that low quality Microsoft crap is child abuse.
- OUPablo, on 02/22/2009, -4/+37this doesn't surprise me one bit.
- greenx, on 02/22/2009, -12/+38M$ and the veiled threat at work again. Freedom. Not having the $$ ripped out of your wallet.
- inactive, on 02/22/2009, -3/+21Drug pushers behave the same way...
Just a taste... - dirtyforker, on 02/22/2009, -0/+17That's irrelevant. These are not home users. These are pcs set up and maintained by schools. It is easier and far cheaper to do this with linux. School kids have no trouble whatsoever using openoffice, firefox and the like on linux workstations. The only trouble is the front-up cost of getting an admin per school trained up to administer the system. Once that's done the savings will add up and up every year/update/new software package.
- rolf, on 02/22/2009, -0/+17Licensing software has a collective drag on a community's/country's budget and thus should be spent wisely. The overall goal is to reduce unnecessary costs so you can put those resources to work elsewhere. Also, an eye to the future is wise - a sweetheart deal from Microsoft today may turns nasty a few years from now when you are hooked into their system, like a drug dealer offering you a few freebies.
If Linux can do what they need or can be made to do what they need while costing less than Windows licensing now and in the future, it would make sense to make use of it. Since maintenance costs are lower as well in Linux, that is something else to consider. - waspbr, on 02/22/2009, -0/+17no more coffee for you
- amdlinux, on 02/22/2009, -7/+22They can affort this kind of "donations" here and there, but even MS will run out of cash sooner or later. It is a pointless fight as they will loose in the end - you can not compete against free software on price, no matter how far and often Mr. Sweat-Dance will travel again with his suitcase full of Dollars.
MS = CompuServe of the software world. - everyunitone, on 02/22/2009, -1/+15God, what a pointless sub-discussion..
- qazws, on 02/22/2009, -6/+20Microsoft doesn't want to share because they are afraid of linux and many other OS's.
- codereview, on 02/22/2009, -2/+12So the whole "get the facts" campaign was not a sign of insecurity?
- zhooshy, on 02/22/2009, -5/+15Yeah and I suppose if she's wearing a short skirt she's asking for it.
- zhooshy, on 02/22/2009, -0/+9Have you ever heard of the Helios project? There's no reason why computers can't be provided for free, there are enough perfectly serviceable computers thrown away each year, because they can't run the latest bloated Microsoft OS, to fill schools with free computing. What the FOSS community is good at is providing time and expertise.
- r3bol, on 02/22/2009, -1/+9This happened in Finland about a year ago.
- jamesmcm, on 02/22/2009, -2/+10Huh? Android is open source, Google have been pretty cool about donating to Mozilla too.
- waspbr, on 02/22/2009, -1/+8...and that, kids, is why we should not drink and post.
- KooperG, on 02/22/2009, -3/+10so giving ur kids all the sugary candy in the world, just cuz they like it, is good? i think it's abuse, and so might using windows be :D
- linuxpenguin, on 02/22/2009, -0/+6I feel obligated to ask - have you actually tried? Do you actually know that your hardware doesn't work with Linux, or are you just talking hypothetically?
Because it probably does. Actually I've had better luck with Linux supporting my hardware than Windows - especially since with Ubuntu you get your proprietary drivers installed with just one click.
Also, you can dual-boot if you need to use Windows for work, or just use a different PC for work. - zhooshy, on 02/22/2009, -0/+6True, a modern Linux distro has higher system requirements than an 8/9 year old OS but once you load up that OS with all the service packs, virus protection, firewall software and other crap you need to stop it becoming part of a botnet within hours of connecting to the net it's probably not that different. Not that you can get new service packs for Windows 2000.
The computers being thrown away today certainly exceed the minimum requirements for Ubuntu and some. I put it on 3-5 year old systems routinely and it works well. The effect of Vista on hardware requirements has been staggering. I wonder whether Vista 7 will be that much of an improvement. - hplasm, on 02/22/2009, -2/+8Windows- so Good they have to Pay You to use it.
- codereview, on 02/22/2009, -0/+5Yes. If only Google had published papers on such nice technological bits as Protocol buffers or MapReduce, or provided ports for programs like Picasa, Earth or Desktop (at some point Chrome as well, I guess).... oh wait, they have.
- marx2k, on 02/22/2009, -0/+5Hm, in my living room I have ArchLinux w/ XFCE is currently taking 186MB of 1010MB on a P4 2ghz (old Gateway computer) and it's flying and uses 3.4G of HD space (of which I stacked tons of software on).
My old-half broken laptop is being used as a headless ArchLinux server with a ton of services running including the LAMP stack, sabnzbd, JBoss, etc, using all of 174M of memory (of 2026M). Using 2.4G of HD space. Uptime, 75 days and counting. Was it hard to set up the server and all the services? No, wikis walk you through almost every step.
On the flipside, the laptop I'm on now has Linux Mint 6 64 on it, Gnome, all the bells and whistles with tons of crap going on at any given time uses 1.74G of mem out of 4G, 4.3G of hard drive space.
I can list my other 3 comps specs for you but I think it goes to show that you don't have to be running the latest and greatest in order to serve the needs of both network and application administration as well as the students. - marx2k, on 02/22/2009, -0/+5I heard regression therapy worked for John Lennon.. maybe it will work for you!
- jamesmcm, on 02/22/2009, -1/+5Well it's not the GNU/Linux developers fault that the manufacturers don't produce open specifications or drivers. Just buy from manufacturers that do, (Intel/AMD/ATI).
- marx2k, on 02/22/2009, -1/+5Free drugs! Alllriiiiiiiiiiiight!
- inactive, on 02/22/2009, -3/+7This isn't surprising at all :(
- 3leggedHorse, on 02/22/2009, -1/+5Do they throw in security suites with the software as well.
- thinkharderest, on 02/22/2009, -2/+6Nothing to run on it? Have you ever used Linux? If it didn't run anything nobody would use it. It runs a lot more than you think. Sure, Microsoft gives them the computers with all the software they need....for now, then when upgrade time comes around Microsoft will be expecting a big check.
- NC7U, on 02/22/2009, -0/+4Your last paragraph is so true - how many have had to upgrade hardware just to run the frills of Vista.
- setset, on 02/22/2009, -0/+4@ Solkre,
zhooshy is talking about victim blaming. If a girl gets raped, you don't blame the girl for wearing a short skirt. You blame the rapist. If a child is being subjected to use windows and only windows, of course they are going to "want" to use it. It doesn't change the fact that they are being forced to use it, not under their free will, but under other people's will. - inactive, on 02/22/2009, -11/+14I don't know why Linux is whining again. After all they just got the whole OS market in Cuba.
- c00l2sv, on 02/22/2009, -0/+3Catalonian LUGs now you have work to do!
:) - linuxpenguin, on 02/22/2009, -0/+3How could they have been using illegal copies of MS software if they had no computers to run them on?
- travbrack, on 02/23/2009, -0/+3Catalonian sysadmin #1: Hey our volume licensing agreement is about to expire and we can't afford to renew... what are we gonna do?
Catalonian sysadmin #2: I dunno.... put out a press release that we're switching to linux? - joshzam, on 02/22/2009, -0/+3Catalonia is the richest region in all of Spain. They can afford computers as well as any other affluent nation. No country wants to foot the bill for these workstations so greedy politicians with no long-term vision look to save (today) by inking deals with companies like Microsoft who are more than happy to get their foot in the door.
- hazello, on 02/22/2009, -0/+3Sure, I'm sure this was a pretty personal deal, as in 'Hey, you got anything you, know... need , Jose? Maybe a couple million euros?
- Runningflame570, on 02/22/2009, -1/+4Actually this is government/corporate collusion. Thats one private party and one public party. The government is more or less being bribed with shiny new hardware and the corporation gets to keep their OS running on them in return.
Everybody wins! Except the taxpayers that is. - Greenbow, on 02/22/2009, -0/+3A Catalan digger:
Though catalonia is one of the richest regions in spain, it has the lowest school marks of the country. The education results in Spain in general are ridiculous, but in Catalonia is even worse. So you can imagine the Generalitat doesn't care about education, just because kids don't vote. This is why our great president José Montilla wants to be like the good guy in front of the media giving computers to schools, eventhough later, after he has been congratulated in front of everyone, no one will be using the computers to learn a ***** because we have such a retarded goverment that will only make people learn how to use microsoft office, which is a thing that everyone of us know. - hazello, on 02/22/2009, -0/+3This also occurred in Nigeria or something last year, where Mandrake had a deal set up and MS went in and bribed someone to use their crap instead.
- joshzam, on 02/22/2009, -0/+3Your pride in your own ignorance is disturbing.
- Runningflame570, on 02/22/2009, -0/+2Fools and their money..
- prodigitalson, on 02/22/2009, -0/+2Then what was the point in buying the Macs?
/facepalm - computershack, on 02/22/2009, -11/+13If the Catalonian education system couldn't afford the computers in the first place, then the use of Linux is pretty irrelevent as they'd have nothing to run it on. Microsoft are providing the computers as well - something the FOSS community can't do.
If the Linux brigade don't like it, maybe they should offer to provide the hardware the same as Microsoft have. - Runningflame570, on 02/22/2009, -0/+2I know that my professor got Linux running on some old touchscreen devices that M&M Mars used to make candy before..why do I say this? Just because it strikes me as ***** awesome.
- thebigmatay, on 02/23/2009, -1/+3Microsoft doesn't want to share because they are a business. The point of a business is to make money, not be friendly with the competition.
- Solkre, on 02/22/2009, -1/+3Why is she wearing a short skirt anyway?
- ethana2, on 02/22/2009, -0/+2"we've got a bunch of new shiny MACs.......... They all use windows"
*HEADDESKHEADDESKHEADDESKHEADDESK* - linuxpenguin, on 02/22/2009, -1/+3People use Linux because they like it. People use Windows because they are required to use it for work.
- raydeen, on 02/22/2009, -0/+2My home FTP server: Compaq P2 300 Mhz with a whopping 64 MB and an 8 GB HD. Runs DSL-N and could serve as a perfectly adequate desktop machine with Firefox, Abiword, etc. Cost? Nothing. It was cobbled together from scrapped machines and has been running pretty much 24/7/365 for three years now.
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