Macedonia picks Ubuntu for 20,000 PCs

NComputing's products let multiple people share the same PC.

(Credit: NComputing)

A batch of 7,000 PCs with Ubuntu Linux have been sent to Macedonian schools, the first of a collection that Ubuntu sponsor Canonical expects will reach 20,000.

Through a program called Computer for Every Child, the Macedonia Ministry of Education and Science plans to install the PCs throughout its elementary and secondary school system. Ubuntu will run on the 20,000 PCs, but 160,000 more students will be able to share those machines using hardware from NComputing, Canonical plans to announce Tuesday. The PCs are being supplied and installed by Haier, a Chinese PC maker.

"The Computer for Every Child initiative is the largest and most important education project undertaken in the 15-year history of the Republic of Macedonia," said Ivo Ivanovski, Macedonia's minister for the information society, in a statement. "By selecting Ubuntu as the operating system for all of our classroom virtual PCs, our education system can provide computer-based education for all schoolchildren within the limited financial and infrastructural confines that most institutions face today."

The schools are using version 7.04 of Edubuntu, a version of Ubuntu tailored for classroom use.

With PCs already commonplace in richer countries, companies such as Intel, Microsoft, and Canonical are focusing on reaching markets in developing countries.

[ricecomputersolutions]

Microsoft

Wonder how long it will take M$ to swoop in and sabotage this deal like they did with Mandriva

[gsmiller88]

It'll be pretty hard...

As they'll have to beat the price of $0.00 that they paid for Ubuntu.

[Penguinisto]

They tried. They failed.

-at least in Nigeria.

/P

[ripntime]

Re: Mandriva / Nigeria Deal

Actually looks like the Bribe is going to fall through for microshaft. IT minister has assured its going to stay with linux. more options for nigeria if they go with linux. lower infrastucture costs. way cheaper for the country to build it's own technology backbones.
They truly would be foolish to take a bribe from MS.

Microsoft where every partner is eventually thier prey.

[Jortibereal]

tell me

Call it a bribe or call it financial incentive; it doesn't really matter. The Macedonian government should do what makes the most sense financially, and if Microsoft makes it worth Macedonia's while with a payment, then I don't see what's wrong with the bribe. Believe it or not, Windows isn't going to pollute the minds of disadvantaged Macedonian children, or something.

This seems like kind of a null point anyways though, because the government is sticking with Linux.

[k9kondop]

Not Madedonia. FYROM is the right name.

Not Madedonia. FYROM is the right name.

[cnetmk]

Don`t FYROM you sucks :)) MACEDONIA

Hahahah

[rklrkl]

9 KDE sessions per PC...good luck...

Edubuntu runs KDE as its default desktops and even though it now has out of the box thin client support, the article suggests that eventually 180,000 users will be sitting at 20,000 PCs! I sure hope that the PCs are beefy enough if they're running KDE on all the thin clients. I reckon they'll have to have at least 4GB RAM (would they need to be 64-bit in that case?) and quad core processors. It would have been nice to find out what the spec of each PC is because if it's the "standard" dual core/1 GB RAM PC you tend to see nowadays, it'll struggle badly.

[Penguinisto]

That's what servers are for, no?

And yes, you can tweak it down so that nine people can run off
of one PC.

I currently have (on a non-tweaked kernel) four VM's running
atop VMWare on a desktop at work with zero slowdowns. If I
instead used LTSP or another thin-client-geared rig-up, I could
fairly quickly reach the 9:1 ratio.

/P

[Vegaman_Dan]

Not at the same time, no.

That's not the point of the system. It is meant to have nine separate user accounts on it. If they wanted to go with a terminal server setup with Linux, then it would be even easier, but you'd still have to have local desktops to be the thin clients, and really even Linux would run those as local and not need a terminal server then.

[imacpwr]

Macedonia didn't buy anything, F.Y.R.O.M. did..

There is no (Internationally recognized) country called "Republic of
Macedonia" but there is a F.Y.R.O.M. (former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macedonia_naming_dispute

[koljamk]

This is a wrong palce for dispute

Please note that C|NET is US based company and not an UN agency, so they have the freedom to name countries and regions as they find most appropriate and most recognizable for their readers.
By the way, US has already, recognized by our constitutional name. I'm grateful to them.
Further comments or reply to this I think would be unnecessary and nor appropriate.
Friendly greetings...

[stasisg]

Offending messages will be removed (says cnet when you want to talkback)

check out the United Nations web site. Look under the letter "T" http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2006/org1469.doc.htm#_edn16
There is the internationally recognized name of the the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. How would Americans feel if Japan issued a currency featureing Pearl Harbor? or if the British issued a note featuring New York City? or if the Russians issued a note featuring Alaska? How would the rest of the world feel? This state, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia is trying to hijack Greek names (Macedonia),Greek symbols (the Vergina Sun),Greek history (Alexander the Great)and and in so doing claim righs to the Greek Territory of Macedonia. They tried to issue currency featuring The White Tower in the Greek second city of Thessaloniki which they want as the capital of thier enlarged state.CNET should correct this mistake and apologize to it's readers

[stasisg]

Second note

How would Americans and the rest of the world feel if Mexico issued currency featuring Texas,California, Nevada and Utah?

[bananata2000]

Get a life

This is not the place for this kind of disputes. Get a life and find somewhere else to discriminate MACEDONIA. Not FYROM. MACEDONIA. Again, MACEDONIA.

[stasisg]

That in comprihencible string of letters numbers and symbols is supposed to

That in comprihencible string of letters numbers and symbols is supposed to read: MODERN

[stasisg]

Ignore this post: posted by mistake

This post is ment for a different place

[koljamk]

There are more good news in Macedonia...

Since, this is a right step in right direction, suppling PC's (even thin client) for every student and choosing Linux as OS, it should be supported.
My contribution is posting the following link (Site is owned by the Government of Macedoinia):

http://www.investinmacedonia.com/

That site will make you clear how Macedonia and it's Government is trying hard to improve.

My opinion related to technical issues:
1. Regarding the Linux and opensource: Nowadays no one pays Royalties to the "inventor" of the first pen, pencil or paper. So the future of the basics in the IT (Standards, formats and interoperability) are in the open and commonly agreed standards and regulations. Therefore I find choice of Edubuntu for a right one.
2. 8 users per PC, would be too bad if they try to play FPS games on it. But for learning the possibilities and testing the limits of the PC's will be educational and challenging. They will learn more than computing, they will learn to share and collaborate.

[Suly34421]

wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr