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[News] Children in British Schools Use GNU/Linux Laptops

  • Subject: [News] Children in British Schools Use GNU/Linux Laptops
  • From: Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 01:25:03 +0000
  • Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
  • Organization: Freelance
  • User-agent: KNode/0.10.4
A tiny revolution

,----[ Quote ]
| It's smaller then a textbook and cheaper than many software packages. George 
| Cole visits two schools using the first in a new breed of mini laptops  
| 
| [...]
| 
| These mini laptops have caused a stir in the education sector, not least 
| because they offer many features found on full-sized laptops, including 
| built-in wireless networking. Their low cost (£169) is partly down to their 
| use of open source software like the Linux operating system and free software 
| packages such as Open Office.    
`----

http://education.guardian.co.uk/link/story/0,,2266333,00.html


Related:

Mini-laptop sweeps through schools

,----[ Quote ]
| RM, the company supplying the Minibook computer to schools, sold out its 
| first order of 6,000 within weeks, and is now projecting school sales of 
| 30,000 by the end of the year. They are attracting the attention of IT 
| teachers, and with them a multimillion-pound market in school computing so 
| far dominated by Microsoft, the Goliath to RM's David.    
| 
| [...]
| 
| Last year the government spent £801m on IT equipment for schools. Microsoft 
| has the lion's share of the market, but the Minibooks circumvent this iron 
| grip by using Linux open source software instead of Microsoft Windows Vista.  
`----

http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,2255522,00.html


Elonex ONE Laptop Review by OLPC News

,----[ Quote ]
| I was in Birmingham today for my nephew's first birthday, just after lunch I 
| nipped out to visit the Education Show which was running on the other side of 
| town in the National Exhibition Centre.  
`----

http://www.olpcnews.com/sales_talk/competition/elonex_one_laptop_review.html


The £99 laptop: how can it be so cheap?

,----[ Quote ]
| A new laptop computer for just £99 sounds like the kind of offer found in a 
| spam e-mail or on a dodgy auction website. But the British company Elonex is 
| launching the country’s first sub £100 computer later this month and hopes to 
| be making 200,000 of them by the summer. It will be aimed at schoolchildren 
| and teenagers, and looks set to throw the market for budget laptops wide 
| open.     
| 
| Called the One, it can be used as a traditional notebook computer or, with 
| the screen detached from the keyboard, as a portable “tablet” – albeit 
| without the planned touchscreen that Elonex had to abandon to hit its £99 
| price tag. Wi-fi technology lets users access the internet or swap music (and 
| homework) files between computers wirelessly.     
| 
| [...]
| 
| The secret is simple: open-source software. The One runs on Linux, which is a 
| rival to Windows but completely free to use. Open-source software can be 
| freely swapped or modified by anyone who wants it. In the past such operating 
| systems (there are several of them) have been outgunned by the more 
| sophisticated Windows programs. However, an open-source operating system is 
| ideal for low-cost devices as it performs well on less powerful, cheaper 
| hardware.      
`----

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/personal_tech/article3374812.ece


How will Linux win the OS wars? From the bottom up! 

,----[ Quote ]
| So therefore, best way to win the war of the operating systems is not to go 
| after the high end market.  
`----

http://www.raiden.net/?cat=2&aid=352


Low-cost laptops make PC makers mull margins

,----[ Quote ]
| “Computers have been an exception. If you look at consumer electronics, a DVD 
| player was about $800 10 years ago – now they sell for $20,” she says. “The 
| [computer] industry has been able to keep the price flat by focusing on 
| gazillion-gigahertz machines running really bloated software and that’s 
| worked for years since the IBM PC revolution.”    
| 
| [...]
| 
| OLPC found a strong uptake for a “give one, get one” campaign it launched in 
| North America in November. It discovered consumers were willing to pay $400 
| for an XO – the price meant another XO would be given free to a 
| developing-world child. It is now launching OLPC America to extend the cheap 
| laptop concept for children in the US.    
`----

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cfba14f4-cf64-11dc-854a-0000779fd2ac.html

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