17 November 2007

Macedonia picks Ubuntu for 20,000 PCs

I have had a couple of NComputing devices on the test bench for more than year. Even wrote a post for this blog (nComputing, More than meets the eye) a year ago September. They are simple and they work.

How many SBC vendors can issue a Press Release that states 7,000 servers on the way with another 13,000 due to be delivered? And about 160,000 connections to those 20,000 devices! And are in the price range that a education system can afford to buy new. Not many, if any.

From C/Net news.com:

November 16, 2007 4:03 PM PST

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.


Until the next post,

Steve