Last night I went to an information evening at my daughter's high school
about the new laptops which students are to be given. This is the third
year of the initiative and details of the current batch of laptops can
be found here: http://tinyurl.com/4zdzuyx . They have the usual
complement of Microsoft and Adobe software, which cannot be removed or
bypassed. And the promotional video is hilarious.
What made me sit up and listen, though, was the announcement that when
students leave school they get to keep the laptop, but all the software
is wiped including the OS. It occurred to me that this is a great
opportunity for Linux. If we can get a message to Year 12 students early
in the year telling them that open source software is available for free
to replace Windows and their wiped Microsoft and Adobe applications,
then a fair proportion of them might be willing to give it a try. The
laptops don't have CD drives, so the software would have to be
distributed on bootable USB sticks or SD cards. Maybe we could even give
them away.
I don't have any contact with high schools other than having a daughter
at one, so other people may have a better idea how to go about this.
Maybe somebody already is. (Is there a Year 12 mailing list?) By my
calculations the first cohort to receive laptops should be finishing
Year 12 about halfway through 2012.
Of course this assumes that policies will continue in their current state.
Jon.
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