Macedonia Goes Open-Source in Schools

by jordan | November 17, 2007 at 01:25 pm | 397 views | 1 comment

A wise move: by choosing open-source, Macedonia is ensuring that its students get a scalable computing experience that isn't beholden to a single company's software (and therefore shortcomings/proprietary whims/patch schedule).
For those that haven't used Linux, it's a lot like using Windows or Mac in one's day-to-day activities. Ubuntu Linux, for example has the look and feel of Firefox, if Firefox were your entire OS.

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."