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Linux gets a love letter from South Korea
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[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]Macedonia installs 5,000 Linux PCs in schools[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]Linux arrives on 50,000 Brazilian desktops
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[/FONT][FONT=Arial,Helvetica]China to install 141,624 Linux PCs in classrooms
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SourceThe South Korean postal service is migrating around 4,700 desktop computers from Microsoft Windows to Linux.
The migration is expected to save the government-run organisation 850 million won (£450,000) per year, according to an article in The Korea Times last week. The computers, which are in 2,800 post office branches, are provided to allow the public to access the internet free of charge.
Korea Post also plans to be using Linux for its internet banking and payment system by the end of the year, according to the report.
The South Korean government has funded a number of open source initiatives over the last few years. In 2003, the government announced a plan to replace a significant proportion of proprietary software on PCs and servers with open source alternatives by 2007. Earlier this year, the government said it would provide more than £1.5m to government agencies to encourage them to adopt open source software.
South Korea is also part-way through a massive rollout of open source software to schools. The project, called the National Education Information System, plans to install a Korean-developed version of Linux in 10,000 schools across the country.
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[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]Macedonia installs 5,000 Linux PCs in schools[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica][FONT=Arial,Helvetica]Macedonia may be well known for its place in books on ancient history, but it's now on the cutting edge of desktop Linux adoption. The Republic of Macedonia decided to deploy about 5,000 Linux desktop computers in 468 public schools and 182 computer labs nationwide last summer, based on a Ubuntu distribution with a GNOME desktop, the GNOME Journal reports.
The deployment was part of a joint project called E-School.MK, involving the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Education Development Center (EDC), and the Macedonian Ministry of Education and Science (MoES).
The Republic of Macedonia is a small country in Southern Europe with a population of around 2 million. Internet penetration is only around 5 percent, and software piracy rate is rampant. Also, the government does not play any major role in the development of information and communication technologies, and the private sector is dominated by Microsoft technologies, the Journal reported.
GNOME's Arangel Angov met with Darko Arso, Macedonia's Technology Integration Manager at the Education Development Center, to find out more about their reasons for using GNOME.
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[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]Linux arrives on 50,000 Brazilian desktops
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[FONT=Arial,Helvetica][FONT=Arial,Helvetica]Three companies in Brazil -- BitWay Computadores, EnabledPeople, and IMTECH -- have begun deploying Linux-powered desktop PCs for the Brazilian federal government's "Computers for All" program, EnabledPeople announced today. The ready-to-use PCs, sourced by Bitway, include the "Linux XP Desktop" operating system, developed by EnabledPeople and supported by IMTECH.
Estimated monthly deployment is about 10,000 desktops, with 50,000 desktops already delivered, EnabledPeople, a Linux development company, said. The company did not indicate the total number of desktops that are to be deployed in the course of the project.
The Computers for All project is part of the Brazilian federal government's "Program of Digital Inclusion," initiated in 2003. The project's objective is to provide low-cost computers to the population and to boost technological development, EnabledPeople said.
Linux XP Desktop is described as a user-friendly desktop operating system for home and office users. With a preinstalled version, a user gets an application set that includes the OpenOffice.org office suite, the Evolution email client, the Firefox web browser, and the GAIM multi-protocol instant messenger, among other software. According to EnabledPeople, Linux XP Desktop is a Red Hat-compatible operating system, and is compatible with Red Hat's application set.
EnabledPeople and IMTECH have partnered to work on Latin America Linux solutions, according to EnabledPeople. IMTECH will represent EnabledPeople's interests, sell its products, and provide technical support by phone and by web helpdesk for the products, company said.
To meet the "Computers for All" program's requirements, EnabledPeople and IMTECH rebuilt Linux XP Desktop, adapted it to the program's specifications, performed a full Portuguese localization, and included specially built hardware drivers.
The program is supported by a number of Brazilian organizations, including the Ministry of Cities, Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of the Development of the Industry and Commerce, Ministry of Communications, Ministry of Education, and many others, according to Enabled People.
EnabledPeople is a Linux development firm; IMTECH provides solutions for IP telephony, and OEM solutions for PC manufacturers; and Bitway is the largest manufacturer of pre-installed Linux personal computers in the north and northeast of Brazil, according to EnabledPeople's announcement.
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[/FONT][FONT=Arial,Helvetica]China to install 141,624 Linux PCs in classrooms
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[FONT=Arial,Helvetica][FONT=Arial,Helvetica]China will install a total of 141,624 new desktop computers running Linux in school classrooms this year. The PCs are ticketed for the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Education, for an educational program called the School-to-School Project. They will run Sun Wah Linux's Debian-based RAYS LX.
The Jiangsu Province project is the largest procurement project in China's education history, Sun Wah Linux said. In addition, the deployment of RAYS LX marks the largest-ever Linux deployment in China, the company said.
The project will supply PCs to elementary and secondary schools in poor areas of nine cities in the provinces. A total of 15 companies competed for PC procurement deals worth a total of RMB $346.2 million (USD $42.7 million). Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and Lenovo were among three of the PC makers who competed for the contract.
Chinese computer makers Haier, Founder and four other unnamed companies won the hardware contract, Sun Wah said.
"This project marks the cooperative effort of Sun Wah Linux and the Jiangsu government's use of Linux to fight against Microsoft's monopoly in China," said Sun Wah Linux CEO Alex Banh. "This is the largest Linux desktop roll-out in Asia, thus proving that [the] national Linux OS is moving toward more practical usage by saving millions of dollars and bringing profound influence to China Linux development and application promotion."
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