Provincial govt in Pakistan distributes 125,000 ubuntu laptops

[keithpeter]

from what is being posted in various areas it seems that the fact that they have Ubuntu (10.10) installed,which support for ends this month was not necessarily the best way to get Ubuntu to the masses.....


http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2012...scheme-a-scam/

Hello PRC09

Kind of guessed that might happen, even allowing for journalistic exaggeration.

Real opportunity for the colleges and universities to put some basic training on, and help with the upgrade to 11.10 (or downgrade to 10.04 even).

That machine looks really ok as it happens, better than my laptop!

[asifnaz]

I have talked to many students and they said they are fine with Ubuntu and they have no intention to install windows .

As for ubuntu 10.10 it is because of gnome 2.x . Unity might turn those users away . But I am actively participating to educate my fellow students about how to use Ubuntu and how to upgrade to latest version .

Remember those are not ordinary people they are very talented students selected on merit .They are learning very fast and many of them have already upgraded .

Some of them(mostly females) have replaced Ubuntu with pirated windows 7 though .

If I am not wrong this is the largest Ubuntu based computer distribution ever (correct me if I am wrong).

[Swagman]

IMO 10:10 (Maverick Meerkat) was the best version of Ubuntu to date.

Congrats

[keithpeter]

I have talked to many students and they said they are fine with Ubuntu and they have no intention to install windows.

Good for them! I suspected journalistic exaggeration in the article that was linked above

As for ubuntu 10.10 it is because of gnome 2.x . Unity might turn those users away . But I am actively participating to educate my fellow students about how to use Ubuntu and how to upgrade to latest version .

Remember those are not ordinary people they are very talented students selected on merit .They are learning very fast and many of them have already upgraded .

Good for you. I'm sure that they will find out that Gnome Classic is quite a close approximation to Gnome 2 for the ones who really don't like Unity.

Just wondering why not 10.04 as it is an LTS, provides a direct upgrade path to 12.04 via software update and is really solid?

[asifnaz]

Just wondering why not 10.04 as it is an LTS, provides a direct upgrade path to 12.04 via software update and is really solid?

As I said original plan was to distribute Laptops without any OS .

And in last minutes they changed their plan to install Ubuntu .I think that's why they did not do much home work

[MisterGaribaldi]

asifnaz: That's very cool. Funny (and oddly stereotypical) about the women installing Windows instead. Not sure what that says, actually. Would be useful to know what they installed Windows for the benefit of.

LOL'd when you said they were all pirated copies of Windows. Clearly they want what they want and they don't give a crap about how they get it. Kind of sounds like some ex-girlfriends of mine, actually.

[terrykiwi83]

Great news for Ubuntu and open source in general, I myself am also currently working on a project to have Schools in a certain region of New Zealand switch over to Ubuntu.

+1

[asifnaz]

Would be useful to know what they installed Windows for the benefit of.

First thing they tried on their Ubuntu Laptops was to install Windows software . When they come to know it cant install them they said Ubuntu was crap and they refused to take learning curve .

(just my observation may be wrong )

BTW very small number of students have install windows

[keithpeter]

First thing they tried on their Ubuntu Laptops was to install Windows software . When they come to know it cant install them they said Ubuntu was crap and they refused to take learning curve .

(just my observation may be wrong )

BTW very small number of students have install windows

Hello asifnaz

http://www.linuxalt.com/

might help.

I think that Science and Maths students should have access to Linux anyway even as just a bootable CD or USB stick because of the huge range of specialised software that is available. Point any maths types to the sage project (http://www.sagemath.org/)

@terrykiwi83: keep us up to date how that goes! I know that NZ makes, or used to make, extensive use of Moodle in education.

@MisterGaribaldi: Microsoft software is very expensive in many countries, I think you will find that the use of pirated software is regrettably common. I don't think that is a gender thing especially.

[terrykiwi83]

@keithpeter

Yes its still the case with Moodle, I know that the Uni of Waikato, Open Polytechnic, Uni of Auckland and a couple of more use Moodle. As do a few high schools.