A week ago, the portuguese prime minister announced that a half million people will be able to get a computer and internet access. This initiative will cover students, teachers and workers which are integrated in the "Novas Oportunidades" project.
Involving a down payment of 150€, and a montly payment for the broadband internet access at a discount of 5€, in one of the offers (the other two involve just 15€/month and 5€/month for families in economically unfavourable situations), this initiative would be a great one.
This would now go throught the proccess of choosing manufacturers and suppliers for hardware and software. But the government missed that step, and announced a certain company as a partner and software supplier for the students computers. So Microsoft will distribute Windows Vista and Office System in the "e-escola" (that's the name of the game, which would translate as "e-school") computers.
Even if Microsoft is going to provide the licenses with discounts, that will create the dependency, etc. If I was going to get a computer of these, I'd install GNU/Linux on it, but here is a question: will people be able to do that? There are some manufacturers including the OS in the warranty, and if the user removes the OS, it voids. And in the first three years, the computers are not owned by the students, so they will not be able to void the warranty. And I can imagine Microsoft using EULAs that forbid the user to install other systems in multiboot.
It would be hard to understand this initiative even if there were no alternatives, but we have Caixa Mágica and Alinex, and other GNU/Linux distributions...
Isto vem provar o que tou fartinha de dizer. Branqueamentos, operações cosméticas piores que silicone no rabo e nos seios. Mas afinal quem vai deixar-se enganar mais? Com esta merda de operação tequenológica, vem por aí mais um choque e derrapagem, preparem-se. Eles nem sabem conduzir, não sabem onde fica o travão da asneirada.Soube há dias que uma escola até tinha dinheiro para mais uns pC mas que tinha que largar 300 euros por licença, em cima da aquisição do material. Este país é um colosso em estupidez. Mas de um engenheiro feito à pressa e de campónias ( sem desprimor para as gentes da terra , porque essas até das estrelas , do sol e da água entendem) não se poderia esperar mais.