The BBC has an article saying all Russian schools will be running Linux by 2009. Many schools were using illegal copies of Windows and schools were being prosecuted since Russia joined the WTO. Schools will slowly be moved to Linux over a period of 3 years.
Alexey Smirnov, Director General of the Company ALTLinux, says that free software should be good enough (not sure why he thinks it is inferior in the first place), and “schools should teach the main principles of all software anyway.”
It is not good to teach exact software. But if you learn Open Office, you can easily understand Word, and vice-versa… if we want to give really good education, we should make it possible to look inside how it is working, at least for those who are interested in this and how to do it.
Exactly.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7034828.stm
Also, check out the cool booth that the Portuguese Team had at the First Forum of Free Software – Lisbon:
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Good old BBC, puts news up about Linux, then shows a picture of Steve Ballmer threatening patents. They’re not hand in hand are they?
From the Ubuntu-PT team, Glad you liked our booth
Glad to hear that there are folks who really think about how to educate people, that it’s not just about using an application but to be more familiar with how it works, etc. I am hoping that legislators in the Philippines would be that progressive too.
And I agree: the booth looks fantastic! A 3D version of the Ubuntu logo. Sweet!