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Ever wondered what an opened 2.5″ hard disk drive looks like?
Now you know.
This is what happens when you trust that buying a used 60GB 2.5″ HDD will “be enough” to secure your important data.
It failed to work after a year, gave me some headache the other day (managed to recover 99,5% of my data) and has now received its final treatment.
I don’t know if something like the following already exists out there, but I was just going through my feeds on Google Reader as I had recently developed an interest in Japan-related blogs (Gaijin blogs, as I’d call them - much more interesting than traveller blogs) and thought about a website that lists sites in the way humans sort them.
For instance, I grouped/tagged all Africa-related sites as “afrosphere” and European sites with no particular topic as “Eurosphere” on my Google Reader. It may not be the smartest solution, but it helps me to quickly identify where something belongs to (again, according to my own understanding which may be different from yours).
You may also see from my folders that it’s sometimes difficult to caterogize one website into a unique folder. For instance, Steve often writes about the musical Golden Afrique on his blog - so I didn’t know where to save his feed: afrospehere or ngoma?
Google knows about this problem and consequently enabled users to save their feeds in more than one folder. In dubio pro reo - so I saved his blog in both folders.
I even read the wonderful “Everything is miscellaneous” by David Weinberger the other day and think that it makes sense to tag all content. However, it’s still my own tags/keywords - and sometimes I’d like to know what kind of classification others are using on their readers.
One fine way is to check out delicious.com - that social bookmarking service I’ve been using for quite some time now - and see the tags ppl have used on their saved bookmarks. The screenshot above is a search for “Kikuyumoja” - lists 35 search results.
So the idea is to come up with a service that takes bookmarks / links from various resources (e.g. social bookmarking sites, feedreaders, etc.), looks at their tags and combines these with a link:
Kikuyumoja.com - my blog - would probably create a tag cloud like:
Kenya Germany mobile_blogging cool twitter Africa social_media blog moblog water ecosan internet mobile gprs Safaricom umts Nokia WordPress eee imagineering …
…and so on.
Again, I don’t know if something like that already exists, but the idea behind such an approach is not to display my own categorisation (because otherwise I would just come up with a tag cloud on the sidebar of my blog) - but instead a user / reader generated tag cloud: I am not interested in my own stuff, but in yours.
In other words: in case you’ve saved my blog on your feedreader - how did you tag it?
Technically spoken, I imagine a Yahoo pipes app - but how do you access those private tags on feedreaders?
Another sweet reason that justifies the recent purchase of a 2nd hand eee Asus 901 is the compact size and weight of the power supply.
An 8,9″ display at 1024×600px resolution combined with a rather tiny keyboard for sure isn’t as perfect as the ideal combination of these two worlds - which would probably be an advanced 11,1″ notebook @ 1280×800px and full CoreDuo CPU - but any kg I do not have to carry around is very much appreciated.
Netbooks are cool and if Apple and AMD do not agree on this, then it’s just because they haven’t come up with suitable alternatives. With the worldwide increase in netbook sales, it becomes obvious that many consumers actually like these low-cost computers.
My eeePC has a 6-cell battery that lasts for at least 6hrs (tested!) - which provides real mobile comfort so I could even leave this power supply at home.
I think that netbooks - which ideally also come with an internal 3G modem and a basic Linux OS - are the perfect computer for most average households, whether in Europe, the US or Africa.
As already mentioned some days ago, I’d recently lost my normal (DSL) internet broadband connectivity the other day and urgently needed to get back online. So I quickly went for a Fonic SIM card (operating within Germany’s O2 network) which offers the cheapest (not cheap, but still cheapest) surf & go flatrate for UMTS / GPRS connectivity up to HSDPA (3.5G) (2,50 EUR / day). All other flatrates currently on offer either come with a 24-month subscription, or do not offer HSDPA (3.5G) speed.
I’d used the Fonic SIM card on the Nokia N95 - my mobile phone I normally use for another line. Fonic also offers USB UMTS modems made by Huawei - however, these external modems often sell for 60,- EUR and above (Fonic sells them for ~ 100,- EUR with a new SIM card). USB modems are nice, also because they connect to any USB device (desktop pc, notebook, netbook) - but they are still too expensive for me. Also, I do have a PCMCIA II slot on my notebook I’ve never really used so far (except for my Harry’s TV card which is still with Harry - ati bwana, diese Lösung hier ist auch für Dich interessant).
So I checked out eBay and found this really great offer where someone had this “Vodafone Mobile Connect HSDPA / UMTS / EDGE datacard” PCMCIA II card in an auction..
…which I managed to secure for just 2,- EUR! :-)
It’s a “Qualcomm 3G CDMA” PCMCIA II card, also known as “Option GT 3G+ EMEA”. Oh, and it also has an extra port for an external antenna, so this may be of particular interest to those who are living far away from the next base station.
Well…don’t be fooled by the Vodafone branding - this card isn’t SIM- or netlocked, and it will just work. Took me about 20 minutes to search for a valid driver package and programme to run it, and 3 minutes to install it.
The problem I had was that these Vodafone (T-Mobile, OEM, etc.) cards aren’t officially supported by Option, which is why I had to find a driver package for this card in the first place.
Option Globetrotter Connect
I’d previously used Vodafone’s 86mb package (Vodafone connect) to get the driver, but even after deinstalling it later on, I think the drivers are still on the system, so I can’t really tell right now if I am currently using the Vodafone drivers or the ones from this hidden Option Globetrotter Connect suite which is much smaller (2,6 mb vs. 86 mb). On the other hand, both software packages have drivers made by Option, so I guess they are all the same (except for Vodafone providing bloatware along with the plain driver package). [Update]: The above mentioned Option Globetrotter Connect suite is all you need. Install it, plug in this card, it will automatically select the drivers and you’re ready to go. Simple as that.
Another interesting alternative, and my initial reason for this blog post, is MWCONN - a really perfect little freeware (WinXP) access tool for mobile internet connections. Perfect, as it provides lot’s of interesting details to the running connection:
The whole setup still needs to be optimized and the speed improved (the network here currently only supports up to 1,8 Mbit/s, not 3,6 or even 7,2 Mbit/s). Also, since it’s based on a PCMCIA card, it will only work via PCMCIA slots (which is one of the reasons I’d thought about going for a used 12″ subnotebook instead of a 10″ netbook). But still - this internet connectivity is better than nothing + it is a dedicated solution that doesn’t require any swapping of SIM cards + carrying an extra cable for the phone as Bluetooth alone is too slow. Also, MWCONN on the other hand also has this *100# prepaid credit balance check built in - which makes sense because there’s no keypad as on a phone to type in such a basic command.
The only downside to MWCONN is the missing driver package, so if you’re cheap like me and into buying hardware only via eBay, just go for the Option package above. It really is all you need for WinXP.
Vodafone sucks big times - and so does their branding :-)
Now let me see how it performs with Ubuntu 8.10…read somewhere that it is natively supported there. Which means: plug & play!
[UPDATE]
It just took me 2 minutes to get this thing online via Ubuntu 8.10 - out-of-the-box, that is. Plugged it in, chose the new network management tool, selected mobile broadband and entered the following data for Fonic:
APN: pinternet.interkom.de
primary DNS: 195.182.96.28
secondary DNS: 195.182.96.61
Compared to all the stress I used to have with such toys back in the days, this setup just works.
Verdict: if you own a mobile device with a PCMCIA II slot and want to get online, don’t spend a lot of money on USB devices if you can also have it this way. Works with WinXP SP2 & Ubuntu 8.10.
My colleagues at work are using Fujitsu Siemens (FSC) Lifebook S Series laptops, which are more or less thin 13″ computers with the usual flexibility and relatively low weight (1,7kg). Some strange policy by the government requires them to buy FSC machines as well as T-Mobile contracts for their mobiles — whereas I, as a freelancer/consultant, have to rely on my own system (and consequently also have to finance it myself).
My own system is an HP nx8220 15,4″ notebook since autumn 2006 - a very reliable machine that also survived rural Kenya (~ power failures) and which I’ve disassembled a few times to exchange parts like another CPU, more RAM, new HDD(s), another screen, new keyboard, new touchpad and also a new battery. The only issue I am afraid of is that many other broken HP nx8220s for sale on eBay & Co. do have a faulty Northbridge controller chip below the touchpad, which would result in a costly repair (200-250,- EUR, reballing the chip) and what should hopefully never happen to my computer. To prevent this failure, and because my notebook actually weighs 2,8kg (plus the power supply cable), I’ve started using it at home only and relying on other machines at the office.
However, as I would like to be more mobile, I thought about going for one of those new netbooks to have a 2nd, very portable computer.
And this is where the story actually begins. I know a lot of other friends who are often travelling and attending conferences are tired of carrying their heavy MacBookPro around - which becomes obvious when you see ProBloggers like Ethan Zuckerman using (simple) 13,3″ MacBooks.
What would I like my future portable computer (notebook/netbook) to have?
While going through the specs of all current and upcoming netbooks on the market, my five netbook favourites are so far:
These netbooks actually provide enough flexibility for me on the road, and if they all stay below 400,- EUR and weigh not more than 1,5kg each, I could easily agree on one of them (ask me in a month from now and I’ll probably name three other ones).
However, netbooks are netbooks, and the Intel Atom N270 CPU and their chipsets aren’t that great - compared to full 12,x” notebooks that come with the same powerful CPU my own notebook currently has (Intel 750 - no CoreDuo etc.).
What I am talking about are used subnotebooks like IBM’s X40/41, T40p (Steve! :-), HP nc4200, nx2400, Dell Latitude D400/410. These business models that intially sold for 1.500,- EUR and above to the corporate world, are now often selling for something like 300,- EUR. Despite of a worn out body, display and keyboard, they also often have an old battery, so you easily end up adding another 80,- EUR on a new battery. But still, these old subnotebooks are often still better than new netbooks. Especially the screen resolution is by far superior to the tiny screen on a netbook, even though some of the latter ones have a modern LED backlight screen.
Depending on what you want (or rather: are able) to spend on a 2nd computer, I think it makes sense to consider going for a used subnotebook instead of a new netbook. I also buy my HP printers according to this philosophy: new cheap consumer printers = expensive cartridges, older business printers = cheaper cartridges. It’s like buying a used Mercedes instead of a cheaper, fully-equipped Korean car.
The only part I still have to figure out is how to sync two computers - because I can only work on one machine at once and would still want to have my 50 GB of private data with me all the time.
So here’s my question to anyone who ever wanted to have a lightweight computer for travelling: what would you do? Keep on carrying the old 2,8kg around until it falls apart, go for a restricted new netbook or buy one of those older subnotebooks for more or less the same amount most netbooks are currently selling for (300,- - 400,- EUR)?
(@Mac-Fan-boys: I’d even consider an Apple Netbook, but not the MacAir :-)
——————————–
Other than that - what I really like about netbooks is that they provide affordable computing - much like the OLPC which apparently was the initial reason for Asus to start producing netbooks. I think we are yet to see in due time how quickly netbooks will replace mobile phones as the major online platform in Africa. Much like local WiFi networks started substituting 3G UMTS connections in the past (because it was simpler and easier to set up a local Wifi network than to wait for all network providers to update their infrastructure), I think netbooks have the potential to substitute the ailing browser development on mobile phones.
WAP alone has been around for so many years now, and still the iPhone is the only phone with a decent online browser. Consequently, netbooks - because they are cheap and will in future also have a SIM card holder for an internal 3/3.5G modem - could imho be the ideal mobile platform - all over the world.
“Haben wir etwas falsch gemacht?” - Well… according to this alternative, there are better options to Google Chrome.
[via]
I’ve played with Edubuntu on the office laptop today and came across this nice suite for kids & boys like me who like to play smart games:
If you have access to kids ;-), think they should learn something about computers and don’t want to buy any extra gadgets/toys, then GCompris may just be what you’re looking for.
“GCompris is an educational software suite comprising of numerous activities for children aged 2 to 10. (…) Currently GCompris offers in excess of 100 activities and more are being developed. GCompris is free software, that means that you can adapt it to your own needs, improve it and, most importantly, share it with children everywhere.”
“In order to promote the use of GNU/Linux, the windows version has a limited number of activities. It is possible to access all the activities for a fee” - which is 20,- EUR. Best option is to use the LiveCD version, or - if you can - try Ubuntu with the Edubuntu add-on package.
Edubuntu has really improved since I’ve first blogged about it in 2005. Nice! My new boss has 3 kids who often play in the office. So I thought about giving them an older laptop with Edubuntu + a mouse and see how far they’ll get with it.
Why do ppl use the calendar on Microsoft (Office) Outlook? - Because it runs on their place of work and syncs with their PDAs.
In my case: I use MS Outlook under WinXP (at home) to sync the address book on my mobile phone (despite of online service as mentioned earlier). I could just as well use an alternative e-mail client, but I am using MS Outlook (under XP, that is).
There’s this colleague of mine who uses an MS Excel sheet to manage his appointments. Needles to say that these sheets are on his computer only and remain there.
We requested him to open up his calendar to the whole team but he hasn’t done so since then.
I am not the one to complain about this because I am also hardly ever using that MS Outlook calendar at work.
screenshot of a calendar @ MS Outlook 2003
The other day an old friend of mine (who happens to work in the same organization) asked me if I’d like to have lunch with him. Now, instead of just accepting my “OK”, he then proceeded and sent me a request for the Outlook calendar. Since we both work at the same company, since we’re both using Outlook to organize our schedules, since he has a company phone that syncs with our MS Exchange server - all of this makes sense (for him).
However - I am not using a company phone. And I do prefer running a paper version of my calendar. If it had to be an electronical version, I would love to have one that:
Google Calendar…is it a suitable alternative for my needs?
And: a request for an open synchronisation - is that due to MS Exchange or the inability / unwillingness of our IT dept. to unlock this special mode due to security reasons & co? What is MS Exchange capable of and what kind of services are used? What is required so that users from different organisations can have one tool online that manages their schedules and still syncs with all different systems? Which system doesn’t require one single server but instead just syncs different servers & user data to a global network? Which system (mabye Zimbra?) enables me to sent a request for an appointment to a user that isn’t connected to our MS Exchange server?
There are those maps out there which are based on statistical data - assumed, accumulated and unproven figures that may indicate a certain trend and/or just show what the situation has been when the data was collected.
When we look at today’s map of Firefox 3 downloads worldwide in just 24 hours (for a world record):
…I really wonder what ppl will say about this in future, and also how many organizations will take THIS as a basis for their future planing on the availability of internet access, the spread of alternative internet browsers (such as the Firefox 3 suite) and what kind of internet-saturation (?) it takes to actively participate in such a call for a world record (read: the request to download FF3 on this particular day was imho promoted through the blogosphere? If so, it could be a nice indicator for the blogosphere).
However - 8,9 million downloads in just one day are just impressive!
I’ve upgraded the WXGA screen on my HP nx8220 to a much brighter WSXGA+ display. In other words: from a 1280×800 pixel resolution to a stunning 1680×1050px.
As a consequence of this, my blog now looks like this:
before:
after:
I’ve added a black 2px frame to the screenshots so highlight the actual difference in sizes. I am still undecided if this was a good move - am currently working with a 120dpi font instead of the usual 96dpi under WinXP - but then: it gives me the freedom to actually just rescale the screen to a much lower resolution whenever needed.
Unfortunately, each TFT screen only works best at a certain screen resolution, so this one being the 1680×1050px one, I will have to leave it at this high resolution for a serious “screen impression”. 1280×800px have been fine with me though, and I think it makes more sense to add another, 2nd screen (via a docking station) to move messengers & utilities to the side.
The upgrade came in handy as I had the opportunity to strip down a used & broken machine and use all the good parts on my own machine (especially an almost new keyboard, which is awesome).
Also, I am wondering if this will improve any webdesign projects / photo editing I am doing on my machine. Despite of the improved screen resolution, the brightness of all colours is just great. But then - all content appears to be very very small…
[update:] Ok, there you go….switching back to 1280×800px and downgrading to the previous 1,86 GHz CPU (instead of a 2,13 GHz) did the job for me. No more headaches from focussing my eyes on small details on the screen + no more fan noise coming from an over aggressive fan. The weekend is saved…
I’ve dropped an email to the IT dept. today, suggesting to them the use of Linux Live CDs for conferences.
Why? Well, what’s the scenario?
During an average conference, many different users from different backgrounds approach the guy handling the beamer with their usb flash memory stick. Unfortunately, their USB flash sticks are often infected with malware that may reproduce itself on the host system and consequently infect other usb sticks. Malware scanners in use may also not be that effective and often only fight the symptoms, not their actual causes. Hence, an infected base station is the ideal breeding place for malware.
Using a Live CD based on a Linux distro instead may prevent all this danger as such an alternative operating system isnt affected by such malware. Consequently, if used in the correct way, the simple spreading of malware through automatic infections is limited to a possible minimum.
It’s such a relatively simple method to prevent further infections so I am wondering: why isn’t this a standard procedure in a M$-Windows-dominated IT environment?
(@Apple users: *cough* *cough*….well…u know….*sigh* :-)
…by (the benchmarking tool) HD Tune, telling me that almost all of my USB flash memory sticks aren’t bootabooool.
Well, apparently they are indeed able to supply any recent computer with a fresh copy of e.g. gOS - a new OS based on Ubuntu 7.10 + featuring lots of Google web apps.
Just plug it in and start your computer with the latest release of [put your favourite OS here] - for inspirations, check out pendrivelinux.com
Reasons for bragging about it this way is that I am still amazed at this tiny 2GB microSD card inside the USB reader (see yellow arrow) and that it actually provides my machine with a very sexy-looking OS within a maximum of 20seconds boot-up time. And all of this at the size of a fingernail! (<== no, not those nails that have at one time been very popular with guys from Nyeri…)
Again, the provision of WinXP rescue kits, portable apps or even complete OS on a USB flash memors stick may just be the right extra income for IT students. Given that not everyone has his own machine, a USB flash drive may just substitute that need for virtual desktops.
Maybe one day we’ll only see ppl using terminal-like stations where all private data is stored on a USB flash stick if not remote on a central server?
What’s eyeOS?
EyeOS is virtual desktop / operating system accessible through a browser. Or as they describe it on their website:
eyeOS is a new kind of Operating System, where everything resides on a web browser. With eyeOS, you will have your desktop, applications and files always with you, from your home, your college, your office or your neightboor’s house. Just open a web browser, connect to your eyeOS System and access your personal desktop and all your stuff just like you left it last time.
So I’ve downloaded their latest release and installed it on my webspace. Note: I am still on 1&1 (1und1.de / 1and1.com) due to historic reasons (urgently need to switch to a cheaper host though - any recommendations that really work & are reliable? Uptime on 1&1 has been great in the past but they are just crazy about mySQL dbs and other extras. Automatization / user admin panel is still very nice on their system so any other cheaper service would need to offer a good admin panel as well. thx!) and eyeOS requires php 5 in order to run. 1&1 offers both php 4 and 5, but 4 is the default setting. In order to use php 5 on your 1&1 server, you’ll need to rename all files from .php to .php5 and likewise all links / references / calls to other php files within the install.php & index.php. Did that and it just works fine:
You can test it for yourself on eyeOS.info and I recommend to set your browser to fullscreen view (F11?) in order to fully enjoy the desktop.
So WHY is this interesting?
Imho, eyeOS is a very interesting alternative to….to what? To a virtual machine in the network via VMWARE or a remote VNC connection? Maybe. I think it rather indicates that the future is all about “being connected” = networked computers and that data will then be stored on a main server somewhere, accessible from anywhere in the world. Storing devices such as CDs, DVDs, USB flash disk are the best indicator to see how everything quickly changes from long-time archives to fast-and-forget memory. Following this line of thinking, the question of illegal downloades could one day just be solved as all multimedia files could remain on a central repository and usage (you dont need to physically”posses” data on your hard drive - you just want to use it, right?) would be paid for. Sure there would be ways to crack or bypass that but that’s just another question.
As for now, as broadband / fast inet connection isn’t available everywhere in the world, I tend to regard this only from a local area network perspective. Has this already been implemented at a local university? => Skunkworks Kenya / Kenyatta University?
I like eyeOS because it doesn’t require much to work. It’s simple, it’s efficient, it wins.
Two different persons approached me earlier last week, telling me about their plans of buying a new laptop. Knowing that they’ll be fine with a simple, stationary system (= forget about battery runtime) and a good cost/performance ratio, I told both of them to go for an ACER 5220 / 80 GB HDD / 1GB RAM + WinXPP for something around EUR 500,-.
I took this opportunity to also inform myself about current models and trends and came to the conclusion that I am just (still) VERY HAPPY with my HP (Compaq) nx8220. I’ve seen a lot of other equipment in the past and also lots of crippled corp. IT gadgets and then I always come back to my beloved nx8220 and think: Ahh, well done, JKE, it was a good deal back then. :-)
Really, I don’t care about fast CPUs or the latest gfx board if the machine does not provide a decent battery runtime under normal conditions and, most importantly, has a matt display, a real keyboard, an internal microphone, a lowered trackpad (see Sony VAIOs - horrible) and enough USB ports on each side.
So why not this dead cheap HP 530 running on Linux? Because it has its USB ports on the left side. Now imagine fixing your USB mouse to that port, pulling the cable once around the back of the machine to the right side. Or headset sockets: nice for fixing a headset - but given the (stationary) Celeron CPU, most users will keep this machine at home and may want to connect it to their stereo system. A cable in front just sucks. My colleagues in Mali are using such a HP 530 and again, I wonder how it performs under the heat…
Been standing in front of an MacBook Air ad tonight, explaining my Indian colleague the disadvantages of such a notebook and I would never go for it. He’s into Apple products big times (is there any secret or subliminal Apple advertisment in Google Talk or Orkut?? :-) but me, mimi I could nevaaaaa go for an Apple computer. (I’ve grown up on an Atari 1040 STF which should still exist somewhere in Nairobi so I’ve paid my dues to the UI on that platform…). I wonder why Apple assumes that most customers who are able to cough up enough pesa for a MacBook Air are also those who are frequent flyers and will be in such situations when this gadget actually plays out its advantages (light weight, energy consumption, data exchange limited to network connections, illuminated keyboard).
If my nx8220 dies one day, I’ll hopefully manage to buy another HP or, if they eventually switch the Strg and Fn key positions, maybe also an IBM/Lenovo thingy. But then, I’d prolly fix it and buy spare parts from eBay…
@M: are you still on that Toshiba?
@MB: what about your FSC Amilo - working again?
@CG: wie geht es Deinem DELL und wie oft nutzt Du Dein ThinkPad?
@Zed & CK: kommt mir jetzt nicht mit dem Apple! :-)
(vielleicht sollte man mich mal 1 Woche lang mit einem Apple PC einsperren, damit ich für das OS mehr Sympathien entwickeln kann…)
I was just going through my blogroll (which btw urgently needs to be cleaned up and /or reorganized - yes, mzeecedric, blogroll still valid in times of web 2.0?) when I came across the following two videos which I would like to share with you:
1. Bluetooth headset “sniffing”
[via]
2. security analysis of a voting machine
I am currently looking for a suitable Content Management System (CMS) for a website which is able to create an offline version of all pages to be run directly from a CD or DVD.
The only working solution I can currently think of is something where you’d have a (virtual) local server running which then provides the dynamics for an attached database, but I was hoping that maybe someone out there knows a better solution, maybe something where a script creates static versions of each page and then copies them into a folder (~ cron job every night).
Joomla? Drupal? Typo3? Anyone?
Any help is appreciated! Thx.
Some of you may remember my blog post from March 2007 about fake USB sticks: A friend of mine had gone to China on a business trip and bought two 8 GB sticks for EUR 11,- each, only to realize at home that he had actually acquired two 16 MB sticks. The problem is that you can only verify the real capacity of such sticks by writing data on them and then reading it back to the computer. Obviously, this best works with an empty stick.
Back then I even mentioned some progs that may verify if a USB flash memory stick is faulty or not. Germany’s c’t (Computer & Technik) magazine has now come up an alternative programme that works just fine and does a great job:
(screenshot of H2testw - and yes, that’s my desktop wallpaper :-)
It is available in German and English, free of charge, small (zipped ~ 220 kb) and “writes data in chunks of 1 megabyte”. H2testw.exe doesn’t also require an installation, so you may want to add it to you selection of useful tools on a usb flash memory stick (i do that + i have a folder designed for such purposes which contains also other goodies such as a free virus scanner + recent update packages that kill popular threats). It took this useful tool about 15 minutes to write and 3 minutes to read back data on my (freshly formatted) 2 GB stick.
I am mentioning it here because I know a lot of ppl are aware of faulty sticks but don’t know how to check them with the right software (there are some nasty “freeware” tools out there that do more harm than good). Also, since this nice little prog also fits on the smallest stick (hey, the above mentioned 16 MB sticks are still available, i heard :-), you may want to take it to the dealer and test it right there before purchase.
AOB: What happened to the Raila virus, btw?
Just a short note on a news item about an adapted version of Edubuntu 7.04 being deployed to schools in Macedonia (F.Y.R.O.M.).
The interesting part is that these 20.000 PCs (7.000 already shipped) will be equipped with (X300) Thin Clients by NComputing, which allow 7-8 users on each machine at the same time.
I’ve posted it here because Daudi’s comment the other day over at Erik’s Realm reminded me of this “sharing perspective” - which I think will be one of the reasons why any real multi-user OS will eventually win the game. As for the Linux vs. Windows debate: I personally don’t care which system is used, as long as it’s secure enough (viruses = kill productivity), provides a good usability and won’t be affected by power cuts.
Related to this owner-user-question, I wonder how many average users every mobile phone has in a country like Kenya (given that a phone may only be used by one person at a time and that different profiles depend on the SIM in gsm phones).