The brazilian governament has just launched a program called "PC Conectado" or "PC para Todos" that aims at selling cheap tax-free computers paid in 24 months for the brazilian population.

It costs R$1200 (~ US$500), a lot less then you could expect from a similar computer in Brazil today. The hardware is quite simple, almost outdated in my opinion, but then this is requited to lower the price.

It already comes with Linux installed. The chosen distribution is Insigne Linux (http://www.insignesoftware.com/default.php) developed by a local enterprise.

During the long process of working on the project Microsoft offered that Windows XP Starter Edition could ship with PC Conectado. This particular Windows version is a cheap cut-down version that limits the computer in almost every aspect. It will not accept more then 3 programs executed at the same time / refuse to use more then 128 MB of RAM / Not recognize more that 20 or so GB of disk space .... and the list goes on .... of course we thought this was an insult, so the popular pc project will be shipped with Linux.

Insigne linux is not the only distro in the project. While most of the system will come with Insigne, some will come with Freedows (http://www.freedows.com/ - sorry this page is only in portuguese). Of course this is one of those distros that try to look like windows, while I was positively surprised that Insigne does not. It has the look of KDE.

Right on the desktop there are 2 collums of icons to help new users. One on the left part of the desktop has the usual icons: CD-ROM, Floppy, System Configuration, Trash, Intenet conection (ADLS and Phone), Networking. The collum on the right end has something different: A icon to a directory with the main programs that ship with it (gimp, openoffice, gftp, gaim, k3b, firefox, aMSN, etc..) and also 6 icons to Guides into learning linux, learning how to install software, etc. A very good adition.

The governament will make available next month a cheap internet access program: 15 Hours of modem internet by R$7 (~ US$2,50).

Most of the software installed is a little outdated: Gimp 1.25, OpenOffice 1.1, etc. This was probably done to increase stability and performance on a quite slow hardware.

Here are the specifications:

128 MB RAM
1,5 GHz processor
20 GB Hard Disk

Yes, it is very few RAM, but then this is a popular PC :^)

The project is expected to include 1 million new Linux desktops in the next 2 years. I guess this will be the end of those anoying "Linux isn't ready for desktop" threads.

Here is the article from Folha de São Paulo (my local newspaper) on witch I based this post (only in portuguese):

[Edit] This URL is no longer available.

http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/fsp/inf...2906200501.htm

Felipe

very very cool. Thanks for the insight and the details. Perhaps other countries could start this, I hope Brazil throws some of it's regional wieght around to get this sort of thing implemented in other countries in the region (bolivia, peru etc)

Yeah the hardware is a little outdated, but for general wordprocessing and browsing, who's gonna care?

I hope this sort of thing is implemented in more affluent countries where still- not everyone has a computer.

Thanks.

titanium_geek

I agree with titanium_geek, this really should be implemented in other countries as well. I'ts good that Lula da silva is using his head, unlike a lot of other presidents. I heard B. gates tried to influence him to get the XP starter edition, but Lula did not budge, good for him.
Bill Gates gives me the creeps, sneaky sneaky.

Mano,

Nao podia ver o artigo, vc poderia mandar uma copia pro meu e-mail?

Appreciate it!!

sekelsenmat - thanks for the post and the translation. While the PC specs are not leading edge, they make for a respectable machine, particularly if the RAM is doubled to 256Mg, which makes them basically equivalent to a typical Dell machine circa 2002. For $500 that's not bad at all.

issinho - per the LQ Rules, all posts should be in English in order to allow the moderators to properly monitor the threads. Would you mind translating your question? Thanks -- J.W.

issinho couldn't see the article and requires Mano to send him a copy via e-mail.

Ops ... sorry! When I accessed the article it did not require UOL sign up .... I guess they do that will old articles...

I also don´t sign up UOL, so I can´t see the article myself.

I found the article searching google for "PC Conectado"

Mano = dude in portuguese

So acctually he does not requite "Mano" to send him the article .... he required that I send him a copy of the article. The rest is correct.

More accurately "Mano" is not even a word, it´s a slang.

regards,

Felipe

Yes, well I speak both languages very fluently and, as in American English, I use a lot of slang.

Seems that Linux gets a lot of airtime in Brasil and that things are really happening there.