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About LinkBacksRead more....in a bid to bridge the digital divide.
Read more....in a bid to bridge the digital divide.
That only mentions the computers - are they also giving free internet access out ? (min £10/month )
This has "fail" written large upon it; I wish it didn't, but:
Refurbs from Remploy - hell, I think Remploy are great, but for £98 you have to suspect (and I've had a quick shufti at their ebay store) Northwood P4s with not much RAM and 30-40GB hard disks, right? Like the nastier end of Bigpockets and Europc refurbs.
Running Linux:
"I've got a problem with Windows"
"No sir, you almost certainly haven't..."
"Where can I find Word?"
"Well, not on that PC for a start..."
mikerr's point about Internet access is well taken as well.
edit: According to The Reg:
The boxes will include a mobile dongle from three for £9 a month.
Last edited by nichomach; 17-01-2011 at 12:10 PM.
crazy, crazy, crazy! There are a myriad of ways already for those without PCs to get access, eg libraries, drop in user centres and community centres too. Linux will put most new users off PCs for life . The problem is overcoming the obstacle of 'wanting' to use a PC which so many suffer from. I should know. I was a complete luddite until about 6 years ago. I am nearly 75 now but build my own PCs which saves a fortune in repair and upgrading costs. As an unpaid volunteer I have got many silver surfers started and they all without exception are glad they did.
What we do not need is this ill sourced and low grade hardware set up which still does not address the real problem-some people just cannot see the need for them to try it
Depending on which flavour of Linux they use and how the machine is set up the differences between this machine and a windows machine could be entirely cosmetic as far as the end user is concerned (particularly as the end user is likely to have limited existing knowledge and experience).
I will be interested to see the spec for these machines, how universal will they be if they are refurbished machines? Will it be pot luck what CPU, HDD and memory comes in the machine? How well setup will the software be on the machine.... putting open office and a few other bits of software on the machine and configuring them to use MS Office file types as default will make a big difference. I just hope that whatever distro they use has good peripheral driver support....
If the boxes cost £98 to administer, I wonder how much is being spent on administering this scheme? That'll probably add a chunk to the actual cost of running this scheme...
Also, I question the whole validity of something like this. I mean, we're either a socialist society or a capitalist society. Those who can (sometimes barely) afford computers pay for it themselves, whereas those who don't work get one free.
Have I read that right? Someone help me out with this...
Don't forget, this is about giving people access to the internet, not about getting them into computing. Word processing is something different and nothing to do with this initiative.
Even the lowliest-specced PC is going to be infinity times better at accessing the internet than no PC at all, which is what the people who this is aimed at currently have.
on my maths, that's only 0.087% of the un-connected that might get on the internet as a result of the scheme, at least initially. So agreed with everyone above that the focus should be more about explaining to be people why internet access might help them. I'm having this with my parents at the moment. Finally I think the idea of skype if nothing else has convinced my Mum to give it a try!Originally Posted by HEXUS
Okay, first off - you may have some multicore, multigigabyte, oc'd monster booting from RAIDed SSD's* - but remember that this is primarily intended to merely allow PC-less folks to gain access to eGov functions at the lowest cost outlay, and maybe dash off the odd email here and there. So basically, as long as you can run a web browser at a reasonable speed, you've achieved your goal.
Secondly, since you can easily carry out those functions with an Atom notebook running Meego, Ubuntu, etc (I know - I've do it) then the example of a P4-powered box will be overspec anyway. Heck, I've had a usable system on an old Compaq Armada 7400, (that's Pentium II), although that was running Debian.
Thirdly, you can hardly blame M.L.F. that the system requirement for Windows goes up with every version (apart from Windows 7 - thumbs up for that MS!). So if you want Windows, then the entry price is going to be a lot more - and the whole idea will have to die.
Fourthly, OpenOffice (assuming that Oracle don't subsequently decide to charge for it) is probably going to be good enough to read .doc forms, (so is AbiWord - which is smaller and quicker than OOW) and for folks coming from pre-Office2007 then I'd suggest that OO Writer is more comfortable than the "where shall I hide this feature today?" approach of Office2007+. Not everyone needs more than basic word processing nor spreadsheeting features, (good thing too - since OO's macro feature is - ahem - "difficult").
Lastly, you yell "fail" (too much El Reg?) but I'd be fascinated to hear your suggestions - it's too easy to just stand at the sidelines and mock. Although personally, I don't think this scheme has any hope of going to more than a proposal - a Tory govt proposing moving to Open Source? Don't make me laugh.
Here's my small suggestion for HMG - how about doing an OPC type scheme - better spec new machines (which deals with the very valid point you make about ending up with sha**ed ex-office dumpster fodder) available to all, but the better-off help to subsidise the others by paying more up front. Say a new netbook for £150-£175, but less if you apply via a (numbers limited) scheme only for those on lowest incomes? This would suit well this "big society" twaddle that Camoron was trotting out, and as someone who'd be paying full price I've no problem with feeling that I'm doing a bit to help out. Personally, I feel netbooks are better than tablets, but I've been dismayed by the continuing price and spec creep - try and get anything new on an RRP of less than £250, and it's only "bargain bin" stuff that's less than £200.
One thing though that does amuse me - if there's potentially a large number of Linux users going to be using the eGov features, doesn't that then mean that they'll have to make sure that those features work with something other than IE?
(Disclaimer: my own Windows PC is a multicore, multigigabyte monster - although no RAIDed SSD's for me - too expensive)
Career status: still enjoying my new career in DevOps, but it's keeping me busy...
OpenOffice has been forked by a large chunk of people involved pre-Oracle: http://www.libreoffice.org/
Hexus estas unu el la plej bonaj teknikaj ejoj Mi havas vizititan!
It would be funny if a picture of Nacho Libre was the loading screen!
Isn't this costing the government pratically nothing thou?
As people have said its more about raising awareness, and it looks like a small trial scheme, if getting 8,000 people who otherwise would have thought the barrier to entry was too high online, then its fairly good idea, that hopefully will be expanded.
If the cost of promoting administering this scheme targetting 8,000 people starts to cost any significant sum then surely they can pull the plug?
throw new ArgumentException (String, String, Exception)
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