LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: Andrew Pullin <andrew@hotspurbgc.com.au>
  To  : Michael Firkins <michael@home.lyppard.com.au>
        <linuxsa@linuxsa.org.au>
  Date: Wed, 1 Jan 2003 10:47:23 +1000

Re: The digital divide

>
> Funny. I thought most PC's at least run the OS they are shipped with, even
if it is a bit crappy.
>
> M :^)

Hi There,
    You only get an operating system that the system is shipped with if you
PAY for it. Sure some systems and laptops have the OS bundled and it is
difficult to get a refund (a la Geoffrey Bennett) sometimes, but you are
still paying for it. This is one of the problems some schools and low income
families have - they can't afford even this cheap? crappy OS that the system
is shipped with.

    As David Lloyd also rightly pointed out, there is also the money spent
on higher power equipment that many cannot afford. Probably the minimum
requirements for a Linux system these days running X and with an Office
suite and enough disk space and memory to be usable would be a P I 100Mhz
with 16-32 Mb ram and about a 2 Gb HDD. It would run slow, but would only
cost about $200. I doubt that XP would even install on such a system, the
minimum requirements for XP would probably cost about 4 to 5 times that
amount.

    The unfortunate thing about this situation is that I know people who
would take 6-9 months to save $200 to buy a computer for their kids, but to
try and save even 4 times this amount would almost cripple them. Also from a
completely practical point of view, an organization who was donating money
to assist such low income earners will get far more for their say $1000
donation buying 5 Linux based machines than one XP based machine. Overall
this is a situation that is sad, unnecessary, but true.
    Cheers!
        Andrew.

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