Gates & Shuttleworth: What Rich People Are Doing for Education
Posted by Steven Richardson on September 6, 2007
I was talking with a young woman this weekend that used to work for IBM/Lenovo. She commented that she admired Bill Gates for all the things he was doing for education. When I asked her if she knew who Mark Shuttleworth was, she said no. Although this did not really surprise me, I was concerned. I told her that he was the CEO of Canonical (the company behind the Ubuntu Linux distribution) and what he has been up to as far as computers in education and the Edubuntu version of Ubuntu. Although I certainly respect Bill and Melinda Gates for what they do (how many billionaires do you see doing the charitable works they have been doing?), they and Microsoft are not the only ones working towards this goal.
Edubuntu was started as a way to get computers into schools and third world countries, as the OS is free, and can run on older, donated computers. In addition, this Linux distribution is customized for schools including: kid-friendly GUI desktop themes for the GNOME interface, the KDE Edutainment Suite, which is a collection of fun educational software that makes use of the KDE GUI (although the apps run fine under GNOME), Gcompris, a collection of activities for kindergarten, which introduces kids to basic computer use, then it builds on that by expanding to basic maths, reading activities, and more, the Tux4kids project which includes TuxPaint, TuxMaths and TuxTyping, and a full version of OpenOffice. In this way, not only is the OS free and capable of being run on inexpensive hardware, it comes customized for education by being bundled with applications that are meant for schoolchildren.
On the other hand, there is Microsoft. The resource-hungry Windows OS requires more expensive hardware (even if newer computers are donated) and still costs money. Granted they do discount their Office software for students and teachers, OpenOffice is still cheaper at free, and does all the things that MS Office does in the basic edition. In addition, it can run on an OS that is not nearly as resource hungry as Windows, while providing the same functionality. That is one thing about Linux and the Open Source movement that is important to remember: it can help to level the technology playing field throughout the world and improve education by leaps and bounds by getting more computers into classrooms. Although both organizations are doing things for education, the question becomes which is doing more and which is getting more recognition for it? Something to think about, certainly.
Alex Turner said
I found this post very interesting. I agree with its contents. I think it is especially important that the collaboration between resource hungry Windows OS and computer hardware is brought to light. Thanks for doing this.
There is one point I would like to add if I may. By discounting Windows for eduction MS is not actually doing anything for eduction, it is doing something for itself. The idea appears to be to pinch off this entry point into the psyche of our children so they grow up believing that computers naturally run Windows. Whilst the educational licenses are discounted, the licenses these children will go on to buy in later life are not.
One could accuse Canonical of a similar approach if it were not for the simple fact that all its software is free. Yes, if Canonical convinces children that Linux is good, then those individuals may grow up and buy support from Canonical. However, this is not quite the same thing, there is no element of coercion through restricting the free flow of information.
It would appear that in education, as in so many things, a free market can only exist with truly universal knowledge. Microsoft knows this and by discounting educational software, is doing it level best to avoid truly universal information and hence prevent a free market.
Keep up the good posts!
AJ
Ursus Orribilus said
I Bill Gates has $50,000,000,000, which I suspect he does, and he only invested it in certificates of deposit yielding 6% per year, his money would earn him $3,000,000,000 a year. Bill Gates has more money than any human being would be able to spend in several lifetimes. He says he is going to give it away. The Bill and Melinda Gates charitable foundation provides money for the war against aids in Africa, for example. It is used to buy medicine to be distributed to the victims of aids. But BG has invested heavily in pharmaceuticals. And it is fairly common knowledge that he insists that the money he donates to aids victims must be used only to buy the medicine from these same pharmaceutical companies wherein he has invested his money. You take it from there.
Regarding education, Bill Gates’ idea of helping schools is to give them their first licenses to use Microsoft software free (and sometimes the computers they will run on, as well) — thereafter, they have to pay if they want to upgrade to later versions of Windows– it may be a reduced amount, but still they pay. It also has stipulation that no open source software may be used in the school. So, effectively, he is locking in future generations of uninformed people to use Microsoft software.
Bill Gates makes more money, in the long run, by giving away billions to charity.
If Bill Gates lives to be 90 (he is presently 53, or 54) that means he has 13,140 days left to live. If he spends $1,000,000 every day for the rest of his life, that will be only $1.314,000.000 (1 billion, 314 million dollars) total expenditures from his fortune for the rest of his life. If he spends TEN MILLION DOLLARS A DAY until he dies, it will be only $13,140,000,000 total spent from his $50,000,000,000 fortune. There would still be $36,860,000,000 remaining to his fortune, NOT counting any interest that had been earned over the 36 years that had lapsed.
No human can possibly spend that kind of money in ten lifetimes, due to the potential interest it will earn, even at only 6% per year in simple CDs. You can be sure, too, that BG has his fortune spread over all the top currencies of the world, and he has it in stocks and bonds, not puny CDs, so his money is earning him much more than 6% a year, and a crash anywhere in the world, or even world wide, will not cause him lose very much of the total he already has. He will still be obscenely rich. To give an idea of what his wealth means, Henry VIII had in today’s dollars, only about $5,000,000,000 of wealth, not cash in his treasury a few years before his death. His treasury was significantly depleted, to the point of becoming somewhat worrisome to him, by wars and funding the the beginnings of the first official English naval fleet shortly before his death.
Tim Kurek said
Good post!
tim kurek
Miles Thomas said
Hey Steve I just happened to your blog via the homepage and saw an error and wanted to let you know. In the second line of your post you reference IMB/Lenovo I assume that you meant to put “IBM/lenovo”
-Miles
Miles Thomas said
Oh I thought I would add that I agree with your post and think that you have a very valid point. As a windows, linux, and os x user I have found that Edubuntu is the best software suite for primary schools, since many schools are running out of date hardware or can not afford to buy/run windows.
It’s amazing the things that Edubuntu is doing for education. I’d love to see more advocation for getting linux out there in business and in life.
Steven Richardson said
Miles: Thanks for the comments. I corrected the IBM/Lenovo typo, but I must admit it was not the first; I corrected one the other day. For some reason, stuff I type on my laptop keyboard ends up with more mistakes. Oh well.
Bill Kendrick said
I’d love to get hired by Canonical to work on Tux Paint and other Tux4Kids projects all day, every day. For now, I have to do it in whatever spare time I can find. Oh well.
ikaruga said
OO runs on cheaper hardware? That sounds more like wishful thinking to me… I remember when I had an old 450 mhz machine with 128 mgs. It would take about 3 minutes for OO to load, and then basic editing was sluggish. Compare that to the zippy response of Microsoft Word 97 and 2000 on the same computer…
Another alternative would seem to buy old software dirt cheap… how expensive is an old copy of Word 97? You get about the same funcionality.
Steven Richardson said
Ikaruga: Thanks for contributing. I think the issue here is overall cost savings, not the cost of individual applications like OO or Office 97. You might be able to get Office 97 dirt cheap somewhere (maybe) but what did it cost for the computer you (i.e. the school or third world country) are going to run it on? Also, there is such a thing as hardware that is TOO old. Many businesses replace hardware every 4-5 years, and consumers sometimes more often than that, what with the increasing demands of Windows software (especially games). I guess what I am saying is, the key issue is whether Edubuntu runs effectively on machines that are in the “donation pipeline” now. Most, I would think, would have twice the RAM of the machine you describe (which may account for the long load time (and the fact that Ubuntu Linux does need 256Mb of RAM; still better than Vista’s 1-2Gb) and a faster CPU. As long as our children are the winners here, does it matter, comparatively speaking, what the load time is?
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