PC Conectado

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The PC Conectado (Port. Connected PC ) is a computer that is being introduced to households in Brazil on a large scale . This long-term program targets poorer households in particular.

The program

Since 2004 there have been plans in the Brazilian government to significantly increase the proportion of the population with access to the Internet. Certain cornerstones have been established: Software piracy is to be reduced, the local hardware industry must be involved, and technical training for both users and potential supervisors is to be increased.

The preliminary ruling was finally announced on May 12, 2005. Most of the rollout will take place in the second half of the year.

The PC Conectado is to be seen as a program within the framework of digital integration, which together with social integration represents one of the most important government programs of all, perhaps comparable to Agenda 2010 in Germany .

Over a million PC Conectado will be produced. The prices will be a maximum of R $ 1400 , which corresponds to around 400 euros, but should rather be seen as a multiple of the state-guaranteed minimum wage .

Technical specifications

In order to give providers the opportunity to prepare as producers of the PC Conectado, the technical characteristics were defined in advance.

hardware

It was decided that the computer should have an x86 processor with 1.5 GHz, 128 MB RAM and a hard drive of 40 GB. Modem , network card and graphics card are also part of the equipment. The monitor size is 15 inches. The introduction includes a number of free hours for Internet access .

software

26 applications were deemed necessary. It was also decided that only free software would meet the needs of users and the local economy. The software list consists of the following entries:

backgrounds

A technological upheaval in large parts of society, as is envisaged in the case of the PC Conectado, does not take place without discussions.

Groupings

Even if the tender was not open to the public, there was some information about potential participants. Microsoft tried to win the bid with a special version of the Windows operating system. This version was supposed to be offered very cheaply, but would have been completely useless in terms of functionality because it imposed artificial restrictions. Sun Microsystems offered to work out a concept based on thin clients . This would have left more freedom of choice in the area of ​​software, but even if the hardware platform had restricted the distribution of black copies very much, the company itself and not the local hardware manufacturer would have had an advantage. The third way, which was also taken, was to use open source software based on inexpensive standard computers.

To support the third way, a group called PC Livre was formed, which emerged from members of the Brazilian project ASL (Associação Software Livre). This has the task of preparing information and documentation on the free programs used for the intended target group.

Controversy

Fears arose in advance that proprietary software manufacturers would torpedo the choice. The introduction of the calculator is therefore accompanied by observations to prevent lobbying on the part of companies.

Technically, the choice of 128 MB RAM is a thorn in the side of many, as the desired desktop environments such as KDE or GNOME , which meet the requirements for multilingualism and user-friendliness, can only be used with about twice the amount of memory.

Web links