Australian schoolkids could be getting Linux laptops for high school

Australia’s prime minister Kevin Rudd has been pushing a “revolution in education” since before the election. Labour’s plan was to digitise the education sector and bring a laptop to every schoolchild. Well, now, those laptops might run Linux. Red Hat’s CEO is over here right now talking with federal officials.

It makes sense from a cost-cutting point of view, and also from a “not wanting the kids to play Counter-Strike during class” one, too. Instead they’ll be playing Tux Racer. The chances of this adoption happening (at least in New South Wales) aren’t all that low, either: just look at how Brazil, Germany, Italy and others have deployed Linux in their education sectors. The article also points out that Red Hat is already used widely in the NSW state government.

If this happens, it will bring about a huge increase in the awareness of Linux in Australia, as well as force more and more institutions to be standards compliant — all those schools are going to have to know what ODF is now. The best part is that these switches are just going to become more and more common as Linux makes advances and the world becomes more aware of its options when it comes to technology.