PC Conectado
The PC Conectado (Portuguese connected PC) is a computer that will be introduced on a large scale in households of Brazil. Particularly poorer households are the target of this long-term program.
- 3.1 Grouping
- 3.2 controversies
The program
Since 2004 there are in the Brazilian government's plans, with access to the Internet to increase the proportion of the population significantly. Here, some key points have been fixed: it is the piracy of software are lowered, the local hardware industry needs to be involved, and the technical training for both users and potential carers should be increased.
On 12 May 2005, finally, the preliminary ruling was announced. The introduction is mostly run in the second half of the year.
The PC Conectado is to be regarded as a program in the context of digital integration, the ever represented together with the social inclusion of the most important government programs, perhaps comparable with the Agenda 2010 in Germany.
It will be produced over a million PC Conectado. The prices are a maximum of 1400 amounted to R $, which is about 400 euros, but should be seen rather as a multiple of the state-guaranteed minimum wage.
Technical specifications
To give providers the opportunity to prepare themselves as a producer of PC Conectado, the technical characteristics were defined in advance.
Hardware
It was decided that the computer should have a x86 processor running at 1.5 GHz, plus 128 MB of RAM and a hard disk of 40 GB. Modem, network card and graphics card are also included. The screen size is 15 inches. To introduce include several free hours of Internet access.
Software
There have been 26 applications deemed to be necessary. Furthermore, it was decided that only free software meets the needs of users and the local economy. The software list consists of the following entries:
- Operating system
- Office programs: text editor, spreadsheet, presentation software
- Web browser, email program, chat program, Instant Messenger
- Security: Antivirus, firewall, digital certificates
- Desktop: compression program, software upgrade and FTP client, calculator
- Multimedia: Java and Flash, PDF, video conference, gaming, audio - editor, image processing, HTML editing, 3D animation studio
Background
A technological revolution of large parts of society as it is intended in the case of PC Conectado does not expire without discussions.
Groupings
Even if the call did not go public, there were some information about potential participants. Microsoft tried to get a special version of the operating system Windows awarded the contract. This version should be available very cheap, would have been completely useless in terms of functionalities, since it imposed artificial restrictions. Sun Microsystems offered to develop a concept based on thin clients. This would have allowed greater freedom of choice in the field of software, but even if the hardware platform would have the proliferation of black copies very limited, the company itself and not the local hardware manufacturer would have been an advantage. The third way, which was also taken, was the use of open source software based on inexpensive standard computers.
In support of the third way a group called PC Livre has formed, which emerged from members of the Brazilian project ASL ( Associação Software Livre ). This has as its object, information and documentation on the used free programs for the target group prepare.
Controversies
In the run came on fears that proprietary software manufacturers would torpedo the election. The introduction of the computer is thus accompanied by observations on the prevention of lobbying on the part of firms.
Technically, many of the selection of 128 MB RAM, a thorn in the desired desktop environments such as KDE or GNOME, meet the requirements of multilingualism and ease of use, only with about twice the amount of memory are still very usable.