French students to get USB drive with open source software

Sheesh, where were these guys when we were in school, huh? A number of (admittedly admirable) French authorities have okayed a plan to dish out 175,000 USB drives to Parisian high-school students at the beginning of the next term, and each stick will pack a bevy of open source software aimed at "further reducing the digital divide." The USB drives will likely contain Mozilla's own Firefox and Thunderbird applications, OpenOffice, an instant messaging client, and of course, an unnamed media player to play back tunes and videos. The exact mix of software will be determined by whichever firm ends up winning the bid to provide said thumb drives, but the council plans to spend a whopping €2.6 million ($3.4 million) on the devices alone, leaving us to wonder if these won't be crafted out of precious metals or something. Nevertheless, it looks like just the 15 and 16-year olds will be getting the gifts this time around, but if the implementation "proves successful," it could very well be renewed (and expanded) the following year.

[Via SmartMobs]

[wslcrew @ Feb 4th 2007 1:41AM]

$20 for a 256MB USB drive with pre-installed app doesn't sound all that bad. I think this is designed to be a sort of "education software package" rather than just a storage device.

[Matt @ Feb 4th 2007 1:51AM]

Im guessing they did a google image search for a usb drive then opened it in PS and put the flag on it. it could be 256 mb or it could be 8 gb, who knows? Who cares?

[Totalfixation @ Feb 4th 2007 1:49AM]

and......the American rejoices.


crazy Frenches with there Google killer.

[Lunar Dog @ Feb 4th 2007 2:01AM]

Its $19 and some change for a flash drive and free software apps. Doesn't seem that crazy. How long do you think it will take to get viruses on those drives so that it goes on every comp that they plug in to?

[brett @ Feb 4th 2007 2:16AM]

How long? Considering that we have been using flash drives for some time now, your argument makes no sense.

[myscrnnm @ Feb 4th 2007 2:15AM]

"$20 for a 256MB USB drive with pre-installed app doesn't sound all that bad. I think this is designed to be a sort of "education software package" rather than just a storage device."

I think what you don't understand is that this is not some sort of retail thing. When you think of the manufacturing cost of each drive, that's like less than five dollars. Plus, the government should be buying these in bulk, and the software sounds as though it's mostly free, or next to free. So overall, the cost should be nowhere near $34 million.

[Gabe @ Feb 4th 2007 3:39PM]

170k units does qualify for bulk pricing; however, keep in mind that, while the Euro is more valuable than the dollar, technology prices in Europe (and in Euros) are a good chunk higher. So a ten dollar USB drive in the US would likely cost 8 Euros; which at exchange rates is more costly.

Also, that 2.6 million Euro price tag likely includes the administrative costs of the overall program, copying the software on each drive, distribution costs, and government inefficiency. I mean come on, the French are on the verge of outright socialism (i.e. Big Government); and government is always the most inefficient way to get anything done.

[Troy Hansen @ Feb 8th 2007 7:45PM]

You think manufacturers give discounts to government or educational facilities? What would make you think that? When is the last time you ever heard of a government getting a good deal on something?

They found these flashdrives a lot cheaper than what my school pays for them.

[myscrnnm @ Feb 4th 2007 2:16AM]

Sorry, I made a typo, $3.4 million.

[Shibathedog @ Feb 4th 2007 3:00AM]

lol i bet alot of these kids will just be like sweet and sell them on ebay.

[Carsten Otto @ Feb 4th 2007 9:14AM]

I think that media player will be VLC, it is mainly developed in paris.

[Jared @ Feb 4th 2007 10:29AM]

I find this quite interesting. If only our schoolboard up here in Canada, would take the same approach. Regardless of what the students do with the usb drives its the thought that counts. We are still told we cannot use any kind of third party software(firefox etc) on "school" computers... The cost does seem outrageous.. Perhaps its 4gb usb drives etc..

[Chuckles McGee @ Feb 4th 2007 10:35AM]

They're doing this because... French people are otherwise using computers without a word processor, web browser, incapable of opening a free email account, or downloading a free media player? I can think of better uses for $3.4 million...

[SK @ Feb 4th 2007 11:08AM]

Typical European socialism-the kids who know about computers have already had the opportunity to use or not use open source software. The kids who don't use computers won't use the drives anyway. And couldn't they just direct students to web sites to allow them to download these programs on their own for alot less? Isn't that the advantage of the Internet?

In the meantime, taxpayers are left with the bill.

[Flying? @ Feb 4th 2007 11:33AM]

I'm french and I agree ... just some stupid idea to spend more public money ... drives me crazy! Some advertising for these softwares in the high school, or installing those on the high school computers certainly would have the same result ...

[Carbonize @ Feb 4th 2007 2:14PM]

So basically they get a USB stick with what sounds like the whole Portable Apps Suite ( http://portableapps.com ) already on there?

[drmike @ Feb 4th 2007 2:14PM]

Agreed that $20 for a USB isn't all that bad.

[chris @ Feb 4th 2007 4:03PM]

portableapps.com pretty much defines this entire article everything listed is there

[Kev50027 @ Feb 4th 2007 11:51PM]

How is this supposed to help? I don't get it.. people can download all of that stuff for free and get a thumb drive for 5 bucks. Oh wait.. France is communist.. effin Frenchies.

[I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY @ Feb 5th 2007 6:59AM]

I suspect the Media Player will be "Media Player Classic" aka MPC

http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/

[TheChaz @ Feb 5th 2007 11:43AM]

Cool idea.

[Alex Cormier @ Feb 5th 2007 6:41PM]

Je francais mais le gouvernement ils donne pas le technologie comme ca. C'est stupide!

[myscrnnm @ Feb 9th 2007 7:16AM]

"You think manufacturers give discounts to government or educational facilities? What would make you think that? When is the last time you ever heard of a government getting a good deal on something?

They found these flashdrives a lot cheaper than what my school pays for them."

My school gets discounts from both HP and Microsoft for our computers and operating systems and other software.