“French authorities will give out 175,000 USB memory sticks loaded with open-source software to Parisian high-school students at the start of the next school year. The sticks will probably contain the Firefox 2 Web browser, Thunderbird e-mail client, an office productivity suite such as OpenOffice.org 2, an audio and video player, and software for instant messaging. School heads will distribute the USB (Universal Serial Bus) sticks to 130,000 students at the start of the next academic year, as they arrive for their first of three years at high school. There are 476,000 students in the 468 public high schools operated by the council and the 213 privately run schools it funds. Apprentices at the 173 professional training centers funded by the council will receive the other 45,000 sticks.”

That’s a major event for the Open Source world in the educational area and a great opportunity to promote open source projects. School students will have a chance to discover and get used to Open Source softwares without constraint as they can enjoy them whenever and wherever they feel like. This project is simple, efficient, cost effective, and fast to implement … in short, a great Open Source project! What about building the same kind of Open Source software package for IT students? What should be included in?

Fabrice

Via Yahoo :
 - http://news.yahoo.com/s/infoworld/20070202/tc_infoworld/85707