Re: [seul-edu] (FWD) Governo expulsa PC popular das escolas

[Roberto Jung Drebes <drebes@aton.inf.ufrgs.br>]

On Wed, 22 Aug 2001, Felipe Bergo wrote:
> Just some comments:
> 
> There's a running sign-to-prevent-this list running, but it requires that
> you fill in your brazilian document numbers to sign, it's here:
> 
> http://gnubr.sytes.net/

I have contacted the authors of the manifest asking if they would want me
to make available a paper version of the sign list in my university, but
they didn't reply. Also, a friend contacted them on the validity of an
electronic sign list, and had no answer also.

> I'm really puzzled for the Windows CE / Linux option, since the class C
> computer spec says it must be able to:
> 
> * read PDF (mentions Acrobat)
> * run Java
> * browse pages with Flash Player
> * be able to reproduce Windows Media Player format.

The Windows Media Play "kind of" can be run with avifile, but you need the
Windows DLLs so that means you need a copy of windows, so you can't. The
worse of it is not the player, but the locking of schools with the
Microsoft encoding tools. :( (Free ($$) now, but until when?) 

> I presume the last one excludes Linux. For all I know of Windows CE, it's
> not what they want either. The edital requires 640x480 resolution, but all
> WinCE specs I've seen use half-VGA (Handheld PC spec) or 1/4-VGA (Pocket
> PC spec), so I believe no device fits the specs for class C.
> 
> My opinion on this document is that the commitee who wrote it did not
> understand what they were talking about. One of the purposes of this
> public consult for buying ("Licitation") is to provide the communication
> infrastructure for the schools (that explains the presence of Anatel, the
> brazilian equivalent of the FCC or ITU-T + ITU-R. (In some places of
> Brazil getting a regular phone line capable of 56k dial-up may require a
> 2-year wait, so wiring up the schools is really a major concern)

Agreed.


> The document should list specs of the kind "email client compatible with
> protocols SMTP, POP3, IMAP. HTTP client compatible with HTML/4.0, CSS,
> Java 2, GUI environment". And never, ever, names of particular
> corporations. In fact, I'm almost sure there are laws the make it illegal
> to ask particular brands or company names in specs of public licitations.
> I know of buy processes that were aborted because the text said "HP Ink
> Jet printer" and the HP name in the document made it void.

I asked the same things in the lists I participate and no one gave me a
definitive answer on it being allowed or not. As I understand, it is
forbidden, but IANAL. I believe if we could contact someone the
"licitation" (bid proposal) could be stopped.

> Last, but not least, this document only restricts the equipment and
> services to be contracted using the FUST federal fund (Fund for
> Universalization of Telecommunication Services) [everyone pays a
> contribution tax to FUST on the phone bills, the fund is owned by Anatel

for those ignorant of brazilian agencies (anatel == our fcc)

> to be used to enhance the telecommunication infra-structure]. Looks like
> the main matter here is laying the networking with FUST. Schools are them
> free to buy "out-of-spec" computers with budget from elsewhere (from state
> governments, for example, the governor of the state of Rio Grande do Sul
> (RS) has commited to banishing non-free software from any computers that
> are property of the state wherever possible) and attach them to the
> network. Money is scarce for schools, but FUST is not the only source and
> probably not the greater source of money for schools.

The problem (and I heard that from people responsible for the "Rede
Escolar Livre" program here in RS) is that the state people cannot choose
what to put on the machines they get from FUST. Even if they already have
machines running GNU/Linux and get new machines, they will have Windows on
it, so if you don't use it the money spend on MS software is lost, if you
do use it, it's also a lost :( The FUST would kill the "Rede Escolar
Livre" program in RS. What would help, though, was to get the money and
decide how to spend it. Perhaps with the popular computer.

> * Any sufficiently advanced OS is indistinguishable from Linux.

Linus C. Clarke? :)

--
Roberto Jung Drebes <drebes@inf.ufrgs.br>
Porto Alegre, RS - Brasil
http://www.inf.ufrgs.br/~drebes/