When I read on Monday that my friend Ken Starks had come-up with the 12 Geeks of Christmas idea for his Reglue project, my first thought was “what a wonderful idea.”
In case you don’t know, Reglue is a nonprofit run by Starks down in Texas that refurbishes old computers, loads them up with GNU/Linux and the necessary software, then gives them to school age children who’s parents can’t afford a decent computer.
When you think about it, this not only gives kids who can’t afford it a much needed computer for their school work, it also gives them the added advantage of learning to use an operating system other than Windows or OS X while being opened-up to the possibilities of free and open source software. I can’t help but wonder how many of tomorrow’s FOSS developers are being nurtured by Starks and his Reglue project just by dint of learning their way around Linux.
Brazil is already spending big bucks in an effort to make sure that no Internet cable entering their country goes anywhere near the US of A and is working to pass laws to make sure all Brazilian businesses use only servers located in-country. Similar efforts are underway in Europe, most notably in France and Germany.