Linux virtual desktops sweeping Brazilian schools

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 18 February 2009 09:49

IT Industry - Market

The marginal cost to add users to a PC using Multiplier is said to be $50 per seat, excluding the price of a monitor and keyboard.

"This deployment alone saves more than 170,000 tons of CO2 emissions annually, the same as taking 28,000 cars off the road, or planting 41,000 acres of trees," said Sean Rousseau, Userful's marketing manager.

Further savings are claimed in respect of administration and support costs.

Perhaps more importantly to the students, this approach provides them with more hands-on time than would be the case if the same budget had been spent on conventional PCs.

18,750 seats have already been installed in rural schools.

If you're interested in exploring the technology, Userful offers a free for personal use version of Multiplier that shares a Linux PC between two users.

Multiplier has been previously used in a 2205-desktop SUSE Linux rollout in 105 schools in South Africa's North West Province.