News Bits: Learning Linux May Be Helpful, Low Cost Laptops Revolutionize Learning, D-Link 802.11n ExpressCard Coming to US

January 3, 2007 by Andrew Reads (2,339)

Learning Linux May Be Helpful

Nearly half of all businesses will be using Linux for critical business roles in five years. That’s according to a survey of IT directors, vice presidents and CIOs carried out by Saugatuck Research, which questioned 133 businesses worldwide. By the end of 2007 they predict that only 18 percent of businesses will be using Linux, so expect a rise in popularity.

“Linux operating systems and open source-based software in general have reached critical marketplace mass,” said the study’s authors, Bruce Guptill and Bill McNee of Saugatuck Research. Linux is predicted to grow by 40 percent from 2007-2009. Vendors, service providers and IT execs alike all need to take notice of the trend and reposition themselves to meet it, the researchers claimed.

Low Cost Laptops Revolutionize Learning

laptop

The One Laptop Per Child project will be giving $150 computers to students in Thailand, Libya and other developing countries this year. For most of these children the XO machine, as it’s called, likely will be the first computer they’ve ever used. Since the students have no expectations for what PCs should be like, the laptop’s creators started from scratch in designing a user interface they figured would be intuitive for children.

The main design motive was the project’s goal of stimulating education better than previous computer endeavors have. Nicholas Negroponte, who launched the project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab two years ago before spinning One Laptop into a separate nonprofit, said he deliberately wanted to avoid giving children computers they might someday use in an office.

D-Link 802.11n ExpressCard Coming to US

D-Link has announced that their 802.11n Notebook ExpressCard has been approved by the FCC and should appear in the US anytime now. The card’s full name is the D-Link DWA-643 Xtreme NTM ExpressCard Notebook Adapter. Got that? It will operate at 2.4GHz, have a maximum throughput of 300Mbps and a data transfer rate of 11Mbps. It promises a high speed connection, which comes handy in sharing photos, files, music, video, printers and storage. As of now it is only compatible with Windows.

Thanks to MobileWhack for the tip.