The Turkey government's Fatih program, to provide 42 000 schools with PCs, tablets and other computer hardware and software will continue to make use of free and open source, a spokesperson for the project confirmed. The project, for example, uses the open source Android software, pre-packaged for tablets. "And all the whiteboards will continue to be based on our own homebuilt open source software Pardus."
At the beginning of this semester, tablets, Pardus whiteboards and other computer tools were distributed to 215 schools throughout the country, reaching 36 000 grade nine students and 13 000 teachers.
According to the Fatih project website, all schools will be equipped with a computer class room, including a multi-function printer, scanner and an interactive whiteboard. Schools are to get a wired Internet connection and student teacher will receive tablet PCs. Getting all schools connected and the distribution of all the equipment will take until the end of 2014.
"The Fatih project is attracting the attention of governments across the world, interested to implement a similar system in their countries," the spokesperson commented this week. In January, representatives of the government of Bosnia-Herzegovina were briefed on the Fatih project.
The Pardus free and open source operating systems is maintained by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey since 2005. Following a reorganisation of the research institute in 2011, development of Pardus has since been taken over by volunteers.
More information:
Brief announcement on the delegation from Bosnia-Herzegovina (in Turkish)
Haber 7 news item on the software used at the Fatih project (in Turkish)
About the Fatih project
Pardus