Ubuntu-cy reacts to laptop funding pre-installed with Vista for high school students

[Savvas Radevic]

The Government of Cyprus / Ministry of Education has recently decided
to fund high school students to buy a laptop. The funding will be
about 400 EUR for each student. The website and more information about
this is unfortunately posted in Greek:
http://www.moec.gov.cy/ekpaideutiki_metarrythmisi/index.html

The problem is that they have set a strict requirement, that laptops
would come pre-installed with Windows Vista operating system.

A local newspaper has reacted to this (in Greek):
http://www.politis-news.com/cgibin/hweb?-A=840834&-V=archive&-w=VISTA@&-P

Members of our local community have strictly opposed to the fact that
the laptops would come with Windows Vista (in Greek):
http://ghadjikyriacou.blogspot.com/2008/12/vista.html
http://ctrl-alt-backspace.blogspot.com/2008/12/blog-post_13.html
http://ctrl-alt-backspace.blogspot.com/2008/12/laptop.html

Theodotos Andreou of the Ubuntu-cy local community has recently sent a
letter (by mail and electronic mail) to the Ministry of Education
requesting a specific reason to the question "Why Vista?".
Furthermore, he requested to leave the choice for the students to
decide whether they would want a Macintosh, Windows or GNU/Linux
installed.
He also included numerous reasons about a more convenient choice of a
Linux-based operating system, including freedom, speed, stability and
price, which make a Linux operating system a much better solution for
educational purposes.
The email has been posted in our mailing list (in Greek):
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-cy/2008-December/000154.html
http://n2.nabble.com/%CE%93%CE%B9%CE%B1%CF%84%CE%AF-Vista--td1672094.html

The same letter has been forwarded to major media stations in Cyprus
and has been posted today (Sunday, January 11th 2009):
http://www.scribd.com/doc/10061438/123165639623481-wwwpolitisnewscom
http://pdf.politis-news.com/pdf/pdf?-A=132214&-V=pdfedition

The Ministry has not replied to the letter, neither acknowledging nor
acquiring more information about it.