Jean-Paul Huchon, president of the Région Ile de France (the greater Paris local government) has announced yesterday that his administration has started distributing 220 000 USB keys with Free and Open-Source software on it, including Firefox. The recipients are mostly students (173 000 of them) and teachers (40 000).

Jean-Paul Huchon giving away USB keys with Firefox and Thunderbird on it

The goal is to reduce the Digital divide and have students equipped with a lightweight tool to access computer resources and carry with them their personal files. The key, featuring 1GB of storage (including 600MB of free space), offers many top-notch Open-Source and Free pieces of Software, including:

  1. Firefox Web browser (of course) ;-)
  2. Thunderbird email client
  3. OpenOffice.org office suite
  4. VLC Media Player and many others.

A dedicated Website has been put in place: CampUSB, which includes a customizable page based on the (French) NetVibes technology. The content of the USB key has been done by French company Mostick, based on the work done by the Framakey community.

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