Bridging the African digital divide - with a ‘toaster’
In South Africa a “free” download here can end up costing almost $100. This is where the Freedom Toaster comes in. “What if open-source can really be open-source, even here?” he says, scrolling through a menu of possible downloads on the happy orange screen.
The Freedom Toaster idea started about four years ago with Jason Hudson, a computer expert working for the Cape Town-based Shuttleworth Foundation, an organization working for innovation in education and technology.
At the time, Mr. Hudson recalls, the foundation was particularly interested in open-source software. Not only is open-source free, it is better able to run on old computers than the more expensive and memory-greedy commercial software – a potential boon for Africa, where equipment is expensive and often secondhand.
The foundation was convincing schools and even government offices to switch to Linux, the open-source equivalent of Microsoft Windows or Mac OS.
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