Brazil KDE Usage by End of 2009: 52,000,000 Students

Regardless of whether you are talking about 52 million dollars or 52 million grains of rice, 52 million is a huge number. It's also the projected number of students to be using KDE by the end of 2009 in Brazil. According to reports, by the end of this year, 29,000 labs will be serving 32 million students, and by the end of next year, that will increase to 53,000 labs and 52 million students using KDE.

This news isn't only great for the KDE desktop (which it is), but Linux in general. That is huge adoption, right there. The screenshot below is somewhat misleading because it won't be KDE 4 they'll be using right off the bat, but rather KDE 3.5 - a good move in my opinion. I'm not against KDE 4, 3.5 is very lightweight and very customizable.

If interested in seeing how this project will play out, be sure to check out this blog entry.

The systems use KDE 3.5 and take full advantage of Debian as well as KDE's Edu and Games projects, use of KDE4 in future implementation is just starting to be explored. Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of the deployment is how they maximize investment in hardware by putting several heads on each system.

Source: aseigo's Blog

CompUSA Back From the Dead with 15 Re-Opened Stores

Last December, we first learned that CompUSA was closing up shop, but that didn't last too long. Less than a month later, we learned that Systemax, the parent company of Tiger Direct, purchased all assets and planned to re-open a few of the stores. Less than four months after the acquisition, 15 stores have been re-opened.

It seems Systemax wants to start out slow to see how things progress, because the only locations open right now are available in Florida, Texas and a single location in Puerto Rico. From comments at Engadget, it seems the insides are similar to Tiger Direct's retail outlets. Going to CompUSA.com shows similar traits to TD also though, such as the identical Favicon to Tiger Direct's own site and also similar fonts in their banners.

I know many people who enjoyed shopping at CompUSA, so hopefully the revised version doesn't lack what made the old one worthwhile. It's going to be interesting to see if Systemax can keep these stores on their feet, but things look to be off on a good foot.

We're not sure why the Sunshine State faces the brunt of CompUSA's angry zombie wrath -- do retirees enjoy being ripped off?* -- but Texans and Puerto Ricans can join in the fun with four stores of their very own.

Source: Engadget

April 25th Tech Roundup

Motherboards & Processors
• Biostar TF8200 A2+ - InsideHW
• Intel QX9770 Quad Core Extreme 3.2Ghz - Tweak News
• XFX nForce 790i Ultra SLI - Elite Bastards

Displays & Video Cards
• Samsung SyncMaster 2263DX Dual Display - Digital Trends

Memory & Storage
• Buffalo TeraStation Pro II 1TB Rackmount NAS - Think Computers
• Enhance Tech T4H CR External RAID Tower - TweakTown
• Western Digital VR150 300GB Velociraptor - Motherboards.org

Peripherals & Gadgets
• ASUS Xonar DX 7.1 PCI-E Sound Card - Hardware Canucks
• Head-Direct RE1 Earphones - techPowerUp!
• Sansa C250 MP3 Player - Overclockers Club

Chassis & Power Supplies
• Antec Mini P180 mATX Case - Pro-Clockers

Competitions, Complete Systems & Et cetera
• Alienware High Definition Media Server - Legit Reviews
• "OpenSolaris 2008.05 Gives A New Face To Solaris" - Phoronix
• April 2008 System Guide - Tech Report