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Viva el pingüino: Spain goes Linux mad
Olé open source...

By Kate Hanaghan

Published: Monday 22 April 2002

One of Spain's poorest regions is hoping to transform itself by making Linux its official operating system.

Extremadura is a rural area struggling to play a part in the technological revolution.

Its government predicts it can save $7m a year by using open source software, according to US reports.

The region's 670 schools will go open source while the public at large will get copies of Debian Linux CDs distributed inside newspapers.

In the past, free software initiatives in economically disadvantaged areas have faltered because of lack of guidance to users.

Extremadura's minister for education, science and technology argued this will not be the case in his region because providing training to teachers will be a priority.