Imagine paying as much for a PC as you would in any mainstream computer store in the West - only then to find that the pre-loaded Windows operating system and many other installed programmes are in fact counterfeit. What would you do? Well, you might pick up the machine and the receipt, take them back to the shop and say, 'Hey, give me the real thing!' Or you may pay a small fortune to get the software properly licensed. Except neither of the above is an option here.
Most individuals and businesses here have computers running pirated versions of Windows and MS Office, which are of course full of vulnerabilities allowing security breaches of all kinds. We Mac-ies have a choice. But for many in Mongolia, purchasing a Mac is not an option.
With so little genuine proprietary software here, this is not just an issue of internet security. It is a matter of genuine access and ultimately of social justice. More and more people need computers, even here in Outer Mongolia. But many cannot afford to pay for genuine software that will keep their equipment and data safe from internet nasties.
Enter - Ubuntu: the free Linux-based operating system with integrated OpenOffice, Firefox browser and a stack of other free software, commercially sponsored by Canonical. Because of its free licensing regime, and because Ubuntu now has Mongolian language support, Seedtime is able to provide it to any of our micro-enterprise 'students' who ask for it. We plan to ramp up this offering soon. Watch this space for more details...