Microsoft has announced an agreement with Portugal to put WIndows XP, Microsoft Office 2007, and a selection of educational products onto Portugal’s “Magellan” laptops, based on Intel’s Clasmate PC design. The notebooks cost school children just €50, and are aimed at accelerating technology adoption in Portuguese schools.
“For the first time a whole generation will grow up to have strong English and ICT skills,” said Portugal’s prime minister Jose Socrates, in a statement. “This new generation will be better prepared and able to contribute more to the modernization and development of Portugal. Furthermore, with the Magellan initiative, a PC will be introduced in many homes for the first time, thus also strongly contributing to overcoming info-exclusion in general.”
