On 06/12/2010 08:17, Count de Monet wrote:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11922424

800 Million quid?

I'd like to see funding into the development of a government sponsored
web enabled dumbed down wireless internet appliance OS, sort of like the
environment presented on the iPhone/iPad but without the apps, or other
downloadable nasties.

Distributed for free or minimal cost, it would allow access to the
internet for a far wider communitity and remove the barriers faced when
trying to deal with being your own system administrator, such is the
uselessness and fragility of current desktop operating systems and
applications. 'Walled garden' access (like Apple) wouldn't be a bad
thing either.

In 1982 France Telecom issued the MiniTel device, and the takeup was
incredibly successful. In recent times we've all heard of OLPC projects
for Africa - and some in other more affluent parts of the world looked
and longed for similar products at the same price point (hence netbooks).

I think it's high time HM Goverment did a similar thing for Britain, and
put this slightly ahead of the rush to give sheep 1Gb/s and their own
individual ipV6 addresses.

And if it comes out looking like an Apple iPad, then screw 'em. This
would be HM Gov after all...

--
Adrian C