Userful Corporation, the global leader in desktop Linux
virtualization, announced that it's upcoming product, Userful
MultiSeat Linux 2010, has garnered an overwhelming demand in Latin
America and Asia, despite not being commercially available until Q4
2010. The low cost and robustness of Userful's MultiSeat solution has
even made it possible for schools in indigenous villages in Brazil,
where infrastructure is minimal, electricity is unreliable, and there
is little physical space, to provide computer access to students for
the first time.
Userful MultiSeat Linux 2010 is a complete solution software bundle
for schools that increases access to affordable educational computing
in classrooms, and computer labs, by allowing up to 10 students to
connect to a single host PC at the same time, each with their own
monitor, keyboard, mouse and applications. The upfront hardware and
software cost savings, and ongoing electricity and maintenance cost
savings provided by Userful MultiSeat Linux 2010 can multiply the
number of computer stations available to schools, delivering more
stations within the same budget. On average, Userful's education
customers report saving 60% in up-front costs, and 80% in annual
power savings as compared to their previous PC-per-station solutions.
That's why more than 30,000 schools in 100 countries are using Userful
to provide millions of students with computer access.
"Regions such as Latin America and Asia have been shifting to Linux
and open source software in their schools for a few years now to
eliminate software costs, and make it feasible to deploy
plug-and-play computers right in the classroom on small budgets,"
said Beverley Gallagher, VP Strategic Partnerships at Userful. "Our
education customers have been asking us to bundle Userful MultiSeat
technology with their favorite Linux software so that they can
install it all at once from a single DVD. That's exactly what we've
done, and the response has been fantastic."
Since Userful MultiSeat Linux 2010 is Linux based, the operating
system (OS) and application software is all free! Hundreds of free,
open source, end-user and education-specific applications are
included, such as: Edubuntu OS, iTALC classroom computer management
tool, ATutor teacher assignment tracking software, OpenOffice.org
office suite, GIMP graphics suite, GCompris educational games suite,
Firefox web browser, and many more. Teachers can use free open source
software to further lower costs, easily tailor curricula to individual
students, and monitor and control the classroom computers. Students
can develop digital skills that will help them with their school work
and prepare them for jobs in the future.
With Userful, each student individually controls his or her own
station and applications. To the students, it seems like they each
have their own dedicated PC, but in reality they are all sharing the
resources of a single computer. Setup is plug-and-play, and
configuration is automated, making Userful easy to setup and use.
Simply plug USB MultiSeat devices into the host PC, plug a monitor,
keyboard, and mouse into each USB MultiSeat device, install Userful
software, and the system is ready to support multiple students at the
same time.
Userful provides superior video performance to Windows alternatives
such as Microsoft Windows Multipoint Server 2010 when using USB
MultiSeat devices. At just $59 per seat (education pricing), and with
no server licensing costs, Userful software is also the lowest cost
shared resource computing solution on the market.
