Interesting article! Makes me wonder if getting regular vaccinations against the flu is why we are seeing higher cancer rates. Maybe getting the flu is actually a good thing to help the body sort of .. reset itself at the cellular level. Of course if your super vulnerable to the flu then its probably best to still get a flu shot !

Ubuntu is likely not be best choice for PCs in the classroom. Don't get me wrong I've a big fan of open-source for development purposes but in the end you always get what you pay for. It's not that Ubuntu does not meet the functional requirements of a classroom PC, because it does have many educational usages. The problem lies with the support of these machines. If left in students hands (in the hands of Middle/High School students to maintain for example) it's likely the PC would not serve any "Instructional" purpose for the school district. Also, teachers and their "school based technology technicians" (SBTS) are most likely only familiar with "District" provisioned computers running Windows which would mean they would have many challenges integrating these machines in classroom instruction. My thoughts to your dilemma, if you're going to give away PCs to schools and integrate them... use a web based approach and deliver the services via a Browser. That way it does not matter if you're running Ubuntu, Windows or Mac PCs... the students all get the same experience and it simplifies support (ie. Just make sure the PC is on and the web page opened to the portlal)