“Linux Community ISP asks President to do more that just
talk. The Linux community is there, it is time to act while
opportunity exists.“
“Jeff Gerhardt, CTO of Pinnacle Internet America’s Linux
Friendly ISP, laid down a challenge to the White House and the
entire Democratic Party to put their convictions on the line. “Last
fall,” stated gerhardt, “when we partnered on the creation of The
Benevolent Penguin Society, we were inspired in large measure by a
speech by the Honorable Reverend Jesse Jackson and his comments
about the potential digital divide that was growing in America.
Therefore, we thought that it was the socially responsible thing to
do to create a Linux Community effort that was designed to help
children in disadvantaged economic situations. We also took it upon
ourselves to contact a number of leaders within the Linux community
(you know who you are) and discuss designing, building,
distributing and creating a mentoring channel; for the
creation/distribution of a ULTRA low cost computer that would be
affordable by virtually 99% of the US population. Bottomline, the
issue became one of scale, not if it was possible to do.”