Mandriva announced yesterday that the Nigerian government has chosen Intel-powered classmate PCs which run Mandriva Linux for educational use in nationwide pilot program in Nigeria.

17,000 Intel-powered classmate PCs will be delivered by Mandriva, Intel Corporation and Technology Support Center Ltd. The project's goal is to improve the quality of technology delivered to students and at the same time help teachers and parents.

The Intel-powered classmate PC is a small, resistant, mobile educational device created for primary students in emerging markets, present in more than 25 countries all over the globe. Nigeria is one of the first states that run pilots of classmate PCs in their schools.

Thanks to the Nigerian government which chose Mandriva Linux, the distribution got reaffirmed as one of the most popular Linux distributions existent at this moment. Mandriva worked with Intel on classmate PCs since the program started, and this way it became one of the first operating systems to run on the machine.

The systems from Nigeria will run a modified version of Mandriva Linux 2007, built on Mandriva Flash technology. The customized edition will have a launcher application which is different from others, making things easier when it comes to access the most commonly needed applications.

David Bart, CTO and Vice President of the Consumer Business Unit for Mandriva, stated: "We are delighted to participate in this project along with our partners, and to help bring Mandriva Linux and open source applications to Nigeria. This operation validates our approach of cooperating with Intel on the classmate PC and of leveraging our local presence in a country such as Nigeria."

The students will use the classmate PCs for class research and learning more about IT technology. The teachers, by using the devices, will improve their computing skills and will keep track with their students and projects. The machines use a low power Intel processor for improved performance and battery life, and they have 2 GB of internal flash storage, WiFi capabilities, anti-theft applications, a content filter and much more.