14 DAY TRIAL // The non-profit organization called The Linux Foundation has announced that they are offering free Chromebooks to all students who enroll in their Linux training program during the month of September 2015.
The new offer begins on September 1, and it is available to all individual learners who enroll in Linux Foundation's training courses until September 30, 2015, at 11:59 p.m. PT (Pacific Time) or 6:59 a.m. GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). The non-profit organization notes that it will give only one Chromebook per person, but there's no information on whether the offer is limited to a certain number of units or if there are enough Chromebooks for everyone enrolling in their Linux Training program.
As expected, all Chromebooks are powered by Google's Chrome OS Linux kernel-based operating system, but you are free to install any GNU/Linux distribution you want from the thousands of OSes available for free on the market. We, here at Softpedia, list approximately 2,000 Linux distributions, so you can rest assured that you'll find one to your liking, that, of course, if you don't find Google Chrome OS suitable for your Linux training needs.
"We want students of Linux to experience a Linux desktop and Chromebooks are a great way to do that - either through Google's Linux-based OS or by installing one of the many Linux distros available,” says Jim Zemlin, Executive Director at The Linux Foundation. "We hope this offer can provide the freedom Linux developers and IT professionals value and spark new ideas and discoveries as they embark on our Linux training program."
The Chromebooks are valued at up to $299 (€266)
In the press release, which we've attached at the end of the article for reference, The Linux Foundation mentions that the Chromebooks computers are valued at up to $299 (€266) and were designed from the offset to require an active Internet connection. As you might know, Chrome OS uses applications that are stored in the cloud, which means that all of your data will also be stored in the cloud, and a Google account is required.
Linux Foundation's training courses are meant to accelerate the growth of Linux among individuals, as well as the collaborative development using a Linux kernel-based operating system. All Linux training courses are available through the end of 2015 and are tailored for both beginners and intermediate IT professionals and developers, giving them all the freedom they need to get started learning Linux. Please visit https://training.linuxfoundation.org/get-a-free-chromebook for more details.