Software

Why the Kramden Institute Chose ubermix

A North Carolina nonprofit plans to give disadvantaged students computers running ubermix.

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Dan Tynan is a freelance writer based in San Francisco. He has won numerous journalism awards and his work has appeared in more than 70 publications, several of them not yet dead.

The Kramden Institute of Durham, N.C., refurbishes old computers and distributes them to deserving students in grades 3 through 12 who can’t afford a computer of their own. This year, the organization will be loading up about 3,000 refurbished machines with ubermix, the custom operating system that Director of Information Services and Technology Jim Klein developed for Saugus Union School District in Santa Clarita, Calif.

Michael Abensour, Kramden’s executive director, likes ubermix’s small footprint, fast installation and restores, malware resistance and no-cost price tag. The operating system’s ability to run well on older equipment is also compelling.

“Some of our volunteers and staff were skeptical,” he says. “Yet, when shown the intuitiveness of ubermix, its flexibility as an open-source platform, and the advantages it will offer our student recipients, even the most critical were quickly won over.”

For more on ubermix and its progress in K–12 education, read our feature story "How ubermix Is Changing the K–12 IT Landscape."