[ars]

"They plan to distribute 800,000 USB keys with LibreOffice"

What? Why? Just to waste money? CDs are cheaper, and are not going to be infected with a virus if the student passes it on.

But they really couldn't just do electronic delivery? The students are going to take the USB key, erase it and "free usb key" courtesy of the gov.

Anyone who would actually install it would also do it from a paper flyer with a url of where to download it.

[brlewis]

I'm no marketing expert, but I would expect more students to pay attention to the USB key than would pay attention to a paper flyer with a URL.

[bdr]

Also, some laptops models are starting to forgo the optical drive.

[Wilya]

I think that the idea was more to give students a "portable desktop" than just the software. An USB key can be plugged and used on any computer (high school libraries, for example).

Practically, I don't know how it turned out. I can't find any studies or numbers on the actual effect it has had.