In February we invited the Fridge readers to send in their questions for a future interview with the one and only, Mark Shuttleworth.

The interview, hosted by Jonathan Roberts, was turned into a 30 minute podcast available in MP3 and OGG formats.

iDart, or the intelligent Dispensing of Antiretroviral Treatment, is a pharmacy system written in Java that is used at antiretroviral (ARV) pharmacies. Initiated in 2004 as a partnership between Cell-Life and the Desmond Tutu HIV foundation, iDart is in use as five different locations around South Africa aiding in the treatment of over 8,500 HIV+ patients.

Cell-Life announced that it has created an iDart-in-a-box system which was originally implemented and distributed as software for Microsoft Windows. Due to issues with reliability and security, Cell-Life has decided instead to do a complete system utilizing Ubuntu Linux. The iDart-in-a-box includes a mid-range PC, a Zebra label printer, an HP DeskJet report printer, barcode scanner, a UPS and a GSM modem. The cost for this system lies within the hardware as there are no software licensing costs, and one of these systems can be purchased for approximately R10,000 (1,350 US$)

Cell-Life plans to further its commitment to supplying community health clinics with systems that work, all of the time, and with Ubuntu.

To read more about this story please view the entire article at Tectonic. To learn more about the iDart-in-a-box please review the iDart system overview and feel free to download the software as well.