Re: Spreading the word (was Re: [Fwd: Re: [seul-edu] Want to presentatLINUXWORLD NY/2002?])

[Harry McGregor <micros@azstarnet.com>]

On Sat, 4 Aug 2001, Michael Hall wrote:

> This is simply not practical for anyone but a Linux enthusiast. People
> who don't already know and use Linux can't and won't download and
> install apps from the internet, let alone change them themselves.
> Asking maintainers to change apps is not a very sure way of getting
> what you need when you need it.

Downloading software from the internet is the way several unixes work
(Debian, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, etc).  I could not see using debian without
apt-get and I could not see doing a large scale Linux deployment without
debian.

> I believe that a school distribution needs to be developed ... put the
> CD in, load the distro, use it ... no mucking around. It has to be
> that easy if anyone but the converted is going to use Linux in a big
> way. Being Windows and Mac users, most school people (including many
> IT coordinators) know very little about computers.

While I agree with you that some district IT people can have the combine
computer knowledge of a room full of chimps (ok, I might be giving them
much credit... The chimps might have more...), to keep a good network
running you need a good IT staff (some districts, Portland OR, IIRC, etc
do have them, some, Tucson AZ, do not...).  I don't want a simple "linux
install"  setup out their for anyone to drop on to a system and two weeks
later the system get's OWNED.

Running a good debian based (workstation and server)  network takes far
less time than a windows network (I have personal experince running Novell
4.x, 5.x, Win9x/ME/NT/2K desktops, NT server, and Linux, in mixed
environments the linux aspects (70% of this environement)  takes less than
33% of the time to maintain).

I do not expect, nor do I ever expect, the end user to be the
administrator of the system.  They have too many other things to be
concenered with.

> At least, that's my
> perspective as a primary school teacher in Central Australia.
>
> --
> Michael Hall

			Harry

--
Harry McGregor, CEO, Co-Founder
Hmcgregor@osef.org, (520) 661-7875 (CELL)
Open Source Education Foundation, http://www.osef.org