Re: [seul-edu] [Fwd: RE: Preliminary thoughts on a Linux in educationpromotion]

[Michael Hall <admin@openlearningcommunity.org>]

On Sat, 24 Nov 2001, Doug Loss wrote:

> Nevertheless, the timing may be good for such an effort. I'm starting to
> see local schools with insecure, virus laden networks suddenly going
> down hard - and getting them back up and keeping them up IS affecting
> the troops in the trenches. One element of the Linux advantage should
> address that problem area. Security and robustness are big issues.

Yes, further to my last 2 cents, before our transition to Linux-based
school networks, many schools accessed the net and mail via Windows NT
servers ... they would often be down for as much as a week while viruses
and worms were cleaned out. The Nimda worm shut down the entire
Northern Territory Govt net access for a week. People were certainly
annoyed, but again, just
didn't realise that there were any options in the matter, or that things
could be different ... actually, they didn't really care, they just wanted
their web and mail to work again.

I guess something that a list like this (myself included) needs to realise
is that most people really don't care about operating systems and software
development paradigms. They take as much notice of these things as I do of
toothpaste and junkfood ads. Getting people to care about these issues is
like getting people to care about greenhouse gases, third world debt,
starving kids, and
a host of other objectively very important issues. Does this mean we don't
try? No, but we need to be in there for the long haul, and we need very
good PR material. And lots of good working examples ... all the things
that many people on this list are already doing.

-- 
Michael Hall
OPEN LEARNING COMMUNITY   
http://openlearningcommunity.org
admin@openlearningcommunity.org