[Fwd: Re: [Fwd: Re: [seul-edu] RE: [why schools don't adopt OSS]]]

[Doug Loss <drloss@home.com>]

owner-seul-edu@seul.org wrote:

> From: Jim Thomas <jthomas@bittware.com>
> To: seul-edu@seul.org
> Subject: Re: [Fwd: Re: [seul-edu] RE: [why schools don't adopt OSS]]
>
> Doug Loss wrote:
> >
> > > I still think the community needs to come out with an Education
> > > Distribution to ease installation.
> >
> > I agree with Roger on this.  It would be a major effort to keep such a
> > distro up to date, and would duplicate work that's already being done.
> > Additionally, you would measurably reduce the chances of any of the
> > major distros being interested in supporting the the coalition if they
> > saw it as in competition with them.
>
> Ideally, one of the major distros will see the light and come out with
> an edu distro on their own.  Maybe that's what Debian Jr's trying to do
> though (I plead guilty to the charge of spouting off without doing any
> research).
>
> >
> > > As I see it, there are three types
> > > of installations required in an edu environment: student machines, staff
> > > machines, and servers.
> >
> > Having said what I did, I agree that there should be easy installations
> > of each type of machine.  But from a RedHat standpoint, you're just
> > talking about a Kickstart setup, and I'm sure similar customizations are
> > available for the other distros.
>
> I think it's a little more than that.  I don't know about RH7.2, but
> their earlier distros don't come with squidguard and other apps which I
> consider basic to the needs of a K12 organization.
>
> If they could package all that up, they'd definitely have an edge on the
> competition, because right now no one offers a compete edu setup.
>
> <hair-brained idea>
> This brings me back to the strategy of introducing StarOffice into a
> Windows envirnoment as a first step.  Perhaps it would be wise for a
> commercial entity to offer the edu CD (or more likely, set of CD's) as a
> set of open source K12 apps that will work in an MS enviroment as well
> as under Linux.  Then the customer can choose to feed the MS license
> machine, or install Linux which would enable them to use even more of
> the apps on the disk.  I dunno.
> </hair-brained idea>
>
> --
> Jim Thomas      **    Principal Applications Engineer ** Bittware, Inc
> 703.779.7770    **    jthomas@bittware.com **  http://www.bittware.com
> The secret to enjoying your job is to have a hobby that is even worse.
>  - Calvin's dad

--
Doug Loss                 Always do right.  This
Data Network Coordinator  will gratify some people
Bloomsburg University     and astonish the rest.
dloss@bloomu.edu                Mark Twain