[aclug-L] Re: I have a dream

[Anne McCadden <ironrose@xxxxxxx>]

Did you know that M$ has a contract with the school districts that they 
can get kick-backs, refunds, whatever that you want to call it, but a 
clause in the contract is that M$ is 'suppose to be" the only OS in the 
school.  How Mac sneaks in I'm not sure, but M$ doesn't consider Mac's 
to be a threat.  I think that Mac's are great and one of the reasons why 
I like the Linux desktop is that it looks very much like a Mac.  ~Anne

Koji Hayakawa wrote:

>Would you care to discuss why it's not too practical?
>
>I don't know current situation on computer usage at school.  But I see some
>of pros and cons on this issue.
>
>Linux is ready to serve the public in certain popular area of computer
>related tasks, such as browsing the web and word processing, which may be
>used at school.  And if we just look at the licensing cost of Windows and MS
>Office or MS Works, sure, it would be really cheap to set up a PC.
>
>What I'm not sure is the use of more specialized software:  certain training
>software, or software provided along with textbooks.  Or other specialized
>software, such as used in physics or chemistry experiments.  I know that
>Mathematica is available in Linux, but I don't know how popular Linux is in
>other academic software.
>
>What I see problem (and maybe the biggest draw back) would be getting
>sufficient support personnel.  Unfortunate to the society, we have abundance
>of (competent and incompetent) Windows based PC technician.  I'm not sure if
>we can staff each school systems with enough PC technician who can trouble
>shoot in Linux environment.  And if we outsource such support, it may
>totally negate the cost reduction seen in software licensing.
>
>I think it would be cool if school systems can adopt open source or
>Linux/Unix based environment, but I don't see how it can be done just yet.
>More grown-ups need to be educated on Linux, so they can support the little
>ones using Linux.
>
>Koji
>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: discussion-bounce@xxxxxxxxx [mailto:discussion-bounce@xxxxxxxxx]On
>>Behalf Of Anne McCadden
>>Sent: Sunday, December 01, 2002 8:07 PM
>>To: discussion@xxxxxxxxx
>>Subject: [aclug-L] Re: I have a dream
>>
>>
>>
>>Sorry but that's too practical of an idea and so therefore politians
>>won't go for it.  Besides I'm not sure that the general public is ready
>>for linux, I think they are ready for a Mac instead of M$.  I have been
>>encouraging people to just use passwords and atleast decent passwords.
>> So many talks on safe computing have fallen on deaf ears that I am
>>ready to give up.  ~Anne
>>
>>jeffrey l koehn wrote:
>>
>>>Someone with Power needs to say this,
>>>"One State of the Art Linux Computer equipped
>>>with all OS software,
>>>Documentation, specs, along with Linux books, etc
>>>in every school in the state of Kansas"
>>>and then act on it.
>>>Wouldn't this be a lot cheaper
>>>than taking Microsoft to court
>>>and also give kids a chance
>>>at creating an open mind?
>>>
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>>
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