How to start a revolution?

Fri Oct 10 01:56:34 UTC 2003

Le 9 Octobre 2003 18:34, Phillip Smith (communitybandwidth.ca) a écrit :
> Hello TLUGers,
>
> Many thanks for your time and comments in advance.
>
> Among other pursuits, I volunteer at a computer literacy centre in Regent
> Park. I've been there almost three years and have watched us support
> hundreds of students -- grades 3 to 8 -- in their first computer
> experiences. The program is unique, in that the students of the "intro"
> course earn a refurbished computer for their efforts. The computers are
> donated by several large companies in the Toronto area.
>
> It is with more-and-more disappointment that I see year-after-year these
> young people leaving our lab with the "albatross" that I feel Windows is in
> this context; that being financially challenged households, who will
> probably be unlikely to ever upgrade their OS or actually buy software. I
> don't feel good thinking of arming these young people with a costly
> ball-and-chain or creating an army of software pirates.
>
> Over the last two years, I've been slowly working to convince the staff and
> executive to explore the possibility of using Free/Libre/Gnu open source
> options for not only the course material software, but also for the OS
> itself. To date our only win has been getting Open Office installed on all
> of the labs 20+ PCs.
>
> The lab is at a cross roads and I feel that now may be the time to move
> beyond the challenges that have made it difficult in the past. Microsoft is
> no longer supporting Windows 98 and probably won't provide any more
> licenses to the lab. They've offered XP licenses, but the lab's tech
> support guy doesn't feel that XP will run well on the refurbished PII 266
> machines that we're giving out at the moment.
>
> In addition to that, the lab bought a new server a while ago and my intent
> was to use FreeBSD (my personal server choice, but nothing against Linux
> there either) to support the shared drive needs of the lab. Unfortunately,
> in the end, it became too challenging without the Un*x-type user account
> support (or the other way around, without the Windows authentication) to do
> this easily. So the tech guy went on to install and set-up Win2k...
> however, that is not working for him either (in a weird twist of events,
> that Win2k is acting up!) and he's asking me what to do next.
>
> Two opportunities, both will timed.
>
> What I would like to see happen -- in my perfect world -- is to convert the
> entire lab (minus one or two PCs they need Windows on for their legacy DB
> and whatever) converted to a Linux environment. The courses we teach only
> require Open Office, a browser, GIMP and a few other basic applications.
> The server is only used as a shared drive and I'd like to see it serving
> the students web pages too (easy in the Un*x world). And, finally, I'd like
> to see us giving these students a future that's not costly or proprietary
> by supplying a Linux installed PC to them at graduation.
>
> The challenges are thus...
>
> 1. No good case studies of this having been done (that I can find) ... not
> lose references, but actual case studies; people we could talk to.
>
> 2. No Linux knowledge base among the tech guy or volunteers (except me).
>
> 3. Convincing the staff and executive to take a leap of faith. Which
> requires showing them Linux running with a decent desktop and the basic
> apps.
>
> 4. (this ones tricky) AOL donates 10 years of free internet access to a
> smaller sub-set of students. (I've seen Linux answer for this, but I've
> never tried it)
>
> I think the opportunities are clear. Having not only a working Linux lap in
> Toronto, but sending hundreds of young people out into their communities
> with experience and understanding of open source software. I believe it
> could be a beacon and serve as a great exp ample to others who might be
> considering the same.
>
> Finally, if it were to pass, we'd need a bunch of Linux experts to help
> with the planning and a pseudo installfest type thing when the time came to
> convert the lab.
>
> So, I guess I'm asking for input, ideas, opinions and general thoughts and
> guidance on this. I've been at the lab a long time and I don't want to
> steer them down the wrong path. I'm just a volunteer and advisor, I can't
> hold their hand through this ... but I can introduce them to the people who
> can help (people like you) and give them my advise, which they seem to take
> seriously.
>
> Many thanks to all of you in advance,
>
> Phillip.
>

Hi Phillip

nice to hear the good news!

We (I) are doing just that in the French school where I work. I say I because, 
I'm alone doing this, but it doesn't matter as I teach nearly all computer 
courses at this time.

We use OpenOffice and GIMP. But I still have to keep the win98 station, though 
I have a Linux server for my use too.
Adaptation of my students in the business world is smooth (migrating most 
often to MS office), as far as I know. Meaning, they have the best of both 
worlds...

2 years ago I set a all-linux network for a private French school. We had 
really bad hardware (P100 with 16 MB of RAM, and the server was a P2 with 256 
MB of RAM). 

I'd be glad to help.

Most of the stuff you can do yourself (Linux gives you the choice).

Or you can use a special distro-set-up. I know of one in France. May be a 
google search could help you in finding Linux at school configs.

I would love to get more my school more involved too.

Good luck.

Marc

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