How to start a revolution?

Fri Oct 10 03:17:32 UTC 2003

Great idea!

What case studies are you looking for? Non profits using linux?

I am a member of a Literacy council in Arthur and I have set up Samba, Apache and Proftp on a Linux server for just the same purpose. The literacy employees have also been trained in the maintenance of the server and don't mind one bit that an old pc has become very useful.

If I can be of any help - let me know.

Regards,

Wil McGilvery
Manager
Lynch Digital Media Inc

416-744-7949
416-716-3964 (cell)
1-866-314-4678
416-744-0406  FAX
www.LynchDigital.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Marc Lijour (Professeur d'Informatique) [mailto:marc-bbkyySd1vPWsTnJN9+BGXg at public.gmane.org] 
Sent: Thursday, October 09, 2003 9:57 PM
To: tlug-lxSQFCZeNF4 at public.gmane.org
Subject: Re: [TLUG]: How to start a revolution?

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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