How to start a revolution?

[Colin McGregor]

Phillip,

We should do lunch sometime soon.

I am involved with a charity near King and River (not too far from you it
would seem) that teaches people on social assistance how to refurbish old
PCs, and I have been working towards getting these folks onto Linux.

Also, for the World Science Fiction Convention that was here Labour Day
weekend I was responsible for the setting up and running of the Internet
Lounge. The Lounge was a 28 machine Linux based Lounge that got set-up in
one day by 3 people (myself and two people who had NO knowledge of Linux).
Ok, so I cheated sort of, but they are cheats that could have real
application where you are :-) . Further, I didn't know until about a week
before the convention what sort of PC hardware I would have for the
convention (turned out they were 28 Pentium II 400 machines with 128 MB of
RAM). Now granted I did know months in advance that I would be doing this
project, so was making my plans on the basis that I would not know the
hardware until the last minute and that I would have very little set-up time
available... Also of note, once the convention started the Lounge was run 24
hours a day for 5 days with very little trouble, and most of the time the
room was being monitored by people with little to no Linux knowledge.

Colin McGregor

"Phillip Smith (communitybandwidth.ca)" <phillip-/6JGXy0y6WMkn5nKnFR3Ls0R97HRMWuz at public.gmane.org>
Thursday, October 09, 2003 6:34 PM

>
> 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.

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