Linux in the TDSB

[Igor Denisov]

Hello all,

I am currently involved in an effort to get the TDSB (the Toronto school board)
to agree to beta-test Linux as an OS for the clients on its board-wide network.

I've made contact with some of the people close / at the IT management top, as
well as the support folks, etc.
The Standards and Practices committee seems quite intimidating at this point, I
see them as largely conservative.

Although several schools have already tried and do run Linux as part of their
Comp. Sci. programs, they seem to mostly use stand-alone workstations or small
server + thin client labs.
I intend to get Linux to be used as a client on the whole network and actually
be approved for that use.

Can anyone suggest any strategies on how to best promote this idea or what _not_
to do?

To start, I'd like to test Linux (still deciding on the distro, gravitating
towards SUSE 9.1, on my home system, it replaced windows with the least effort
and most compatibility) on a few machines. From this I intend to prove that
Linux is a viable substitute for Win2K while maintaining the quality of the user
experience and achieving more in terms of security, stability, and system uptime.

I realize that this is very much of an uphill battle and that the idea will
require quite a bit of leverage to even be listened to.

I've written a brief essay on why using OSS and Linux would be of benefit in the
educational system, just touching on the key issues and benefits (i.e. large
numbers of universities already use it, even outside CS/engineering labs).
I can include it  in my next message (this one is already too long :-)

Igor

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