Promoting Open Source in Schools

[William Park]

On Fri, Dec 16, 2005 at 07:16:08PM -0500, Marc Lijour wrote:
> On Friday 16 December 2005 17:58, William Park wrote:
> > On Fri, Dec 16, 2005 at 07:40:38PM +0000, paul sutton wrote:
> > > Hi
> > >
> > > I was wondering if anyone in the Toronto area. has been involved in
> > > getting open source into schools and if they could share their
> > > experience.  In the Uk I have just joined with some of the more local
> > > linux users to promote Linux in torbay, partly as we live locally so
> > > it's much easier to do things on a local level,  the rest of the DC
> > > lug are spread over quite a big distance (Well in Uk terms anyway),  I
> > > think in the uk no one is more than about 75 miles from the coast.
> > >
> > > As i am planning to be in the Toronto area about End of April / May I
> > > will hopefully be able to take part in group meetings, and possibly
> > > projects,  even though I am also going to be looking for work
> > > initially,
> >
> > It will likely be waste of time.  Not sure how UK schools are funded,
> > but here Ontario Gov funds the school.  Tough sell to begin with.  Then,
> > you have to deal with IT staffs at Ministry of Education, various school
> > boards, and then teachers/secretary.  None will welcome Linux, because
> > Linux threatens their job security.  
> 
> Please allow some exception there ;-)
> 
> > And, you can't fire those people 
> > who refuses to learn Linux.

Okey, except one that I know of. :-)

But, in all honesty, thin-client alone will eliminate 90% of IT cost,
because it eliminates desktops altogether and all associated cost like
payroll of sysadmin, maintenance, upgrade, configuration, etc.  I have
better chance of making my living as porn stud, than as Linux salesman.

I'm just awed by Microsoft's prowse in all this.  When they say Linux is
job killer, they are right on.  While we Linux amateurs talk about
technical merits of Linux, Microsoft talks directly to the decision
makers and IT staffs.

-- 
William Park <opengeometry-FFYn/CNdgSA at public.gmane.org>, Toronto, Canada
ThinFlash: Linux thin-client on USB key (flash) drive
	   http://home.eol.ca/~parkw/thinflash.html
BashDiff: Super Bash shell
	  http://freshmeat.net/projects/bashdiff/
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