Promoting Open Source in Schools

[Tony Abou-Assaleh]

On Sat, 17 Dec 2005, Zbigniew Koziol wrote:

> This is rather off topic what I want to ask.
>
> Igor Denisov wrote:
>
> > Also, with Linux, there _would_ be a lot less work, because all the
> > l33t_h4xx0r_dud3 high school kids would no longer be able to download
> > and use system cracks from sites like Blackcode. After all, all you
> > need for local Win2K admin rights is a boot disk, and then you can
> > install anything you want, be it Quake3 or a network traffic sniffer.
>
> Isnt the same in this case danger with using Linux as well? One needs
> just the first installation CD to put in and get full access (not even
> with of the same distribution). Or is there perhaps a way that this
> could be prevented?

As easy to do in Linux as it is in Windows. To prevent, add BIOS password
and disable boot from the CDROM.

> But the real question I have is the following.
>
> Wouldnt it be less expensive to use just one powerfull machine for
> entire school/organization and connect to it by using 100$ terminal
> machines only, and run in that way any X applications?

It really depends. If the school already has h/w, then there is a big cost
of getting a new powerful machine. If they need new machines anyway, I
think the terminal setup ends up cheaper overall (so I heard, I didn't do
the math).

Cheers,

TAA

-----------------------------------------------------
Tony Abou-Assaleh
Lecturer, Computer Science Department
Brock University, St. Catharines, ON, Canada, L2S 3A1
Office: MC J215
Tel:    +1(905)688-5550 ext. 5243
Fax:    +1(905)688-3255
Email:  taa-HInyCGIudOg at public.gmane.org
WWW:    http://www.cosc.brocku.ca/~taa/
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