Windows at school, a student's perspective

[Marc Lijour]

On March 27, 2005 04:54 am, Mike Newman wrote:
> So my school (Centennial College) offers free ISOs of popular
> Microsoft products to all Information Systems students. So far I've
> gotten by just fine with Debian/Ubuntu, Mono, Java, GCC and WINE. Not
> bad considering how much MS has paid Centennial to set up a
> homogeneous curriculum (if it weren't for that one pesky Unix course).
> Anyway, I decided that it might be worthwhile to try some of my stuff
> on Windows (hey, I've heard that some people actually use it for real
> work!) so I head over to the department website to download my free
> copy of Windows XP. Then I find out that, in order to complete the
> download, you have to run the "authenticator," which comes in the form
> of...
> a Win32 executable.
>
> So it's a free copy of Windows for those who already own and run
> Windows. They've matched GNU/Linux on price, but have missed the mark
> on ease of acquisition. I can download and burn an Ubuntu ISO on
> practically any modern desktop OS. Is this really their best effort in
> getting me to switch from Unix? Where's their Live CD so I can try
> things out first?
>
> This student's conclusion? Windows is not ready for the academic desktop!

An educator note: can you call yourself an educational institution where from 
the start you have predetermined what the students must think, what they must 
love and what they must do?
Learning is not about making people repeat after you, it is more about giving 
them the BEST opportunity to fully express their inner potential.

Final line. What kind of society do we get when we tell people what they must 
think and how they must think?
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