Re: Personal ideas
>From Alan Eugene Davis on Wednesday, 2005-03-02 at 15:56:10 -0500:
>
> I am a science teacher at a public high school. We are trying to
> run a marine science program. I don't have any specific role in
> administering computers: I am the only one running GNU/Linux.
> Windoze is the norm.
>
> > > The user, even somewhat sophisticated, as I feel I am, must make a
> > > number of concessions to have a completely free system. It is
> >
> > Must he? He must reject some "evil" things like flash, maybe.
>
> I gladly bear this burden, and over the years it gets better.
> However, the weight bes heavy enough when, for example trying to
> access the web site ofr a textbook, to bother...
>
> > > important than to get to the point, as "we" rapidly are, where
> > > users---and from an educational point of view, I have to point to
> > > science and probably math teachers in particular---who are
> > > constrained to Windows can access those sites on the internet that
> > > are so helpful to us. Any "school linux" distribution from my point
> >
> > Are those particular sites? What are the constraints? Java? Flash?
Both Java and to some extent Flash can be made to work with skolelinux.
> Sometimes, but often assumptions built into sites, and in fairness it
> often comes down to the roadblocks built into the web pages to make
> them proprietary.
>
> I am referring (with apologies) to recent meetings, played up in large
> in domestic press, between Gates and governors, and people buying into
> Gates's plan to dominate us all.
Skolelinux now carries sufficient weight in Norway that most anyone promoting
an "educational solution" feels obligated to make it standards-compliant.
Those who do not yet feel this obligation are soon made to feel it. ;-)
Of course there is still a lot of Windows educational software floating
around, but from what little I have seen of it, it does not appear to
offer much real competition. The future looks bright!
I can understand your frustration, but if you have been following recent
developments in Europe, you would know that there are now numerous large
Linux installations (on the desktop!) underway, and that the groups
promoting software patents have suffered a string of stinging setbacks.
The fact that it is local companies (such as Nokia and Electrolux)
promoting these ideas does not seem to impress the European parliament.
Moreover the EU has been demanding that Microsoft unbundle its Media
Player from Windows, for the same reason that people once wanted to
unbundle Internet Explorer. While the final page of this confrontation
is not yet written, it seems unlikely that the EU will be as spineless
as the American government was in pressing their case.
Of course the only real solution to all these problems is to create
an alternative, but skolelinux is in fact doing much more than that.
So far as I know, there is no "out of the box" solution for creating
a school network with Windows. Bill Gates clearly smells trouble---
hence his publicity campaign---but it would appear to me that he is
now in the position of playing catch-up!
Conrad
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