Re: [school-discuss] linux distributions for low resource computers

["Ralph M. Deal" <deal@xxxxxxxx>]

I know exactly how you feel, Christian Einfeldt, in finding powerful 
LINUX systems being rejected for brand reasons.  I am the husband of an 
international school in Germany and a LINUX fan.  When we arrived in 
this school, they had a Gentoo server on an old moderately powerful 
computer.  The computers in classrooms, staffroom, and computer lab were 
dual-boot W2000/Edubuntu donated computers, many Compaq's with 256 RAM 
and 10-15GB drives.  In this system, the functioning applications were 
resident on the user computers, with some drivers and installation 
programs resident on the server.

I just had supper with a Windows-only enthusiast who is installing a 
full M$ system, including the servers.  The main driving force for this 
transformation has been the administration and teachers, many of whom 
consider LINUX a tinkerer's toy.  Small difficulties in transforming 
Word documents written on M$ systems at home to OO on school computers 
(either operating systems) have them crying for M$ software).  Unlike 
Einfeldt whose students were rejecting LINUX, our students have not 
complained about Edubuntu and most prefer to work there instead of W2000.

In my case, it is too late to undo the damage but I sure would like to
know how to effectively battle with administrators who think that using 
LINUX is not really professional.  Please do not suggest that I become 
an administrator myself - not appropriate since I just had my 77th birthday.

Best,  Ralph

PS Christian Einfeldt is the producer of "the Digital Tipping Point".
Please enlighten me on this publication.