[school-discuss] A thought about accelerating Open Source deployment

[Daniel Howard <dhhoward@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'd like to vent a thought to the group on how to accelerate the 
deployment of Open Source: bundled turnkey solutions coupled with local 
Linux consultant support.  A school would be wooed by a hardware vendor 
(as opposed to us volunteer and staff types who can't take them out for 
dinner and a show) and the vendor offers a bundled server/client 
solution, with easy to follow diagrams for how to connect everything for 
a classroom server model.  The vendor also advertises and promotes his 
products at shows and conferences.  For support, the school is given the 
name of a local Linux expert who knows how to support that platform, and 
also folks like Steve Hargadon who do it remotely for the entire US.  I 
mention the local support solution because that's what APS chose, they 
wanted someone who could meet frequently and even stop by to check on 
things, so I'm assuming this should be part of the solution offered for 
this bundled approach as well.

What do you folks think?  I know at least one thin client hardware 
vendor who might be interested in this, if our and other groups felt it 
might fly.  It would create more Open Source products and jobs, and of 
course, help schools.

Regards,
Daniel

--
Daniel Howard
President and CEO
Georgia Open Source Education Foundation