Re: [seul-edu] donated computers announcement, take 2

[Leon Brooks <leon@brooks.fdns.net>]

Take 2:

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LINUX ENABLES SAFE COMPUTER DONATIONS TO SCHOOLS

The Internet, Thursday, 02 May 2002: In an official announcement from the SEUL 
group today, spokesman Leon Brooks overturned Microsoft's draconian threats 
against the acceptance of donated computers by schools and other needy 
organisations.

"Microsoft claims that it is a legal requirement that pre-installed operating 
systems remain with the computer for the life of the computer," he said. 
"Like viruses and security issues, that problem is almost exclusive to 
Microsoft. Using Linux, OpenOffice.org and other Open Source software, you 
can accept practically any donated computer regardless of operating system, 
erase the existing software, install Open Source software and operate the 
computer legally and safely as a powerful workstation or a server, all at 
little or no cost."

Mr Brooks also noted that Linux rolled away the burdens, costs and legal 
risks of licence management and software asset auditing for all businesses, 
organisations and individuals. Linux is also easy to operate as a diskless 
workstation or "thin client", and many schools were rolling out networks of 
student terminals using this technology with both donated and new equipment, 
he explained.

SEUL has dozens of case studies from real schools on line 
(http://casestudy.seul.org/) showing the immediate financial advantages of 
this strategy, and the K-12 Linux Terminal Server Project group 
(http://www.k12ltsp.org/casestudy.html) are also recording the extensive 
benefits of the thin-client approach with scores of real examples submitted 
from real schools by the people using it at the front lines.

Some charitable organisations, such as Western Australia's Computer Angels 
(http://www.ca.asn.au/) already use Linux rather than risk being destroyed at 
the whim of Microsoft or their allies (http://www.bsaa.com.au/) as the 
Australian organisation `PCs for Kids' (http://www.pcsforkids.org/) 
effectively was late last year, 
(http://www.cnn.com/2001/BUSINESS/asia/08/09/aus.microsoftkids/index.html) 
and a similar organisation in New Zealand was in 1997
(http://www.idg.net.nz/webhome.nsf/UNID/1B2EA829EEBB476CCC256A8F000AD1BE?opendocument).
On the other hand, Linux suppliers and users have a long tradition of 
supporting truly charitable organisations 
(http://www.idgnet.co.nz/webhome.nsf/UNID/DC8B080246F1F98CCC256A940001A54C!opendocument). 
Larger or American organisations are not immune, here's 
(http://www.softwaremetering.com/fines.html) a long list victims, with only 
one fine under USD$50,000 and some exceeding USD$500,000.

SEUL is an organisation working towards a simpler, easier Linux experience for 
all, and may be contacted through their website at http://www.seul.org/. In 
combination with your local Linux user group - which you can locate at 
http://www.linux.org/ - SEUL can field volunteers to help schools and 
charitable organisations get started in the stable, secure, safe world of 
Linux.

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Cheers; Leon