Re: [school-discuss] How to present Linux to schools

[Matt Drew <mdrew@redhat.com>]

This is good.  The interests expressed locally in North Carolina to Red 
Hat have been mostly cost oriented, so be prepared to answer questions 
related to total cost of ownership, licensing, how much volunteers would 
cost and what they would able to provide, and where Linux companies make 
their money.

I think the best thing to do is to be up front and honest about what is 
going to be entailed by a transition.  Make sure they understand that 
the companies/volunteers will also be available for training, support, 
and administrative help.  One of the things I'm going to be working hard 
on here is making sure that the schools don't feel like we're tossing 
them to the wolves, giving them Linux and then abandoning them on their 
own to deal with it.

Has anyone developed a template for a transition plan?  Matching Win32 
applications to Linux applications?  What works on Wine and what 
doesn't?  Future plans for various pieces of software?  Explaining that 
Macs can be included too?

Matt

Christopher Hornbaker wrote:

>>How does one go about proposing moving a school from Windows to Linux?
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>Setting up a meeting would be a start. Then prepare yourself. Make sure
>you can answer any question they may propose to you, no matter how
>stupid it may sound. Get a feel for KDE, GNOME and other desktop
>enviroments. Find out what kind of hardware they use and try to find the
>best/fastest applications for that hardware that will meet their needs. 
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>>More specifically, how have you over come Microsoft's brainwashing?
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>The best way to do that would be to show them Linux. Present a PC or a
>laptop to them running Linux with papers that show cost savings,
>stability, reliability, compatibility, etc. Display programs to them
>like Kmail or Evolution, OpenOffice or StarOffice and open Word files
>with them too, educational programs like Kazium or Kgeo, web browsers
>like Konquror and Mozilla. Show them that it is easy like Windows (point
>and click). Show them how to get support (email, irc, LUGs(?)(if you're
>using Mandrake Linux they can use the MandrakeExpert site, not sure how
>other distributions handle it)). Show them that there are other ways,
>specifically cheaper ways and more reliable too.
>
>Chris H. 
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-- 
Matt Drew
Red Hat, Inc
Education Pilot Tech Coordinator
(919)880-7736 (cell)
(919)754-3700 x44192
mdrew@redhat.com