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Evangelizing FOSS (was Re: [school-discuss] Slaves to Microsoft)

Good points below Don. In order to make a switch, it must be fully functional, easy to switch, *and* have some other benefit like saving money or bringing older hardware back to life.

But the issue I see with making a case for redirecting dollars to other programs like music, PE, etc. (much as I agree personally) is that the chief IT guy for a big district sees his budget as power. He's not likely to support any program that takes money away from his department, regardless of how easy it makes his life.

Yah, we both missed Joel's real goal, but from recent posts, looks like he may get some help. I continue to feel that this is one of the best lists to which I subscribe, and it definitely was instrumental to us in converting our school to K12LTSP.

Daniel


Don Christensen wrote: 
Daniel Howard wrote:

Top posting due to lengthy thread attachment.

Don, I think the key issue is not to show them the functionality of the Linux equivalents for office and the Edutainment apps, but to show how older classroom (and donated) PCs don't have to be replaced and the number of PCs (servers) to manage drops in a thin client model. That was definitely the key benefit seen by our district personnel, who had lots of older PCs in the district that they couldn't figure out how to deal with. 


I don't agree, I think functionality is just as important.  If the
required functionality is not there, then it just doesn't matter
how much money you can save.  A labfull of inexpensive or donated
machines isn't going to get used if the apps aren't there.
Unfortunately, convincing people that OpenOffice is an acceptable
replacement for MS Office is not as easy as showing them OO if
they aren't interested in believing it, and that's where the
cost savings become important.

In any case, Joel has made it clear that we both missed what he
really wanted.  :-)

The other pitch I gave them was that they should not reduce their IT budgets even though the hardware and software costs would be reduced; rather they should spend that money hiring more IT personnel so they could approach a 1:1 IT staff to school ratio. Currently, it's at least 1:6; actual number not really reportable due to district offices also being supported by the same IT staff... 


This would be great, I agree, but I would be very surprised if
the savings on hardware and software didn't get people thinking
about using that money to fund other things that are being cut
(like music, art, PE, and other programs that are shortsightedly
being cut by some schools).  You know, even many corporations
try to minimize IT spending, as they can't see a direct contribution
to the bottom line (IT departments generally don't provide any
direct revenue).

-Don

Daniel


Don Christensen wrote:

Joel Kahn wrote:

There is one thing that I think would be helpful: if
someone out there in schoolforge land could sell me
cheaply (or donate) a laptop preloaded with a nice
stable Linux distro and equally stable versions of the
relevant apps. I'm not interested in raw power; in
fact, an older machine might even be a more impressive
way to demonstrate that Linux can do a better job than
Windows under the right conditions. With a laptop, I
would have a lot more flexibility in my own
self-training with FLOSS, as well as what I show,
where/when I show it, and who I show it to.

You don't need a specific computer to do this.  Download an
education-focused live CD such as eduKnoppix or eduMorphix
(search for "education" at http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php
for others you might find more suitable).

Once you have the CD, simply boot it in any computer that can
boot from a CD.  The CD will boot a complete Linux environment
with a good selection of educational apps that you could
demonstrate.  Make sure to explain that any perceived slowness
is due to booting from the CD and would not be seen if installed
on the hard drive.

The live CD will not touch the hard drive, so you can boot it,
demo it, then take it out and reboot to Windows.  That alone
can inspire a bit of "Wow factor".  It might even be fun to
find a couple of different live CDs that offer different GUIs
and/or apps to show how flexible Linux can be.  You could explain
how you downloaded the CDs at no cost, and could give away
copies to anyone who wanted them for the cost of the blank CD.

You might also be interested in a slightly different approach.
Go to http://www.theopencd.org and download or purchase the CD.
Then you can demo various apps like OpenOffice easily and show
that they provide enough of the same functionality as their
MS counterparts, and that they could be used to save a substantial
amount of money.  Hopefully, budget issues can overcome the
laziness that is locking in MS.  Unless the decision makers
are benefitting directly from the relationship with MS, I'm
sure they have their own pet projects they would like to have
more money for.  Try to use that fact to your advantage.

-Don