Re: [school-discuss] Knoppix vs. Freeduc vs. ???

[ian <ian.lynch2@ntlworld.com>]

On Sat, 2003-06-07 at 19:49, Massimiliano Mirra wrote:
> "Paul Coelho" <paul_coelho@hotmail.com> writes:
> 
> > As an interested dad  not a teacher  this
> > thread has been really useful to me.
> >
> > As an aside; has anyone on this list considered contacting Dell about
> > building a kids linux box?  I think it would make a lot of sense and
> > Ill bet that the educational and home markets would be ripe for this
> > now, particularly internationally.  I guarantee that if they built it,
> > Id buy it.
> 
> As an interested dad, I'll bet that you'd be the first Dell would want
> to hear from, so consider taking the first step. :-)
> 
> 
> Massimiliano

We are not as big as Dell ;-) But we build PCs and I have been thinking
of advertising pre-installed Linux. The difficulty is that advertising
is expensive and for a small company like us I'm not sure its going to
be cost-effective and a mistake in this line could put us out of
business. We do install Linux thin clients in schools and servers,but
the marketing is different to selling to homes and parents. Maybe we
should start offering low cost PCs to parents through the schools.
Anyone any thoughts on this?

It has struck me that those in favour of free software who have to buy
proprietary stuff should seek out companies that support both. By
supporting a company that promotes free software but can supply other
goods there are two effects. One it sends the signal to others that its
a good idea to support free software or you might lose business, the
other is that if companies sympathetic to free software flourish, they
can afford to put more effort into it. (Of course since we are such a
company I would say that wouldn't I! But I hope you can see the wider
logic) So if you have to buy a data projector or a Windows XP network,
look to get it from a supporter of free software! At least something is
likely to go back into the free software community.

-- 
ian <ian.lynch2@ntlworld.com>