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

[Salvatore Gambacorta <psychdoc@sdf.lonestar.org>]

I'd like to say hello to this group. Being my first post I would also like
to introduce myself. Like many of you, I'm a parent - of two very young
daughters, whom are proficient in PC usage beyond their years, but I'm
still not sure that's a good thing. Nevertheless, I'd like to help
their school
out by providing assistance in establishing a PC lab and I feel Linux is
the way to go. I have calculated that 20 donated PC's running Knoppix
would save the school about AU$40,000.00 (new @ retail + Windows). I can
only imagine that you are all here for the same reason - in addition to
any merits the software may have.

Anyway, I do welcome suggestions and I would like assistance in obtaining
the Glue CD and Knoppix for Kids CD since I don't have access to
broadband. Media and postage costs will be covered.

Finally, I would like to make a suggestion. It is somewhat of an uphill
struggle to convince people of the availabilty of alternative oses,
particularly if they have grown accustomed to a particular platform. This
is the difficulty some of you are facing when either attempting to build
or purchase a system with linux pre-installed. Nevertheless, I have found
that people get excited when they see what linux can do for free. So the
word has to get out more and advertising something that's essentially free
doesn't really make economic sense. So my suggestion is to get the
local media
involved. I have struck up an agreement with a local paper to write a
piece about the new lab, the PC's, linux and the school, once the project
is finished. If those of you that biuld linux boxes could offer your
assistance to one worthy cause, it may open the
floodgate you're seeking, without costing a cent in advertising.

But then, i don't make a living in IT. So don't take my word for it.

Regards
Salvatore Gambacorta
Sydney Australia


On 8 Jun 2003, ian wrote:

> Date: 08 Jun 2003 11:16:56 +0100
> From: ian <ian.lynch2@ntlworld.com>
> Reply-To: schoolforge-discuss@schoolforge.net
> To: schoolforge-discuss@schoolforge.net
> Subject: Re: [school-discuss] Knoppix vs. Freeduc vs. ???
>
> On Sun, 2003-06-08 at 02:11, Massimiliano Mirra wrote:
> > ian <ian.lynch2@ntlworld.com> writes:
> >
> > > 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.
> >
> > How about offering the usual machine with an already partitioned hard
> > disk, and giving out a Knoppix CD with it?
>
> We don't generally sell a usual machine to individuals, we sell in
> batches of 10, 20, 100 etc to education built to their spec. I wouldn't
> want to get into the "glossy ad in PCW" mail order business for windows
> machines, but we have had the occasional person find us indirectly and
> ask for a Linux pre-installed system. It seems that its quite difficult
> to find PC builders who will pre-install GNU/Linux. We will do it, the
> trick is in getting contact with those who want it without bankrupting
> ourselves with unfocused advertising.
>
> >  Or dual boot machines with
> > Linux as the system which boots by default?  Even without advertising,
> > Linux would end up being booted more often than Windows, both because
> > it's default and because it features hundreds more programs than a
> > bare Windows installation.  And it might help you build the experience
> > about customers' response that you will need in an ad campaign.
>
> This would be an option if we were selling by these methods but we have
> no real experience of conventional advertising.
>
> > > Maybe we should start offering low cost PCs to parents through the
> > > schools.  Anyone any thoughts on this?
> >
> > Definitely a good idea.  When something is (or appears like) a
> > requirement from an external entity, most people seem to shut down any
> > judgement capability about whether it's good or it's bad, since it's
> > required anyway.  So they might as well be offered something good for
> > change!
>
> Yes, the main snag I foresee is support. If things went wrong, they
> would blame Linux whereas if they go wrong with Windows they just accept
> it as the way things are. Still, I think perhaps very low cost refurbed
> machines with free software might be a possibility with options to
> upgrade to a new one and recycle the old ones again. Effectively
> generate a market like for cars - now the hardware is so powerful
> refresh cycles could become long enough to make this work.Its just
> making a start that is the difficult bit.
>
> > Whatever your choice, I wish you the best luck.
> --
> ian <ian.lynch2@ntlworld.com>
>
>