Daniel Howard wrote: [Fri Jun 30 2006, 09:48:29AM EDT] > Doug Loss wrote: > >http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060628/COLUMNISTS03/106280090/-1/opinion > > Just so all of us have good responses to the usual criticisms, this one > from the above article: > > "Several teachers said, in fact, that the biggest obstacle to adopting > open-source software wasn?t teachers or school board members, who > like the idea of getting more technology for tax dollars, but school > technical staff. > > And you can?t blame them. Bringing in another type of computer can > effectively double a support staff?s workload, especially since > open-source is notoriously weak in documentation. You can be sure > staffing won?t be doubled to compensate." /* snip */ > The research supports it as well: a typical Linux administrator, while > costing slightly more than a typical Windows administrator, can manage > 50-100 servers, while a Windows admin can usually only manage 10-15. > And of course, with all the money that can be saved on licenses, more > admins can be hired... I agree with you, but sadly this doesn't always happen. School IT departments (a big one in my area might have 5 people) stay just the way they are, and the former Winders(TM) admins suddenly become Linux admins. A "good" Linux admin can manage 50-100 servers, but these aren't "good" Linux admins (yet); many of them get upset because they can't administer everything with a GUI anymore. And when you're not willing to start learning the command line, you're not yet on your way to becoming a good Linux admin. It's entirely understandable that schools find themselves unable and/or unwilling to turn out their current crop of Winders(TM) admins in exchange for new people who cost more and are "good" Linux admins. The folks in charge of hiring don't yet know how to recognize a "good" Linux admin, and worse yet, salaries for IT people in education (in my area) are often 60-70% of what industry pays. So a school gets stocked with 1) good Winders(TM) people who really want to be there and 2) people who "know something about computers" who maybe aren't qualified to get an IT job in industry. Of course these are all generalizations, but when you have a team of five people being paid a total of X, it can be difficult to convince anyone (school boards, for instance) that what you need to do is transition to a team of three more-qualified people and still pay the team a total of X. So the school making a transition to Linux is likely to go through growing pains as the current admins are trained, and as they learn on the job. There will be times when critical things break and they don't know how to fix them right away, because they don't understand them. (I know of a school district with several thousand students where the head IT person doesn't understand DNS, and they're only running Winders(TM)...) Eventually, *if* there is a strong champion with enough clout to fight for a transition to Linux, an admin team with Linux background will be in place, and things will settle down again. But this transition is something that must be understood before it is undertaken, and I worry that many schools don't take the required changes in personnel (either the existing personnel must change, or new personnel must be hired) sufficiently into account. Even so, as we all work to get the world to recognize the viability and benefits of Linux and FOSS in education, we can change these perceptions and thereby increase the number of "good" Linux admins in the long-term. I reacted the same way you did when I first read that sentence in the article, but then I realized that he's right. He's not talking about would could or should happen, but about what *does* happen, all too often. --matt -- Open Source Software Engineering Consultant http://majen.net/
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