Re: [school-discuss] linux distributions for low resource computers

["Ralph M. Deal" <deal@xxxxxxxx>]

I know exactly how you feel, Christian Einfeldt, in finding powerful 
LINUX systems being rejected for brand reasons.  I am the husband of an 
international school in Germany and a LINUX fan.  When we arrived in 
this school, they had a Gentoo server on an old moderately powerful 
computer.  The computers in classrooms, staffroom, and computer lab were 
dual-boot W2000/Edubuntu donated computers, many Compaq's with 256 RAM 
and 10-15GB drives.  In this system, the functioning applications were 
resident on the user computers, with some drivers and installation 
programs resident on the server.  Delighted to find an educational IT 
system in place with a LINUX system, I've been an active volunteer 
working with our IT person who recently quit.

I just had supper with our new IT guru, a Windows-only enthusiast who is 
installing a full M$ system, including the servers.  The main driving 
force for this transformation has been the administration and teachers, 
many of whom consider LINUX a tinkerer's toy.  Small difficulties in 
transforming Word documents written on M$ systems at home to OO on 
school computers (either operating systems) have them crying for M$ 
software.  Unlike Christian Einfeldt whose students were rejecting 
LINUX, our students have not complained about Edubuntu and most prefer 
to work there instead of W2000.

In my case, it is too late to undo the damage but I sure would like to
know how to effectively battle with administrators who think that using 
LINUX is not really professional.  Please do not suggest that I become 
an administrator myself - not appropriate since I just had my 77th birthday.

Best,  Ralph