Re: [school-discuss] Britannica

[Jim Thomas <jthomas@bittware.com>]

Ben Armstrong wrote:
> 
> On Tue, May 28, 2002 at 08:25:00PM -0400, jkinz@ultranet.com wrote:
> > I agree here Tom.  Sadly the schools who are making using Linux
> > conditional on the availability of EB don't.  Constructively - How do
> > we convince them ?
> 
> They have chosen a poor reason to reject Linux.  Focus on other schools.  If
> they are hell-bent on EB "because that's what everyone else uses" then they
> will move to Linux "because that's what everyone else uses" whenever that
> becomes a reality (and by that time, perhaps EB will have their market
> they're looking for anyway).
> 
> How many schools are rejecting Linux because there's no EB for it, anyway?

I think it's time to clarify a bit (I think I'm responsible for the
start of this discussion). 

I'm the volunteer sysadmin for a private K12 school in Vienna Virginia. 
We have a 20-PC linux-only lab and two liux servers.  We also have four
Windows machines in our library.  The machines in the lab always work. 
The machines in the library require constant intervention.  I'd like to
put linux on the library machines, but the main purpose of these
machines is to provide access to several CD-Rom encyclopedias -
including EB and WorldBook.

Obviously, if I can't run an encyclopedia on these machines, they will
not serve their primary purpose.  Not having access to EB or WB will
keep linux out of our library, but not out of our school.

So I asked here if anyone had tried either of these under wine.  Doug
sent emails to WB and EB, and EB responded.  No one indicated that they
had tried to use [EW]B with wine, so I gave it a whack.

So far, I have not been successful.  Once I get WB to install, it
complains about a problem (different complaints on different boxes) and
exits.  I can't find an exe on the EB disc.  

I can see no problem with writing an open-source EB reader.  It would
really be no different from QGeo which will render content from the
National Geographic CDs.  The only way EB could "pull the plug" would be
to change the format of the content, and they certainly wouldn't do that
to kill linux support for their product.  It's in their best interest to
have a linux-enabled app to read their content.  Having an open source
reader does not require free content.

The ideal EB reader would also support WorldBook, Grolier, Encarta
(gasp!), and any other digital encyclopedias you might name.

-- 
Jim Thomas            Principal Applications Engineer  Bittware, Inc
jthomas@bittware.com  http://www.bittware.com          (703) 779-7770
The secret to enjoying your job is to have a hobby that's even worse
  - Calvin's Dad