Re: [school-discuss] Survey on experiences with implementation of Linux within educational and community organizations

[Michael Shigorin <mike@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, May 05, 2008 at 09:09:29PM -0500, Jake Odland wrote:
> My name is Jake Odland. I am a Masters' student in Library and
> Information Science at the University of Illinois and I need
> your guidance.  This is my first post ever to an e-mail
> discussion group

Wow.

> but it seems to be the best way to contact those with the
> experiences that I am looking for.

Well might be...

> The computers that we have been installing run Windows
> operating systems.  We install only FOSS programs on the
> computers such as OpenOffice, Firefox, and Clamwin.  Linux has
> been discussed at different times, but our community partners
> were not ready for it.  

I'd recommend reading
http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/2007/04/transitioning_a.html
which is about OpenOffice.org but basically every non-specific
point is extremely valid for windows-to-linux transition too,
as my 7-year migration experience confirms to me.

> Below is the formal project description and a link to our
> survey.  The survey should take one hour or less.

I'm afraid this -- and a "You must log in to continue." -- 
is beyond today... if you want to conduct public surveys *please*
do urge those responsible to create a possibility for one-time
involvement without wading through "guest netid" stuff or
whatever.

Guess nobody off uiuc/uic/uis here did make it to the hour-long
survey itself.

> If you know anyone who is not on the list but has experience
> with Linux or other Open Source OS labs in educational or
> community organizations such as churches, community centers, or
> libraries, please forward them this survey or send me their
> information off list.     

No use in this form.  Maybe I'm blind (almost, anyways :)
but then tell me please how should a casual migration manager
even get to the forms?..

Anyways,

- pilots are crucial to reduce failure risk/magnitude;
- terminal technologies like LTSP are useful for reducing
  administrative burden (after the migration is technically
  sound and proved by pilot project);
- people matter, habits matter -- but the latter are not 
  to be taken as ultima ratio.

-- 
 ---- WBR, Michael Shigorin <mike@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  ------ Linux.Kiev http://www.linux.kiev.ua/