Re: [school-discuss] The end of Red Hat (maddog's take)

[Leon Brooks <leon@brooks.fdns.net>]

On Fri, 7 Nov 2003 01:28, Nobody wrote:
> AVERAGE HOME USER: My mother and father. Reads and sends email.
> Scans the web when they feel brave. Destroys their system every five
> or six months. Can not tell the difference between a left and right
> mouse click (yes, they have a three button mouse), therefore
> continuously removing the icons on their launchbar.

Jon, up to this point Linux sounds like a 100% win for them. Not only is 
it much easier to prevent them from destroying their system and to lock 
down their icons (KDE's kiosk framework, whatever it's called these 
days, would be ideal) but they're able to read and send email, browse 
the web, etc in pretty much complete safety - which is not something 
you can claim for MS-Windows with a straight face.

> Gets their support from members of their church, or from members
> of their club in their retirement home. In worst possible case they
> go down to their local PC store, who does not know much (if
> anything) about Linux. 

Only this part makes any sense, and I'd be so bold as to claim that 
while there is clearly less Linux support available from such sources, 
at the moment the support you do get would almost certainly be of a 
higher quality, less ritualistic nature.

Cheers; Leon