Re: [seul-edu] Linux in Elementry

[William Kendrick <nbs@sonic.net>]

On Wed, Aug 22, 2001 at 11:11:05AM -0400, Matt Jezorek wrote:
> What desktop do you think that should be included. I guess the competiion is
> between KDE and Gnome does anyone have knowledge on what school systems
> perfer. We have not worked with the school systems yet So i am really
> needing feedback from those that are working with them.

I think using one over the other would be bad.  There's simply too much
good software for both environments.

But, more importantly, installing a desktop environment might not be the
best idea, either, since they can take gobs of disk space, and often
require gobs of RAM to run.

Something like IceWM or WindowMaker is probably your best bet.
Until Ximian or someone comes out with a _minimal_ desktop environment
distribution focused more on older hardware (versus including as much
software as possible), you'll probably want to steer away from them.

In my opinion, stuff like Ximian assume high-powered PCs with lots of
spare RAM and HD and a fast network connection to download the updates.


> Both of them have similarities to windows as far as interface so they both
> should feel comfortable to users.

Is that necessarily good?  Sure, it may look familiar to the folks who
are used to using Windows, but that doesn't mean it HAS to look that way.

If you're familiar with MacOS's "Launcher," and the way the interface
could be locked out (no access to filesystem, Chooser, etc.), this kind
of restriction is perfect for the students.

Let the little kids focus on double-clicking the icon of the program
they're supposed to run, and leave out all of the start menus,
panel applets, etc.


> A Question my wife brought up to me was. If all they have in the classroom
> is Linux will they be able to work on windows when they get out of school.
> Now my natural reaction was, "If they can use linux then windows should be
> simple" anyone else got this kind of response when they mentioned it?

Computers are computers.  Interfaces under Linux (KDE, Gnome, and
properly set-up Window managers (even, say, FVWM with a "GoodStuff" app.
running)), as well as Windows and Macintosh, are all pretty simple to use.
It may take a minute or two of poking around, but I doubt anyone would
get confused if they saw "WORD PROCESSOR" and an icon. ;)

-bill!
sorry, babbling...