Re: [seul-edu] Linux in Elementry

[Ben Armstrong <synrg@sanctuary.nslug.ns.ca>]

On Wed, Aug 22, 2001 at 09:47:35AM -0700, William Kendrick wrote:
> On Wed, Aug 22, 2001 at 09:34:41AM -0700, Jennifer Dozar wrote:                 
> > I would say for your Distro, don't get too far ahead of yourself, but it
> > will bepossible :) Just hang in there while Linux is slowly taking a hold
> > on schools.
> 
> Well, I wouldn't discourage folks from working on a distro, as a nice,
> simple drop-in answer to a school's needs is better than a disparate
> collection of software. ;)

Or help work on an existing one.  Debian is a nice general Linux distro
with lots of support.  Debian Jr. works on a subset of Debian which is
intended to be used by children.  The Debian Jr. goals are more geared
towards the home user, though, and don't address the needs of educators
directly.  However, as I have said before, I'm not opposed to a "Edu"
group within Debian which could work alongside Debian Jr. to produce
something suitable for schools.

Basically, I have taken the lazy person's way out.  It is far more fun
and less intimidating for me to venture forth and say "I'd like to work
on something my kids can have fun with at home and other kids can have
fun using too" than it is to say "I'd like to work on something schools
everywhere can use to change how they teach with computers".  The latter
is a very large, scary undertaking for me to contemplate, as I do not
want to get everyone putting their hope in my work, only to have their
hopes dashed on the rocks of reality.  The former is well within what I
can accomplish, as I have watched my own children at home with Linux and
know by watching that it is good for them.  Debian Jr. already contains
quite a bit of what my own children consider to be fun, so I hope woody
users will find that their children enjoy it too.  It is definitely not,
however, a polished "education solution" that can just be plopped into a
school network, replacing an existing Win or Mac box.

Well, enough making excuses :)  The point is, "making a distro" isn't
necessary.  Instead, work on one corner of the problem of making an
existing distro do what you want it to do.  That way, everyone benefits,
and you don't end up having to "reinvent the wheel" with your new
distro.

Ben
-- 
    nSLUG       http://www.nslug.ns.ca      synrg@sanctuary.nslug.ns.ca
    Debian      http://www.debian.org       synrg@debian.org
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