Re: [seul-edu] Linux in Elementary

[Robert Rickenbrode II <rkr_ii@yahoo.com>]

I'd like to add my aye-aye's to Sam Criswell's remarks regarding the 
user-interface. He said,
for example:

"It's been my experience (working with technologically illiterate persons, as
many many Joe-users are) that once you give them a well setup system (and by
this, I mean a techno-literate person has already set up all the basics for
them, and has chosen some consistent interface for them) they have the exact
same troubles using the system regardless of whether it is Linux or Windows
(or MacOS, or whatever). And in some cases, with a little bit of foresight and
care, you can actually use the massive configurability of Linux UIs to make
something easier for Joe-end-user to use."

I've been a technical support person in schools (elementary and high 
school) since 1995,
supporting networks running predominantly Macintoshes, though always with a
smattering of Wintel machines and under either an Apple or Netware server 
(or both).

In any case, we used an excellent piece of software for the Macs called At 
Ease from Apple. The
basic idea - replace the default UI (the Finder) with a simplified (or 
locked-down) one. In the
strictest setting, At Ease would show the user a two tabbed display - the 
first tab consisted of
icons of all the applications a user was allowed to access; the second tab 
consisted of the documents
in his or her home (server-based) directory.  You also could control where 
a user could save, if they could print,
whether they had CD-ROM access, where applications could be opened from, 
whether they had control panel
access, whether they had chooser access, etc.

The program, frankly, was almost perfect.  Installation consisted of 
configuring the machine (TCP/IP, printer,
software, proxies, and so on), installing at ease, then pointing the local 
install to the server-based configuration
files.  That was it; walk-away.  It was a benefit to IT folks because the 
machines are very secure. There are cases where I didn't go back to a 
machine in a classroom for YEARS!

Moreover, administration was a snap.  After the initial workgroups were 
created - defining priveleges and apps - I never added or deleted an 
account again. It was all handled by the librarian - after about an hour of 
explanation - who also controlled the Internet Agreement forms.

I gradually realized that it was also a boon to the users - At Ease 
basically empowered them by getting rid of all the cruft
and getting them to where they needed to go - Word, Works, Accelerated 
Reader, Netscape, IE, etc. No more
double-click here, then there, then there, oops, someone renamed Netscape 
to 034iwdhasudasgpod and moved it to
Untitled Folder 47. Or, where did I save my document (in almost all 
programs, and in all of the important ones, At Ease
defaulted EVERY save dialog box to the user's server-based home 
directory)?  Or, why can't I print? Etc.

Unfortunately, I'm in a school now that uses predominantly windows machines 
(handful o' macs) under a Linux server. The search for an At Ease analog 
for Windows has been somewhat fruitless - various pieces of software could 
do usually only a subset of the things At Ease could do - we've settled on 
FoolProof which locks down but does not simplify the
UI (you see the standard windows gui but get strange errors or no feedback 
when you try to do something forbidden)

<RANT>
Seriously, the debate about whether we're training students for the "real" 
technical world in school frustrates me somewhat:

First, it points to deep questions as to the purpose of education (I submit 
it's NOT to teach students how to make a table in Word).

Second, the UI convergence is a recent phenomenon - in some of those 
schools I kept machines running a DOS version of Plato - how much things 
have changed since 1991 (System 7 to OS X; DOS to Win ME). Presumably, the 
graduates from 1991 (I'm an '89 grad) have had some DOS exposure in 
school...are they now not prepared for the Windows world? Or, to put it 
another way, who are the dot-commers and when did they graduate?

Finally, I've yet to see an unopened and fully accessible Windows machine 
in a business setting.  I went to the DMV recently - they're running some 
DOS based, curses-looking, client server app (that's it - no OS/GUI).  I 
went to my vet a few days ago - they're running a FoxPro database for the 
practice - no OS/GUI access allowed.  I went to visit my sister a few weeks 
ago - the ticket agent was using some text-based client server app that 
looked nothing like windows (apple's, microsoft's, kde's or etc's)! My 
girlfriend's mother works for the DEA - they run a client-server text-based 
system predominantly on NT machines that are so locked down they need to 
get an IT person to change printers. A friend in the coast guard tells me 
all machines there run what's called the standard image - a suite of apps 
and OS (NT) that is exactly the same and IMMUTABLE on every machine there.

So, we have a mixture of machines presenting different UI's, sometimes 
using a productivity suite like Office but more often than not, using 
something else entirely (and proprietary).  Which do we choose to teach?
</RANT>

Ideally, to get Linux on the desktop in education you need to simplify the 
UI, get the big commercial software houses to begin supporting it, set it 
up correctly, and lock it down. Train. Repeat.

Cheers, Rob

Robert K. Rickenbrode II

rkr_ii@yahoo.com


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