Re: [seul-edu] Linux in Universities

[Scott Wheeler <wheeler@kde.org>]

Quoting Dan Kegel <dank@kegel.com>: 
 
> Eventually I hope to make this a useful resource for anyone 
> trying to convince their local university that Linux should be  
> (a) supported by their IT staff,  
 
Few Universities do this, which honestly, I think is fine so long as they do 
not actively oppose Linux or require proprietary software to access certain 
resources.  Fortunately most universities have LUGs to help people along. 
 
> (b) used for infrastructure, 
 
I've worked for two university IT departments -- both of which used Linux 
extensively.  I think you'll find that this is more of the standard than the 
exception. 
 
> (c) used as part of the undergraduate cirriculum,  
 
Again, *nix has typically dominated computer science departments, well, 
forever.  Linux has become a much cheaper replacement to proprietary systems 
and as such is again, becoming the standard. 
 
> (d) a part of their extension courses 
 
I'm not sure what you mean by this. 
 
At any rate I think the reason that you probably haven't found many studies on 
this is that Linux is more popular in the "university" subculture than 
anywhere else.  Typically advocacy stems *from* uni students rather than to 
them.  ;-) 
 
I would even guess that universities that do not do at least half of the above 
are in the minority rather than majority. 
 
Cheers, 
 
-Scott