My local Linux advocacy efforts

[Doug Loss <dloss@csrlink.net>]

I was supposed to help the technology guy at my local school district install Linux today.  He called as I was out cleaning snow from the driveway and called it off; my wife said he sounded a bit apprehensive.  When I finished the driveway I called him back.

He said that he's still interested in Linux, but the superintendent of the district had just called in a local university (oddly enough, the one at which I work) for advice and that he was being told to do whatever they say.  I have no doubt at all that Windows NT is being pushed on them.  Since this guy is a serious Mac-head he's very unhappy.  He knows that he'll have some learning to do and doesn't think putting a lot of effort into Linux right now is a very good idea.  Given the political climate he's working in I probably agree with him.  I did mention that I thought that a massive infusion of NT would turn out to be a bad idea in the long run.  On that I was preaching to the choir.  Since he wasn't the one making the decisions, it didn't matter.  He plans to install MkLinux on a Mac he has at home (I advised him to look into LinuxPPC too) and play with it as he has the time, but doesn't expect to be able to try anything at the district for quite a while.

We're still talking about my doing a presentation about Linux for a meeting of school district technology directors from our region.  That is still in the discussion stage.

At this point, Bill, I don't think my experiences would be too useful for an EDU-HOWTO.

Doug Loss            Democracy substitutes election by the
dloss@csrlink.net    incompetent many for appointment by
(717) 326-3987       the corrupt few.
                        George Bernard Shaw