Re: [seul-edu] Young Linuxers - Too hard? No way!

[Rakis <rakis@wt.net>]

On Tue, 21 Mar 2000, you wrote:
> Rakis,
> 
> This past friday, at the YHSLUG meeting in Virginia (yhslug.tux.org), we
> watched a small presentation, from a sophmore at Yorktown HS, on how to
> set up and use KICKSTART to set up workstations and networks, quickly, and
> easily. 
	
	I haven't heard of "Kickstart" before, nor could I find any info on it
during a quick search. Would you happen to have a URL handy?

> You are right, Rakis: conceptually, setting up a linux lab is simple.
> 
> But I disagree with you that it is 'too hard to set up' a linux lab in
> practice.  There are thousands of students and a few special schools doing
> it.
	I'm well aware that many people are setting it up in their schools, I
started helping my old high school with it several years ago. However, I do
believe the point is valid. Let's face it, people are lazy. If it's not easy to
do, it's not going to catch on. There is a reason why Solaris is not used in
the k-12 environment today. It's just too complex for the average user. While
many schools will find motivated students and staff that would be willing to
spend countless hours trying to get things to work, there will be thousands of
others that will not.
	There is also the problem that many of these networks will not be
very stable. While faculty and students are hashing it out with the HOWTOs and
man pages, many programs will be unreliable. While the end result would likely
be a rock solid setup, many administrators would get frustrated by initial
problems.
	The only point I'm trying to make is that Linux will not make much of
an an entrance into the educational system while its configuration remains as
difficult as it does today. Well written tutorials, and examples will help but
they simply will not be enough. 

	Rakis