Re: [seul-edu] SEUL/edu Linux in education report #19 for May 8

[Dan Kubilos <dan@oxnardsd.org>]

New to the list.  Great work fellows.

Great points made below but in the interest of effectively promoting linux
to California k12 folks in particular you should know. . . 

California negotiated a State buy program with MS.  OS's and Office Suites
cost about $42 per seat.  NT client access licenses are $5 Nt 4 server
license is $90. 

Even with these numbers the linux savings is huge.  Support is the biggest
key I think.  I have never gotten anywhere near the level of support from
MS or any other commercial vendor than I have gotten from the open source
communtity.

DK

Dan Kubilos, Technology Coordinator
 
Oxnard Elementary School District
http://www.oxnardsd.org

On Tue, 9 May 2000, Dan Kolb wrote:

> Doug Loss wrote:
> > 
> > David Bain wrote:
> > 
> > > Hi I am a Jamaican who will be proposing a linux solutions for Jamaican
> > > schools.
> > > I need tips on how I can go about proposing such a solution.
> > >
> > > Any ideas or resources (links, case studies etc., slideshow presentations)
> > > would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> The ILOVEYOU worm. What more can be said for not using a Windows
> solution?
> 
> You don't state what specifically you want to use Linux for in the
> school, so I'll try and cover as many bases as I can think of at this
> moment. The points are going to be in the order I think them up in, so
> feel free to move them around as required by your arguments :)
> 
> In schools, you're undoubtably needing multiple users. Linux quite
> happily fits there, being designed from the ground up as a multi-user,
> multi-tasking OS.
> 
> It costs nothing (maybe a couple of dollars for a CD) and you can
> install it on as many computers as you want. Likewise with Sun's
> Staroffice. That'll save you probably around $500/machine in MS
> licensing fees (you might get bulk discounts though, so lets say
> $300/machine). With 20 machines (a small network), it'll save you around
> $6000-$10,000 - enough to buy another 8-10 computers, or a *very, very*
> nice server. And if you were going to be using Windows NT as a server,
> then the license for that itself would be around $6000-$10,000.
> 
> If you get a huge fancy server, you can use really old machines as
> basically an X server, so you won't necessarily have to upgrade the X
> servers.
> 
> It's got almost every programming language you can think of available,
> except fancy GUI ones like Visual Basic. Borland should, however, be
> working on porting Delphi to Linux.
> 
> The source code to almost all the programs is available, if you want to
> teach advanced programming, and show how something is done.
> 
> "There's no support for it" is a familiar argument. Maybe there's less
> 'official' support, but it's normally better, and faster than the
> paid-for ones. Try your local LUG, www.linuxcare.com, comp.os.linux.*
> newsgroups, www.nowonder.com, etc.
> 
> "We should be teaching what people will be using in the office." Another
> fallacy. Almost every office uses Win95/98 now. Win95 didn't exist even
> 5 years ago. The length of most university courses is 3 or 4 years. So,
> unless you were in the last year(s) of school in 95/96  or didn't go to
> University, chances are you'll be using a different system to the one
> you were taught in school.
> 
> That's all I can think of at the moment. Please discuss, argue, flame,
> whatever, about what I've said above. And now for a 'rant', which might
> be applicable to computer education in schools generally:
> 
> In the 80s, there were a large number of 'bedroom' programmers coding
> games to sell/give away for their C64s, BBCs, Apples, etc.. At schools
> (at least where I went) they taught programming, and that's what a lot
> of people had to do to get anything interesting out of their computers
> (I had to program from when I got my very first computer, as it didn't
> come with much great software). Now, it seems, schools don't teach
> programming any more, it's only how to use MS Word and MS Excel (and
> perhaps Access). At home, people don't program any more, they'd rather
> have a game of Unreal Tournament, or similar.
> 
> I don't know how other people feel, but I think it's a great shame that
> potential programming talent is being wasted by not being nurtured
> (people I was talking to about this a couple of months ago agree with
> me). If things go on as they are, I'm going to bet that there will be a
> shortage of skilled programmers around. Hopefully with Free and Open
> Source software, people will start being 'bedroom programmers' again,
> and schools should also start teaching programming again. Any
> agreements/disagreements here?
> 
> Seems to be a reasonably long post here :)
> 
> Dan
> -- 
> dankolb@ox.compsoc.net  Oxford University Computer Society Secretary
> 
> --I reserve the right to be completely wrong about any comments or 
>   opinions expressed; don't trust everything you read above--
>