[OS:N:] Re: Open Source in Schools and then some

["ekunin" <ekunin snet net>]

My second cousin once removed's wife is active in the local PTA. She and
another lady auctioned off their services at a PTA fund raiser (a K-5
school) to cater a dinner for 12. They must have reputations as cooks
because it brought 1600.00. I asked what they were going to do with the
money and she said it would go towards programming of some sort (not
computer programming). I suggested Open Source operating systems and she
asked "What's that?"

Question 1: Any brochures or Adobe files or whatever that outlines Open
Source in a selling manner. She, who is not especially computer literate,
needs to be sold, before she starts making suggestions. Any suggestions?

Someone on the list said disarray is a good thing. Gives the individual
choices and is the ferment that brews creativity. I disagree. For some
reason some standards are perceived as diminishing the individual while
others are accepted as a reasonable need. Take rules of the road. Each state
can decide what a red light means. In some it can mean stop. In others it
can mean go. We can have a computer data base which recognizes what state we
are in and what a red light means. It can do it so quickly, it's transparent
to us, but it's totally unnecessary. It is easier to agree red means stop.
That does not diminish us as individuals. I think it's the same with
operating systems. One size can and should fit all.

Question 2: An example of the nuisance caused by different ways of doing
things. I have Red Hat 7.0 installed and I am trying to communicate with the
modem which on windows is on Com 4. I ran minicom but didn't have the
opportunity to select the com port. The book says Linux isn't compatable
with plug and play modems. I have a plug and play modem. Is that my problem?
is there any way around it?

Ed Kunin
http://www.egalite.com