Linux Desktop for university staff

[Charles E Taylor IV]

On Wed, 16 Feb 2005 19:03:16 -0700
Hodgins Family <ehodgins at telusplanet.net> wrote:

> 1) The professoriate are a class that strives for acceptance amongst
> their peers. If it is "generally" accepted that program X works in a
> certain way, our academics will be more inclined to use that application
> even if an alternative is cheaper, faster, "better", more secure, etc.
> Peer pressure is not something to be ignored. And remember, more money
> is simply a grant proposal away. The cash to be saved by using open
> source is simply not an issue in the academic world.

At the few colleges with which I have personal experience, money is
*always* an issue, especially among younger professors who don't have
large grants.  Large amounts of cash are not "simply a grant proposal
away".  And when we do have money for software, we chemistry folks want
new instruments and don't much care about the operating system or the
application vendor as long as the OS and applications can talk to the 
instruments.

One problem we face with Linux is lack of this specialty software.  We
have to have some Windows boxes simply because the Linuc boxes we have
won't talk to the instruments.

> 2) The professoriate are also subject to "ego". I would argue that it is
> more important to the academic class to be seen using an expensive
> application (for show-value) instead of a cheaper (or free) application
> that might imply that their work/research grants don't merit a higher
> level of funding. And ego amongst our academics is as vital a force as
> peer pressure.

Unless you're talking about comp sci professors, that statement probably
doesn't carry much weight.  We chemists, for instance, are more impressed
with a nice LC/MS setup than an expensive spreadsheet. :)

-- 
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*  Charles Taylor <tomalek at mindspring.com>
*  Chemistry instructor / Mad scientist / Linux enthusiast!
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*  Web: http://home.mindspring.com/~charletiv/
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