[K12OSN] LTSP vs PC
Robert Arkiletian
robark at telus.net
Sun Apr 4 01:56:25 UTC 2004
The way I got approval was to present it as a pilot project. If it worked out
we could upgrade the lab for 1/4 of the cost of new pc's. If it didn't, we
just delete Linux and install Windows 2003 terminal server. No money wasted.
It's important to clarify that K12LTSP Linux is FREE. We are not spending
money on an operating system but rather on server hardware which could run
Linux or MS Windows. This seemed to give some comfort to died-in-the wool
Windows fans. The OO vs MS Office issue came up as well. The usual "we should
be teaching students what they will use in industry". I addressed this by
saying "Once you learn one Word Processor it does not take much to use
another" plus "by using OO we will be allowing students of all financial
demographic backgrounds to have access to the software at home". These are
all valid facts which truly give Open source an advantage. The only issue was
that I had to volunteer to support my lab as the district technician would
not support it. Hopefully, the school and the district will realize the
tremendous benefit to students along with the enormous cost savings once it's
up and running. Also, don't forget to mention that there is a LOT of quality
Free Educational Open Source Software to go along with the OS. To quote Eric
Raymond "People tend to associate Free with cheap or shoddy". This myth needs
to be dispelled because it's in the back of peoples minds who hear about Open
Source for the first time.
Robert Arkiletian
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