questions about software usage at schools, etc. was: [SLUG] Red Hat Slagging

[Anand Kumria <wildfire@nospam.progsoc.uts.edu.au>]

On Thu, Jul 13, 2000 at 10:07:15AM +1000, Simon Bryan wrote:
> 
> To do this support and provide the services required we MUST run Windows 
> based software, it makes up a huge % of the education market. We need to 
> run systems that people are familiar with, that they use at home and 
> elsewhere.

But what is the main criteria? Surely it is "educational software"? Back
when i was in school Mac's and BBCs had the best/most educational software
so that is what was used.

If anyone happened to run the same system at home, bonus, but it was never
really a consideration.

Anyway, I'm more interested in what kinds of software a school runs. Is most
of your stuff for students or for teachers? Which group (if any) would be
more willing to look at alternatives to what they are currently using.

Would it be teacher/school management that would bring Linux more visibly
into the school or student/assisted learning software?

> We do use LINUX as our internet gateway, mail server, web server, proxy 
> server and are looking at putting a few systems in the library simply running 
> Netscape, and are even toying with the idea of using a Linux server for user 
> home directories. 

Good back end uses; but they don't make Linux very visible.

> I have used both Windows and Linux for a number of years, I much prefer 
> Windows to upgrade and install packages - I don't have time to learn all the 
> intricacies of each package or all the arcane commands associated with 
> Linux, I can in some places do a make, make install etc, but unless the 
> package takes care of installing in the right place I am stuffed! I much prefer 
> to use an rpm or even a nice setup.sh (as in Webmin). In fact the main 
> reason my packages lag behind is because of the difficulty to upgrade or 
> apply patches..

Well you really only pay the cost of learning package management tools once
really. Whether it be rpm or apt/dpkg (for command lines) they do the same
basic thing; they differ syntaxicly.

Contrast with Windows where "innovation" in installation process means 
reading and understanding what different terminology refers to the same thing.

> I can also find plenty of Windows for Dummies type books (yeah real paper!) 
> written in simplistic language for when I am learning a new trick in Windows, 
> in Linux I have to scroll up and down Man pages - damn things won't even 

There are plenty of Linux books as well. In fact I went book hunting prior
to the GST introduction -- unfortunately I couldn't find any interesting
Linux books -- and I saw similiar shelf space given over to Linux as to
Windows. If I include the Unix shelf space there are equivalent, arguably
*nix has more.

> > You know, I can't think of anything easier than:
> > 
> > # apt-get install blah
> 
> Seems so simple really, why didn't I think of that??

Documentation often tends to be overlooked because most people who currently
install Linux believe they know and understand computers and their systems
well.

Even I read the Debian install docs (admittedly for non-x86 architectures 
though).

> Seems some people don't want Linux to reach the mass market and 
> seriously chalenge MS - which would be a good thing - I would like myself 
> and my users to have a much greater choice.
> 
> Having got that off my chest I will go back to lurking and hopefully learning 
> some more.

I think you understand the importance of your "newbie" perspective. I'd like
to hear more from you about what you consider wrong/hard to grap.

Cheers,
Anand


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