Mailinglist Archive: opensuse-edu (156 mails)
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RE: [suse-linux-uk-schools] BETT comments
- From: "Tim Woodcock" <tim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 15 Jan 2001 10:25:33 +0000 (UTC)
- Message-id: <NEBBJJNPKLAPEFMGDBKGEEAGDHAA.tim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Hi,
Intro (a bit of background): I am from a company in Staffordshire and we are
a (friendly) Linux provider, developer we have installed Linux into Weston
Road High School, Stafford. We have installed 1 fileserver, 1 Multimedia and
1 powerful Proxy Caching Server. Now that's out of the way......
Reason for post: I have spoken to a few people about SIMS and its current
situation, it seems that nobody is happy with its installation, fragmented
DOS/ Windows interface and its functionality. I have already had a few ideas
for improvement from Weston Road and I was wondering if the lovely people on
this mailing list could help answer the following questions.
1. Would it be a problem to run SIMS through a web browser. Why?
2. Using MySQL as the database server.
3. Using Linux as the OS.
4. How should it be priced (if any).
5. Can anyone help with the development (not necessarily programming).
6. Which government bodies would be involved.
7. Would there need to be a protocol for things like hand held devices,
laptops to dump marking info, register info etc.
Basically I need as much information as I can get to see if the development
of a Linux SIMS package would be a worthwhile venture.
I hope that you can help.
Regards
Tim Woodcock.
Technical Director.
Fisher CAD Services Ltd.
-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Evans [mailto:mpe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: 15 January 2001 09:35
To: hardingd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: SuSe-Linux-UK-Schools
Subject: Re: [suse-linux-uk-schools] BETT comments
> Hi,
> What did I think of BETT?
>
> The only open-source was SuSE (thanks Roger) and TurboLinux
> that I found although I understand I might have missed a stand. Texas
Maybe that's why Roger was standing in front with a cuddly
Tux :)
> Instruments are looking actively at producing a version of their
TIinteractive
> for Linux and IBM via-voice is available in Ameringlish and in the US.
They were
> good enough to share a corner with SuSE so I suppose we can
> say they support the concept! So where was Applix even if it
> does only seem to spell in Ameriglish; the only Corel Office
> was for 'doze, virtually nothing was web-based and many stands
> said, "the government don't specify it and none of the schools
> are asking for it."
Often a lot of the Windows stuff is a pig to deploy on networks
too. i.e. you get told things to the effect of "we don't know
what needs changing in C:\WINDOWS to get the program to work,
but it's *easy* to just run the install program on every machine".
(Let alone such stupidity as programs which need write access
to files to be able to open them.)
However good the program if it takes literally weeks to get installed
then it's rather pointless.
Since Linux applications don't have anything like the Windows
registry and don't tend to want to overwrite /lib and /usr/lib
this kind of hassle is far less likely to happen in the first
place.
Thus you can simply put the program somewhere on the file server
which is shared to all workstations and fully expect it to work.
This is possible with a few Windows programs, some more will work
if you copy the appropriate DLL's through a login script but the
time consuming ones require individual configuration of each
workstation. (IME with the latter catagory often the software
vendor dosn't have much of a clue about how Windows works in the
first place.)
> So, how about making a point of enquiring loudly if the stands
> are supporting open-source (they often haven't got a clue!)
> when some piece of useful software catches your eye? Becta was
> encouraging in their support for multi-platform approaches but
> Capita (SIMS/EMS) 1) didn't know what I was talking about and
> then 2) when someone did they don't expect to make any changes.
That's interesting. When did you ask them this? Since I spoke
to them of Thursday complaining about their effectivly forcing
the use of Windows NT for the next version of SIMS.
The idea that the "S in "SQL" is "standard" appears to be beyond
people...
(Managed to get them to admit that their being a "Microsoft
Solutions Provider" might render them less that impartial.)
--
Mark Evans
St. Peter's CofE High School
Phone: +44 1392 204764 X109
Fax: +44 1392 204763
Intro (a bit of background): I am from a company in Staffordshire and we are
a (friendly) Linux provider, developer we have installed Linux into Weston
Road High School, Stafford. We have installed 1 fileserver, 1 Multimedia and
1 powerful Proxy Caching Server. Now that's out of the way......
Reason for post: I have spoken to a few people about SIMS and its current
situation, it seems that nobody is happy with its installation, fragmented
DOS/ Windows interface and its functionality. I have already had a few ideas
for improvement from Weston Road and I was wondering if the lovely people on
this mailing list could help answer the following questions.
1. Would it be a problem to run SIMS through a web browser. Why?
2. Using MySQL as the database server.
3. Using Linux as the OS.
4. How should it be priced (if any).
5. Can anyone help with the development (not necessarily programming).
6. Which government bodies would be involved.
7. Would there need to be a protocol for things like hand held devices,
laptops to dump marking info, register info etc.
Basically I need as much information as I can get to see if the development
of a Linux SIMS package would be a worthwhile venture.
I hope that you can help.
Regards
Tim Woodcock.
Technical Director.
Fisher CAD Services Ltd.
-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Evans [mailto:mpe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: 15 January 2001 09:35
To: hardingd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: SuSe-Linux-UK-Schools
Subject: Re: [suse-linux-uk-schools] BETT comments
> Hi,
> What did I think of BETT?
>
> The only open-source was SuSE (thanks Roger) and TurboLinux
> that I found although I understand I might have missed a stand. Texas
Maybe that's why Roger was standing in front with a cuddly
Tux :)
> Instruments are looking actively at producing a version of their
TIinteractive
> for Linux and IBM via-voice is available in Ameringlish and in the US.
They were
> good enough to share a corner with SuSE so I suppose we can
> say they support the concept! So where was Applix even if it
> does only seem to spell in Ameriglish; the only Corel Office
> was for 'doze, virtually nothing was web-based and many stands
> said, "the government don't specify it and none of the schools
> are asking for it."
Often a lot of the Windows stuff is a pig to deploy on networks
too. i.e. you get told things to the effect of "we don't know
what needs changing in C:\WINDOWS to get the program to work,
but it's *easy* to just run the install program on every machine".
(Let alone such stupidity as programs which need write access
to files to be able to open them.)
However good the program if it takes literally weeks to get installed
then it's rather pointless.
Since Linux applications don't have anything like the Windows
registry and don't tend to want to overwrite /lib and /usr/lib
this kind of hassle is far less likely to happen in the first
place.
Thus you can simply put the program somewhere on the file server
which is shared to all workstations and fully expect it to work.
This is possible with a few Windows programs, some more will work
if you copy the appropriate DLL's through a login script but the
time consuming ones require individual configuration of each
workstation. (IME with the latter catagory often the software
vendor dosn't have much of a clue about how Windows works in the
first place.)
> So, how about making a point of enquiring loudly if the stands
> are supporting open-source (they often haven't got a clue!)
> when some piece of useful software catches your eye? Becta was
> encouraging in their support for multi-platform approaches but
> Capita (SIMS/EMS) 1) didn't know what I was talking about and
> then 2) when someone did they don't expect to make any changes.
That's interesting. When did you ask them this? Since I spoke
to them of Thursday complaining about their effectivly forcing
the use of Windows NT for the next version of SIMS.
The idea that the "S in "SQL" is "standard" appears to be beyond
people...
(Managed to get them to admit that their being a "Microsoft
Solutions Provider" might render them less that impartial.)
--
Mark Evans
St. Peter's CofE High School
Phone: +44 1392 204764 X109
Fax: +44 1392 204763
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