So, good meeting and the debates have begun. How to push Linux & Open Source (Free software) in schools :- Firstly (I'm going to get this off my chest now) Don't antagonise school technicians - I wouldn't give a thank you for a managed service - I might as well go work for EDS as work in a school with a managed service. So you can run Linux remotely for £50 which is great I admit. However, you are reducing the technicians role to that of someone who puts cartridges in printers and cleans mice. There's a lot more to the role than you might think. The reason schools don't have technicians is that they can't pay the going rate for experienced techies because LEAS won't give them adequete budgets. I happen to be V. Lucky where I work and am paid quite well (approx. 17K p.a.). I've also built the current network, installed the servers and workstations and would like to move to Linux BUT - if you want to cost my time on a TCO basis then you can forget any hope of my using, considering or deploying Linux. Unless you've done this job don't knock it on a TCO basis - you need schools techies to make this work and threatening them with cost based analysis will just make you and Linux lots of enemies. Schools need decent techies, after all are Fen systems going to travel 250 miles to fix a malfunctioning computer system? How many schools were represented last Monday?, three of the delegates were from one LEA. Businesses can't take the lead in this - OSE needs to ask schools what they want from Linux. I can demonstrate what it can do easily enough but I have to convince teachers that it will work and that they can use it. So, we need to produce decent training materials based on what opensource has to offer, and where there appears to be no alternative we need to use the appropriate M$/Apple platform. Some examples of this software would be :- Spreadsheets: Gnumeric, Kspread, Siag, Xspread Word Processing: Gnuedit, Abiword, Maxwell Graphics: Paint, Xpaint, GIMP Databases: quicklist (www.quicklist.org - ms works / appleworks db lookalike but better of course!) Misc: Dia, Qcad (see Fen systems web site) Internet: Netscape, Mozilla etc and of course, StarOffice for the big stuff. I've tried to stay in a 'windows' like environment so teachers would not get 'scared' by the different desktop (X, as opposed to M$/MacOS). Should we really be 'teaching' pupils to use any single OS? surely it's better to use multiple OS's throughout the school, each OS in the place / subject to which it is best suited. Surely this way our children will learn what they need to know - transferable skills not packages. It's no use M$ bashing only, we need to convince all levels of education that teaching packages is not the answer to this countrys IT problems! Are you absolutly convinced that Thin client is the best way - remember, no server, no network. What is needed in school networks is redundancy, no matter what environment / OS is being used. You don't get that with thin clients and that's why I don't use and would not consider them. A mixture of thick & thin (and possibly just lean?) clients would be better. That's why managed services are not necessarily better than school techies! Anyway, that's enough for now (I've had my little rant so i'll sit back and wait for the flames!) - I apologise in advance is if unknowingly insulted anybody but I do feel that we need to operate om a much broader base than is currently being discussed. I've got more to say but I think it's better to stop here.... Alan ----------------------------------------------------- Alan Harris Network Manager Bryngwyn School Tel : 01554 750661 Fax : 01554 758255 E-mail: alanh@bryngwyn.carmarthen.sch ----------------------------------------------------- Notes: 1. The contents of this email may be snooped on by interested government parties for unknown purposes! Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, 2000. 2. The opinions expressed in this email are personal and may not be shared by Bryngwyn School. -----------------------------------------------------