December 2001 - openSUSE Edu - openSUSE Mailing Lists

MPS
by Paul Sutton 05 Dec '01

05 Dec '01

For anyone who wants to contact their MP the following web site may be handy. I got this from the latest issue of Linux format http://www.psr.keele.ac.uk/area/uk/mpsorted.htm HTH Paul

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Re: NHS Meeting Blair and Gates
by Alan Harris 05 Dec '01

05 Dec '01

Hi all > > Roger Whittaker wrote: > > > > Which is why I make no apology for contibuting this link also for those > > who are interested: > > > > http://www.observer.co.uk/business/story/0,6903,610133,00.html Excellent article Roger! I think it's a great pity that people are threatening to withdraw from this list - I'm a tax payer and i object to my money being wasted in an extravagent and un-nessecary manner by people who have think a web browser is a newspaper reading spider! In this area i don't think it matters that it's microsoft, the same argument would apply if it were reveresed and sun were charging 70 million for staroffice and microsoft were offering xp for free - as long as office offers value for money.... As a school network manager I am disgusted at the attitude of our mp's to ict education and, if this NHS deal goes through, believe me, it won't belong before the same deal will be inflicted on us - never mind that we could'nt afford the hardware to run it on in the first place. I would'nt protest if the government were prposing to spend xx million with lotus because smartsuite offers better value for money than office does. On another note - don't you people find something immoral in spending 70 million with a company for software that is not required when large numbers of people spend 12 hours+ on trolleys in casualty departments? I personally know (as i'm sure we all do) of people waiting years for operations.... come on blair - spend the money where it's needed and use ecent, free software to improve our health and education systems. Ok, rant over.... alan ----------------------------------------------------- Alan Harris Network Manager Bryngwyn School Tel : 01554 750661 Fax : 01554 758255 E-mail: alanh(a)bryngwyn.carmarthen.sch.uk ----------------------------------------------------- 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. -----------------------------------------------------

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RE: [suse-linux-uk-schools] NHS Meeting, Blair and Gates
by Jonathan Bacon 04 Dec '01

04 Dec '01

> -----Original Message----- > From: SILCOATSIT(a)aol.com [mailto:SILCOATSIT@aol.com] > Sent: 04 December 2001 10:15 > To: suse-linux-uk-schools(a)suse.com > Subject: Re: [suse-linux-uk-schools] NHS Meeting, Blair and Gates > > > Ok I'm bored of the various groups sniping at each other, it > get this group nowhere. > > I apreciate the need to inform people about the NHS thing and > advocacy is good but I think this subject has been beaten to > death, unless there is some new pertinant point that I've missed. > > Brief informationm on these point IMHO is fine but lets get > back to what we are good at which is aiming to increase the > use of Open Source software in education wether on its own or > in conjunction with Windows clients, the end goal is the same. I agree. Although I think I missed most of the debate, it seems to be getting uncomfortable. My 0.02c is simply that Microsoft are a company who are compteting with us, and we need to take that competition seriously and with maturity. I believe MS has created some good products, and credit should go to where credit is due. Microsoft are not some evil force that can rule the world - they have such a monopoly through tough business practices and also (believe it or not) through some decent products. As Linux folk we need to attempt to prove that Linux is a viable option, but to do this we *need* to believe this. If someone feels Linux has lots of flaws and is not viable then I suggest that person does not feel bad about saying so, but this list is probably not the list for them. I have only been on this list a few days, but I think this is a good thing for Linux, and if we stick together, work constructively and discuss constructively, great things could come out of it. Cheers, Jono

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Re: [suse-linux-uk-schools] NHS Meeting, Blair and Gates
by SILCOATSIT＠aol.com 04 Dec '01

04 Dec '01

Ok I'm bored of the various groups sniping at each other, it get this group nowhere. I apreciate the need to inform people about the NHS thing and advocacy is good but I think this subject has been beaten to death, unless there is some new pertinant point that I've missed. Brief informationm on these point IMHO is fine but lets get back to what we are good at which is aiming to increase the use of Open Source software in education wether on its own or in conjunction with Windows clients, the end goal is the same. Just my twopence worth John

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Advocacy and techie
by Malcolm Herbert 03 Dec '01

03 Dec '01

hi all this list has been interesting because of its varied nature, bits ot techie and bits of advocacy. If you want more advocacy try out the following...... http://www.redhat.com/opensourcenow/list.html - emily(a)redhat.com http://www.seul.org/edu/ - dloss(a)seul.org http://ofset.sourceforge.net/ - jirka(a)ofset.org http://www.osef.org/ - hmcgregor(a)osef.org http://opensourceschools.org/ http://edu.kde.org/ - annma(a)kde.org (thanks for Paul Nelson's recent email for these) if you want more techie..... K12Linux (again Paul Nelson) http://www.riverdale.k12.or.us/linux/listserv.html K12LTSP - as above almost Malc ---------------------------------------------- Malcolm Herbert Red Hat Europe t: +44 1483 734955 m: +44 7720 079845 ----------------------------------------------

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Re: [suse-linux-uk-schools] Hi all
by Chris Howells 03 Dec '01

03 Dec '01

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 From: Jonathan Bacon <j.bacon(a)delta.wlv.ac.uk> > This would be cool. Like you say in your other mail, a policy editor > would be a good idea. It would be handy if this was a kcontrol. Let me > know when you have started and I will pitch in if I can. Well, I'm not so sure if it should be in KControl -- in some ways a stand along app would be more useful IMHO -- I need to have a good think about it though. Anyway, I'm going to have a fiddle around with KDevelop and see what I do (hopefully I'll put something into kdenonbeta in a few days -- although it will be only a GUI framework -- nothing really functional at this stage). I've mailed Waldo, to try and get an idea about what he plans to do. Hopefully I'll be able to collaborate with him a little :) Well, hopefully some people on this list will be able to give some helpful advice about the way in which they might use KDE, so I can plan the app accordingly. - -- Cheers, Chris Howells -- chris(a)chrishowells.co.uk, howells(a)kde.org Web: http://chrishowells.co.uk, PGP key: http://chrishowells.co.uk/pgp.txt http://www.koffice.org, http://edu.kde.org, http://usability.kde.org - -- Cheers, Chris Howells -- chris(a)chrishowells.co.uk, howells(a)kde.org Web: http://chrishowells.co.uk, PGP key: http://chrishowells.co.uk/pgp.txt KDE: http://www.koffice.org, http://edu.kde.org, http://usability.kde.org -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org iD8DBQE8C8ZMF8Iu1zN5WiwRAsoAAJoC2M4T8ihT3Bt7XCchpcRqQgIDhQCfVSky UBV4izUsnrOpfcDyNpsdM6o= =kS2p -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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RE: [suse-linux-uk-schools] Hi all
by Jonathan Bacon 03 Dec '01

03 Dec '01

> -----Original Message----- > > Maybe this could be part of kdeedu. It would certainly be > handy for us > > to have methods of restricting access. It would be good to > draft up a > > list of requirements for KDE in which it could be safely used in a > > school without kids going wild in the Control Center. Luckily due to > > Linux's permissions, most of the damage can be prevented. :) > > Good idea. I'll have a look what would need to be done, and > perhaps try > writing an app (I think kdeadmin would be a better place) to > do this :) This would be cool. Like you say in your other mail, a policy editor would be a good idea. It would be handy if this was a kcontrol. Let me know when you have started and I will pitch in if I can. Cheers, Jono

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RE: [suse-linux-uk-schools] Re: NHS Meeting Blair and Gates
by Jonathan Bacon 03 Dec '01

03 Dec '01

> -----Original Message----- > From: Richard Ibbotson [mailto:richard@sheflug.co.uk] > Sent: 03 December 2001 13:32 > To: Schools List > Subject: [suse-linux-uk-schools] Re: NHS Meeting Blair and Gates > > > Dear all > > > I think it's a great pity that people are threatening to withdraw > > from this list - I'm a tax payer and i object to my money being > > wasted in an extravagant and un-nessecary manner by people who have > > think a web browser is a newspaper reading spider! > > Nice to see Jono Bacon subscribe to this list :) Cheers. :) > The above issue of tax payers being ripped off is just the reason why > I have written a letter to my Member of Parliament about the software > deal between MS and the NHS. > > It might be that this does not directly support Linux in Schools but > it does support the ideal of the tax payer being given the right to > know where his or her money went to. This is something that parents > would also like to know about. > > Anything that supports the IT technicians who work in schools from > the point of view of keeping their jobs must be a good thing. Of > course, I'm supposing that low cost of licences as opposed to high > costs of MS licence is something that we want. I heard of this whole MS and the British Government from Roger at a talk he did. I was pretty surprised to say the least. I have done some hunting about on the topic and I have contacted my local MP. I am awaiting a call from him. Is there anything useful going on to prevent these things happening? If I can help at all let me know; I havent much time at the moment, but I will try to help where I can. Cheers, Jono

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Re: [suse-linux-uk-schools] Hi all
by Chris Howells 03 Dec '01

03 Dec '01

From: Jonathan Bacon <j.bacon(a)delta.wlv.ac.uk> > -----Original Message----- > Unfortunatly I am not allowed to say too much about what I am doing, but > I am basically looking at how well Linux can be used within the > educational sector. One day it should all be revealed (hopefully). Cool. Well anything that erodes RM's (they are even worse than MS IMHO) monopoly on supplying brain dead software to educational establishments can't be a bad thing. > Maybe this could be part of kdeedu. It would certainly be handy for us > to have methods of restricting access. It would be good to draft up a > list of requirements for KDE in which it could be safely used in a > school without kids going wild in the Control Center. Luckily due to > Linux's permissions, most of the damage can be prevented. :) Good idea. I'll have a look what would need to be done, and perhaps try writing an app (I think kdeadmin would be a better place) to do this :) -- Cheers, Chris Howells -- chris(a)chrishowells.co.uk, howells(a)kde.org Web: http://chrishowells.co.uk, PGP key: http://chrishowells.co.uk/pgp.txt http://www.koffice.org, http://edu.kde.org, http://usability.kde.org

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Re: [suse-linux-uk-schools] Hi all
by Chris Howells 03 Dec '01

03 Dec '01

> From: Simon Wood <Simon.Wood(a)pace.co.uk> > > http://developer.kde.org/development-versions/kde-3.0-release-plan.html > > > > about preventing users changing the wallpaper, and stuff. > [Simon Wood] > > Can't this be done by sym-linking the appropriate parts of '.kde' to a non writable master copy. I though I'd limit my users (my wife) in this fashion but see told me not to.... > > You could also limit access to the config application. Ah the power of the UID.... Yes, you could do. That would mean that changes wouldn't stick. Although it could get very nasty when you think about all the permissions and ensuring that it will all work in the end ;) So, that's given me a good idea for a nice piece of software to write when I've improved my KDE/Qt skills -- a nice policy editor application to make this kind of thing easy :) -- Cheers, Chris Howells -- chris(a)chrishowells.co.uk, howells(a)kde.org Web: http://chrishowells.co.uk, PGP key: http://chrishowells.co.uk/pgp.txt http://www.koffice.org, http://edu.kde.org, http://usability.kde.org

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