I could do with some pointers here too. I'm about to embark on taking over a school with Connect, and I'm very interested in running Linux there. But I'd need some good plus points to take to the Governors, considering they've already spent money on the RM solution.
You install a Linux solution, and you'll have something a lot more powerful and flexible and fun for a small fraction of the cost (AND no-one will thank you for it because everyone assumes that networks work all the time anyway,) BUT if it goes wrong YOU are the one that gets to spend your weekends fixing it and YOU are the one that gets the blame come Monday morning and it still isn't working, whether your fault or not. If the Connect system goes wrong you phone RM, they say they'll be in next morning, you put a notice on the Computer Room door saying "Closed till Wednesday" then go off to the golf course for the rest of the day. If it still doesn't work for a few days you indicate that it wasn't your decision anyway and you'd much have preferred the Linux solution ... -- Christopher Dawkins, Felsted School, Dunmow, Essex CM6 3JG 01371-820527 or 07798 636725 cchd@felsted.essex.sch.uk