On Thursday 19 July 2007 14:16:58 Andy Trevor wrote:
The core of LTSP technology is sound and a no brainer. The killer here in the UK is the lack of "quality" educational apps.
I'm pushing Linux and FLOSSIE in Wales (with zero success so far). As an ex-Design & Tech teacher a real sticking point is CAD. There's plenty of high end pro CAD out there at a high end price, but I think the UK is pretty unique in doing D&T the way we do so demand for a child proof CAD package is limited. Two bits of good news; 1. TechSoft's 2D Design works OK under WINE. I used to be support manager at TechSoft and tested it years ago. Two minor snags, toolboxes take on GIMP like qualities and don't stay with the main window when you minimise. Filled arrow heads on dimensions produce a screen draw error, but filled arrows look ugly anyway so choose open and it works OK. 2. VariCAD is a simple 2D/3D CAD package that works well on basic PCs under most forms of Linux. Imports and exports all the usual CAD formats. Only snag is it's not free. The student version is £50, I'd like to see some schools or education authorities get together and persuade VariCAD to do school site licences a lot cheaper. My personal preference would be to get the Welsh Assembly to sponsor an Open Source educational CAD package, taking some of the good stuff that's already out there and developing a kid proof version. At the moment it's more likely they'll do a deal with PTC to buy ProEngineer for Windows. That really p****s me off because, freedom issues aside for a moment, it's way too complex for most kids (and teachers) and just helps entrench Windows as the de facto OS for schools for another (school) generation just as PTC's ProDesktop did in the late 90s. -- Regards Phil Thane Bryn Villa Penycoed Road Llangollen LL20 8LR 01978 861677 07971 087623 phil@brynvilla.llangollen.co.uk www.brynvilla.llangollen.co.uk -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-edu+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-edu+help@opensuse.org