[Lias] An opportunity to grab!

[Paul Gear]

Paul Shirren wrote:
> ...
> I have worked in schools and know many excellent school sys admins, and
> people shouldn't underestimate the complexity of issues both at the
> school, regional and departmental levels. There is a huge amount of
> inertia, and also some very practical reasons not to change.

Agreed.  Case in point: compare Softlink Alice with any of the available
free software library systems at http://oss4lib.org.  Koha is probably
the most capable and well-supported OSS library package, and a number of
public and specialty libraries have implemented it, but it can't compete
with Book Wizard, Quick Pics, and the myriad of other features that are
specifically targeted at junior school children.

> There are plenty of friendly people in the system, and plenty willing to
> listen. What they need to see is some proof that linux is not just a
> practical, but a sustainable choice.
>
> Sometimes I think it is better not to push this stuff too hard. I would
> rather walk into a school with an Edubuntu based on Dapper than a
> nineties slackware. Let them use OpenOffice, Gimp, Audacity, Inkscape,
> Firefox on Windows for awhile

Exactly right.

> and hope gconf can compete with Windows AD
> and Group policies soon.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 plus ZENworks looks like getting close.

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Paul Gear, Manager IT Operations, Redlands College
38 Anson Road, Wellington Point 4160, Australia
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