[Linux-aus] linux-aus Digest, Vol 12, Issue 6 Availability of Linux in Universities

[ashley maher]

For what it is worth, Saturday 15th March, 2008 is the 4th Installfest
run for First Year Informatics Students of the University of Wollongong
run by South Coast Linux Users Group.

Regards,

Ashley

<snip>
> Subject:
> [Linux-aus] Availability of Linux in Universities
> From:
> Robert Barnett <robert at barnett.id.au>
> Date:
> Fri, 7 Mar 2008 19:25:19 +1100
> To:
> linux-aus at lists.linux.org.au
> 
> To:
> linux-aus at lists.linux.org.au
> 
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> 3
> 
> 
> 
> This is the first time I've ranted here, but I thought I should sum up 
> my experiences.
> 
> I haven't seen very positive experiences of Linux in the academic  tiers
> of Universities.
> 
> My experience at Sydney, UNSW and Wollongong is that departments are 
> discouraged from using Linux and open source.
> 
> * Faculties send essential notices and information as word documents.
> * Staff members must have a windows computer to run enterprise 
> applications
> * Linux computers can only be connected to the university network if 
> the IT department is instructed to co-operate by those in authority 
> (e.g. Head of school).
> 
> I know of a particular example of a lecturer who was employed to use a 
> FOSS tool in research. He was told that he would have to have two 
> laptops, one for his FOSS work and one for his lecturing. He was not 
> permitted to plug his FOSS laptop into the network, thus not able to 
> collaborate effectively with his counterparts.
> 
> In my own faculty, researchers have difficulty getting linux installed 
> for FOSS projects which are at the core of our research.
> 
> At the same time, I learnt a great deal about linux at university. I'm 
> very grateful to UNSW Compsoc which got me involved in linux. If it 
> weren't for them, I would never have installed linux and I would not 
> have learnt most of what I know about software.
> 
> I suspect that most of it stems from an enterprise approach to 
> computing. This works well at cutting costs in a large organisation. 
> However, in research it perpetuates ignorance in IT. It stifles 
> innovation and it causes a great deal of frustration to people like 
> myself.
> 
> I wonder if I have enough tackling fuel to write that letter...
> 
> Cheers,
>     Robbie.
> <snip>
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