[Lias] free software on macs

[Nick Oliver]

> Although the school has an Apple Macinstosh lab for graphics and Adobe
> Photoshop & Illustrator on the Win system, there is no ability to the
> students to get a copy of the software they use at school and load it 
> onto
> their home PCs, thus limiting their potential to really explore and 
> learn.

I have just inherited a digital media facility in my new school at the 
Tuggeranong college that runs Apple iMac and eMac workstations with 
licences for Adobe/Macromedia/Microsoft suite products. The 
workstations all run Audacity for audio work.  I will be installing 
Gimp and Blender on the workstations soon so that my students can take 
the software home. I really believe that it is important to show them 
software that they don't have to steal to get access to at home. When I 
asked for a hands up who had Photoshop at home most all had it and non 
had paid.

Is anyone else out there running Free and Open Source Software on macs? 
I'd be interested to hear about experiences maintaining software and 
usability options. My limited study of Blender shows some serious 
potential and a pretty steep learning curve but that's going to be the 
case with any 3D tools I guess.

Nick Oliver
Lake Tuggeranong College
Canberra