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Red Hat Linux Available Free To UK Schools
Sara Chan writes "Red Hat is making its distribution of Linux available free to schools in the United Kingdom. This might mean that a whole generation grows up in the UK with very positive feelings about Linux: the long-term value could be really large. Red Hat will still charge for support (likely at a discount)--but this will probably just encourage schools to grow their own Linux gurus.
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I could've sworn that it was free to anyone. Go figure.
Seriously, what value is a shiney box and a manual going to have for a school? They should be downloading everything for free anyway.
Does narcissism count as a hobby? --Shawn Latimer
I wish I had something like this when I was in school. I might have stuck with computer science classes...
And the best part is, there are no hidden traps, a la Microsoft. Red Hat may want to change or yank their support entirely in ten years or so, but the product is still viable. Schools could hook up with anyone who met their price (and as the article said, they could hire or grow their own Linux guru.)
Jay (=
They should be downloading everything for free anyway.
What, on their T1s, right? The school my wife taught at didn't even have modem access as far as I know... Yes, getting free CD distribution and a manuala WOULD be a very big deal to a lot of these schools.
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Yes, but the reason that they made this deal with Redhat is for the much needed support schools needed. Redhat agreed to give discounts for technical support which is a big plus.
I hate to be a wet blanket, but this never works. The theory always sounds good, "Hey! get them while they're young!", but the strategy has always been a failure. Look at Apple: They gave tons of subsidies to the schools, but how much did this affect their market share?
The problem is that kids have roughly the same priorities as adults: They don't care about the operating system, they want cool software. And all the cool software is for Windows.
Sure, their are a couple of games that have been ported to Linux, but everything else is Windows. I mean, Windows is light-years ahead on basic things such as creating documents with colors that will work on your basic cheap-o Epson color printer (and look right).
When we start seeing applications comparable to the ones in Windows we will start seeing Linux make inroads in both the "real world" and the schools.
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It's free, sure, but ever try to download a 500 megabyte file over a 1.44 modem, whilst paying through the nose for the phone call in the process? In short, Red Hat are saying "put those phones away, you twits - we'll take care of things."
(Note to Americans and other aliens: British schools are under-funded. BADLY under-funded. A typical school has a leaking roof, a single reel-to-reel for language teaching in a class of 30 to 40, textbooks that haven't been replaced since the 60's, and food that tastes like it was originally prepared in the 60's.)
Many primary schools in England have maybe one computer between 30 kids. Secondary schools might have one computer between 5 or 6. These are NOT rich establishments, and ANY assistance is usually received with open arms and few questions.
The phone costs saved are enormous. At 10p per unit, peak time, (which is when schools operate), you're talking around 4,740 GBP for the download, which is about $7,870. In short, Red Hat is donating the equivalent of nearly $8,000 to every school in England. In my books, that's a substantial sum of money.
Schools in England tend to have enormous influence over the rest of England, too. When the BBC and Acorn got together to make an educational computer, the BBC micro, they basically re-invented the entire British computer market. They also inadvertantly brought computer cracking to the public's attention, when their PRESTEL account was cracked, and messages were pushed onto the screen of their computer, live on national TV.
I'm sure Red Hat are familiar with the peculiar dynamics of the British market (such as a willingness to take a risk, and absolutely zero loyalty to labels), and are also familiar with the fact that Britain is a potentially very powerful market to tap, having it's grubby paws in both America and the European Union.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Of course, we still have to see if any schools take them up on the offer,
Linux is already growing in popularity in schools.
and if they do, are they putting those students at a disadvantage in a Microsoft-dominated world.
Actually, students who learn Linux are more likely to learn the abstract concepts and in-depth knowledge that is really valuable. Too many people who learn only MS products only learn to point and click through pre-solved problems like MSCE instruction programs and never really learn what they are doing or why. They often can't solve differing problems or adapt to different ways of doing the same thing.
And at any rate, there is no guarantee that this will always be a Microsoft dominated world, and getting to the students of today is a smart move on Red Hat's part, as they will be the people making purchasing decisions later on. With Linux, inlike Microsoft who like to set up deals to exclude everyone else, there is no reason why schools can't teach something else as well. Having more broad educational experiences is a good thing in most cases.
Unfortunately, very few OSes are secure out of the box with the default install. Most newbies with any given OS will generally install it in a less than optimal way as far as security goes. This isn't something that is unique to Linux, or unique in the Linux world to Red Hat. Certainly the same things are true of Windows 9x and NT, and true to a perhaps somewhat lesser extent to the *BSDs. Even the commercial *nixes default installs aren't locked down tight.
What I would like to see Red Hat do is provide some options right up front on security settings similar to how you select 'client', 'server' or 'custom' so that you could pick whether you want your machine locked down tight, locked down a little, wide open, or let the advanced user pick and choose what they want for custom installs.
I've been using Linux since the SLS distribution in the pre-1.0 kernel days. I'm not a kernel hacker, but I've recompiled it myself to add non-default drivers on a couple of occasions and I have configured LILO by hand once or twice
And I like having a printed install manual and a CD ROM. There are a small number of documents that are useful in printed form. Installation documents, and the ones I need to recover when I screw up the boot process: LILO docs, Bootprompt HOWTO, that sort of stuff. The reason is blindingly obvious: I don't have a running system at the time I'm referring to them.
As for the CD ROM, I've done the floppy swap install too many times. I timed it once. Flat out, a full install on my trusty old generic 166 MHz Pentium took about 6 hours off of floppies and about half an hour off a CD ROM. And I didn't have to sit in front of the machine to install from the CD ROM. Getting that kind of speed doesn't require any hardware that isn't pretty common these days even in schools with a tight budget. No missing or damaged floppies either.
If Red Hat is supplying a boxed set to each school, I applaud them. Even if the schools don't install it, if they are willing to loan it out to the students through the library, then the students can try it out. Hmmm, maybe I'll donate a copy to the local library.
The net will not be what we demand, but what we make it. Build it well.
The degree to which this is not silly is the degree to which it is evil (okay, that's a harsh word for "profit-oriented", but we use it freely enough that way when we talk about MS).
Red Hat does include non-free software with its distributions (on a seperate disc I believe), including demos of commercial software and full versions of commercial software which are seeking to establish themselves as some sort of standard (REBOL, for example).
This is exactly the same as what MS or Apple does when they give away free copies of their software to educational institutions. They are trying to hook people on their proprietary stuff while they're young (give away a few copies at practically no cost to the class of 20 today, sell 20 copies a few years from now).
Furthermore, they seem to be looking to set up support contracts with the schools. This could end up being simply a back door into their traditional profit model.
Don't be too quick to dismiss this either as an innocent act of charity or a meaningless gesture. They might be setting themselves up as the next Microsoft.
// deep thanks
:) ). (Windows? What Windows?)
... compared to DOStel.
... and became professional DOS-tel programmer.
:) in a school of all computer illiterates of course :) ) in a small pond like this.
... they let me anyway, since they couldn't find and buy any educational (or otherwise :) ) Apple software at all ... they were at my mercy ... HA HA HA!
I was one of the early Apple 2 beneficiary to elementary and junior high schools.
If it was not for Apple founders' foresight and generosity, I would not have had access (however great my desire) to coding and programming computers as early as I had wanted.
This one random act of kindness changed my (and probably many others') life and where it went from then on.
// Apple loyalty
It did work and it didn't.
In my case, I stood staunchly steadfast against DOS-tel (yup, that long ago
There were 2 circumstances that forced my hand very reluctantly away from my beloved Apples.
a. Macintosh betrayal
To me the creation of Mac-line (Lisa) itself, and then Apple's favoritism to Mac and abandonment of my beloved Apple 2-line (Apple 2 gs is ADORABLE!) hits me like a dagger to a naive child's heart.
How could they abandon the simplicity of command line, the "hackability" of a machine you keep fiddling the internals with into this icky GOOEY dummy-proof box that discourage you from playing with it?
Apple 2's have a LOT of room to grow. Dummy-proof-ing and pretty-fy-ing it was not what I was thinking.
Apple 2 gs was a good and right direction. (ah I can program sound cards, I have more graphics programming options, yeah, etc.)
Then the double betrayal of giving up on us loyal Apple-2-ers to support the new-fangled Mac-line, that was too much.
b. $ and survival
After a while, there is absolutely no (not even minimal wage) income to be made in Apple 2
So I sourly crammed in DOS knowledge and Intel processor knoweldge (was surprised how similar things are)
Was "conformed" even before the Windows OS.
c. could they have won?
I don't know about the entire population, but I knew I would had stuck with the Apple 2 line if Apple itself would had stuck with it and not made the dreadful Macintosh thing.
Even if it meant poverty and unemployment (in coding field, I will just do it on the side).
But then I guess my life would had turned out very differently then.
// digression
BTW, teachers were no help. It was a funny situation. One day a bunch Apple 2 showed up. No one knew what to do with them. I just turned them on, fiddled around.
Still no teachers knew what to do, but I started to teach myself everything, how to code it, connecting them together. (HW-wise the Apple 2's were very hackable.)
The teachers started to ask me questions on them, and started to ask me to make use for them.
I started to code grade book programs, automatic letter to parent generation programs.
My elemenatry-junior high school started to pay me minimum wage (my first PROFESSIONAL programming job!) to do computer coding work.
I wrote up curriculum, wrote (supposedly) educational games, taught students and teachers, while having access to a whole bunch of Apples at one time.
Some teachers started to think I knew about this computer thing from another country, but I only started learning while in America at the school!
I learned a new language English at the same time I learned Apple BASIC, and then Apple assembly. So yes, I have been speaking assembly for as long as I have spoken English.
It was empowering to have the confidence to be the smartest computer person (to be so young and be treated to "guru-hood"
The educational Apple games I wrote for the teachers were hilarious!
One was "supposed" to teach math. What it does is it asks a simple + - * / arithmetic question. If you answer 1 right, you get to play to short Space Invader like game.
Basically the gaming sections are much longer than the "educational" content
I wrote an Apple HGR program of a girl friend who talks to me, in both HGR graphics, and also in text.
I had so many fond memories. It gave me so much positive experience growing up with computers.
Did the "experiment" fail? Naw. Not in my case.
Thanks again to the wonderful Apple founders.
Corrinne Yu
3D Game Engine Programmer