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Indiana Schools May Purchase 300K Linux Computers
GuitarNeophyte writes "According to an article at PC Magazine, Indiana School systems may soon be purchasing around 300,000 Linpire desktop computers. Linspire, via its Education Program has a straight $500-per-school (not per-seat) cost, providing an incredibly-alluring price incentive for this to happen." From the article: "Many schools across the state have already had the chance to try out desktop Linux, and everyone seems excited to get this program going...This groundbreaking initiative makes it possible for schools to afford computers for every student, something that makes a huge impact on their overall educations."
A whole crop of sudents entered the workforce at a time when the move to CAD was in it's infancy, all familiar with, and able to use AutoCad. They were put in charge of the move to automation, and they all purchased AutoCad when they entered industry.
A very effective marketing strategy for a company looking beyond the next quarter.
... when it actually happens. A PR release from the company trying to sell their stuff isn't exactly news; it's marketing.
I don't respond to AC's.
...ubuntu or such would free, even cheaper no?
take it easy, but take it.
Way to go. Good to know there are smart people other than Munich's officials.
...MS provided steep discounts to Indiana schools for their purchase of Microsoft software
500K cheap linux boxes. This is going to be a massive number of hard drive crashes and system rebuilds per day. Why the heck dont schools use thin clients to servers. Or at least use some of those multi-headed configurations that can seat four students per box. Even the power bill makes this attractive. 500K * 200 watts = 100 Megawatts of power at 10 cents a kilowatt hour is $100,000 dollars per hour to operate. In winter time this might offset the cost of heating if they can distribute the heat, but the rest of the year the cooling costs to offset this heat load will double the operating cost. (since it usually takes one watt of cooling to offset 1 watt of heat generation) so $200,000 per hour of operation. Now imagine you had a four headed system. it would cut this cost by half to a third. Will Linspire Netboot. If not they are going to have a lot of corrupt systems to fix every day. yikes!
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Having a computer for every student is not a good thing, in my opinion. Actually, I believe that any computers in classrooms are for the most part a bad idea - and this is coming from a former computer programming student.
With computers in every classroom, it really requires each teacher to become a system admin and I think it really distracts the students from their work. I have a friend from Vietnam, who never had computers in his classrooms growing up, and he was way more skillful in math then the rest of us students that grew up with computers in the class in Canada.
And, it's not just the cost of software that's expensive for schools. It's the hardware, maintenance, and electricity costs too! The Ontario teachers union is always bitching about not having enough resources, but any good teacher should do just fine with a box of pencils, some paper, a chalkboard, and some chalk.
Offtopic:
Now with the standardised curriculum, many of the teachers are basically just babysitters that hand out material written by someone else. It must be hard working 6 hours a day, 9 months a year.
Religion for nerds. Stuff that really matters
Because if it was free, they wouldn't want it.
"Computers for every student, something that makes a huge impact on their overall educations."
Does it? After just finishing at a school that had ample access to computers, i can tell you first hand that the whole thing was pretty pointless for the price it cost, and that most kids just messed around during it lessons (more so than other lessons by far) I can honestly say that it was pretty pointless, including to the computer illiterate.
I'm not saying it is completely without benefit, but i do not understand this assumption that spending money on computers in schools is a good thing.
However, i come from the UK, and i think part of my problem with it is that the teaching of IT in our school was so terrible that I'd find myself searching Google for answers instead of asking our teacher a question.
wordprocessor=wordprocessor spreadsheet=spreadsheet web browser=web browser email client=email client Which skills in particular are you concerned about? They will learn how to waste countless company hours on personal web browsing, IM, and email using Linux just as easy as they will on Windows. Except with Linux I wouldn't have to waste time clearing off spyware/adware/viruses/worms. The Windows "Real World" isn't a pretty one from my perspective, and the Linux one is a dream. Let's hope it comes true some day.
--dingletec--
Great. It figures that when the schools decide to switch to Linux they would choose the worst distribution available.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Anything's better than having to force security with Windows. Took me only a few weeks to crack the programs my high school used. Got a week's suspension for that 'cause someone ratted me out. Hopefully using a more secure O/S will prevent other kids from making that mistake.