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22,000 Indiana Students Using Linux Desktops
Anonymous writes "Indiana's Department of Education has moved 22,000 students onto Linux desktops, and it's looking like that's only going to accelerate with SLED 10, Linspire, and other distributions getting better."
The article mentions SLED and RedHat. They also mention Ubuntu being used successfully by a different school district, I presume because of the edubuntu project. No sane admin is going to roll out 10 distros, "apt-get emerge rpm, Oh sod it install the bloody thing yourself!". However what's happening here is that different school districts are approving A distro for use on their systems, not some poor support tech trying to work out what distro is being used in a given instance.
If my experience is anything to go by students who are introduced to linux early find Windows is broken if they are asked to move over. Employers of Indianna, prepare to be swamped with demands for cheaper OS installs in 6 years!!
"Linux is for noobs"-The new MS fud strategy
That's not a good argument. Why should every student in the college use Windows, just because some courses require Photoshop/AutoCAD?
If the students require it, just run it using a terminal service.
At my University I can just type "windows" at the Linux command prompt, and up pops a connection to a Windows server (Citrix based software I think). Then the colleges can also just pay licences per usage, so that they don't have to have multiple installations just in case someone needs it.
For heavy use, perhaps VMWare is required, but the terminal experience is very fast for me at least. It can't compare with VNC etc.
I can't speak for all of Indiana, but I can speak for what I see in Bartholomew County, one of the richer counties in the state. Both of our public high schools have astroturf on their football fields. And both also have libraries that are woefully behind the times, with poor book collections that are held together with tape, and very little money to upgrade anything. If its for athletics, money can be found to do anything, and people will be fighting each other to be the first to donate. If its for academics, it takes a back seat and is ignored.
Using Linux here might appeal from an older equipment standpoint, but computer labs are not a priority here in the first place.
I want a new quote. One that won't spill. One that don't cost too much. Or come in a pill.
"I think within five years, we'll see a huge market shift," Huffman said. "But the Linux community really has to come together. They do have to have a common API; they've got to have a common installer. If those things don't exist, it will not be a competitive market again. If they do exist, I think it will."
Like libc? I mean, seriously, I want some of the stuff that guy's smoking. First they go to great length explaining how they diversify on Red Hat, SUSE, Ubuntu and (sigh) Linspire and then he asks for a common API and installer? Like one kid stated when asked which system it preferres, either Linux or Windows the reply was:"Who cares?" Same thing here: who cares for a "common installer" (technically impossible) or a "common API" (it's there: libc, GTK, Qt, etc.). As a user you either see a Gnome or a KDE desktop anyway.
"Mike Huffman, special assistant for technology at the Indiana Department of Education", gimme a break!