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When Teachers Are Obstacles To Linux In Education
jamie found this blog post up on the HeliOS Project, which brings Linux to school kids in Austin, TX. It makes very clear some of the obstacles that free software faces in the classroom. It seems a teacher came upon a student demonstrating Linux to other kids and handing out LiveCDs. The teacher confiscated the CDs and wrote an angry email to HeliOS's founder, Ken Starks: "Mr. Starks, I am sure you strongly believe in what you are doing but I cannot either support your efforts or allow them to happen in my classroom. At this point, I am not sure what you are doing is legal. No software is free and spreading that misconception is harmful. ... This is a world where Windows runs on virtually every computer and putting on a carnival show for an operating system is not helping these children at all. I am sure if you contacted Microsoft, they would be more than happy to supply you with copies of an older version of Windows and that way, your computers would actually be of service to those receiving them..." Starks pens an eloquent reply, which contains a factoid I have not seen mentioned before: "The fact that you seem to believe that Microsoft is the end all and be-all is actually funny in a sad sort of way. Then again, being a good NEA member, you would spout the Union line. Microsoft has pumped tens of millions of dollars into your union. Of course you are going to 'recommend' Microsoft Windows."
So I guess there wasn't a "Perceiving Sarcasm" course in your degree program?
If Slashdot is any indication, doesn't Linux work to prevent sex?
"When you see a unixer brainwashed beyond saving, kick him out of the door." - Xah Lee
Just like freedom of speach involves the freedom to say things people don't like, freedom of code should involve being able to code what people don't like otherwise it isn't true freedom.
Helios is more harmful to the FOSS movement than the teacher. Teachers have a hard enough time doing their job without bovine excrement from a totally clueless idiot like Helios. Helios I'd love to see you DOCUMENT the LIE that Microsoft has given to the teachers union to influence the purchase of Microsoft software. Yes Helios Microsoft has given money to schools to buy microsoft products, but it is completely another thing to say that Microsoft has given money to the teachers union to try to influence the purchase of Microsoft software. The teachers union and teachers have NO MEANS, METHOD OR AUTHORITY to influence the purchase of anything. The whole process is controlled by the school board.
...or I'll fucking kill you! You have no right to steal my property. You are a thief and a liar. Give it back now, or I will hunt you down and kill you.
That is how it should be handled.
Over-the-top Response Guy! Giving "Over-the-Top Responses" since 1970.
US is the nation where Bush jr was elected president... twice...
Nah, it's not E=mc^2 that should have been outlawed. What should have been outlawed was the racism that led the U.S. to decide in 1943 that the bombs whose whole raison d'etre was to defeat the Nazis, ought to be used first to blow up Japanese people. What should have been outlawed was the grasping for geopolitical power that prompted the use of the bomb as a demonstration to the world (especially to the USSR) of American might, even Japan was trying to negotiate an end to the war.
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
You fail so much.
"The students are minors, a.k.a they have no rights at all."
-I'm 22
"You surely wouldn't argue against a parent's right to not confiscate their children's possessions."
-Well that's a failboat of an argument there if I EVER saw one.
"Teaching is hard enough, after all kids just want to have fun, and for most, fun isn't learning."
-I can't recall a computer class that was not fun. Even java lol.
"It is important for the power dynamic in a classroom that the teacher is largely unquestioned. We have no right to question a teacher's actions to maintain order in her own classroom."
-So you're the fucktard that agreed with the 90yr old history teacher when he said 'the earth is flat'! Hi Steve!
Maybe the teacher is correct in his beliefs.
I mean, outside of /., there isn't a lot of uptake of linux. Period. Some home users play with it, others have VM's of it running to "explore" linux, etc. but, it has no market penetration like Windows has.
Yes, exposing kids to Linux might help it take off in the future, to the levels we would like to see, but that will happen when it actually works, out of the box. I, myself, will work with 2 or 3 reboots and getting a functional system out of the box (Wintel), rather than having the 2 reboots the Ubuntu took, with non-working WiFi requiring me to actually go out and get FWCutter (real easy, when your computer HAS NO FUCKING NETWORK CONNECTION). Oh yeah, that's proprietary, so it has to be that way.
Really? Why is it the same card works Carte Blanch in Windows? How come it's SO horrible to run some companies proprietary driver in linux, but that same driver is fine for the WinTel community?
Yes, I ended up going to proprietary drivers on my Linux computer. It actually works better than when I let Ubuntu decide which drivers to use. Yes, I'm using NVidia's proprietary code, and I like it, like it MUCH better than the crap that came with Ubuntu that offered me max 800X600.
Thinking that it is the teacher's unions keeping linux out of the world is just absolute fanaticism. I mean, REALLY now. I can't promote an operating system that doesn't "just work" out of the box to people that aren't computer literate. I can promote WinTel to the same people, and 9 of ten times, it works, out of the box.
So, someone care to tell me why my wifi card doesn't work out of the box in Linux, and does with Windows, and care to expand on why that's OK, since the driver is "closed source".... WHY THE FUCK is it OK to have a broken OS, if you maintain Open Source with it.
--Toll_Free
I agree. Hans Reiser IS an excellent role model!
Actually, there are good and bad role models in everything. There are some VERY good role models working in closed source shops. Herb Sutter works for Microsoft.