Does Your College Or University Support Linux?

yuna49 writes 'Lately I've been visiting colleges with my daughter, who is a senior in high school. Every school has proudly announced that they support both Windows and Macs, and most of these schools report having about a 50-50 split between the two. However we've been a Linux household for many years now, and my daughter routinely uses a laptop running Kubuntu 9.04. Sometimes I would ask the student tour guide if Linux was supported and was usually met with a blank stare. We're obviously not concerned about whether she can write papers using OpenOffice and Linux. Rather we've been wondering about using other computing services on campus like classroom applications, remote printing, VPNs, or Wi-Fi support (nearly all these campuses have ubiquitous Wi-Fi). Given the composition of Slashdot's readership, I thought I'd pose the question here. Does your school support Linux? Have you found it difficult or impossible to use Linux in concert with the school's computing services?'

Comments

Desktop Linux is a hobby

[cryfreedomlove]

This is sort of like asking if the University is friendly to Ham Radio operators. The honest answer is 'no' and that the hobbyists will have to continue to cobble together their own solutions.

Re:Who cares?

[Anonymous Coward]

"Without these, the girl will be forced to a non-linux platform to succeed."

OH MY GOD!!! SAY IT AIN'T SO!

AMCAS

[castironpigeon]

Related to schools, if your daughter is looking to apply to med school in the US after undergrad make sure you have a Windows or Mac kicking around somewhere because AMCAS locks Linux computers out of their online application.

Re:Who cares?

[NDPTAL85]

Linux can easily cost hundreds or thousands of dollars in support costs to train users who grew up on Macs or Windows PCs on how to use it properly. So Linux may actually end up being the most expensive option.

Re:Who cares?

[Atlantis-Rising]

Yes, you do. Got a bug in Windows? Can you fix it in the source, and recompile? Can you give a copy of Windows to a friend?

These are not innate freedoms. I haven't given up anything because I didn't have it to start with. You have no right to give a copy of a digital work to a friend.

Can you reinstall Windows on a second PC? If MS's WGA decides your license is invalid, even though it is valid, can you get MS to restore your license?

Yes, in fact, I can. The fact that you can't says more about how we respond to problems (me by solving them and you by whining about it) than Microsoft.

MS was convicted of a felony, and have not shown any sense of remorse or rehabilitation.

Microsoft was not convicted of a felony. Microsoft was involved in a civil trial. As a corporation, I do not expect nor desire remorse or rehabilitation from them: those are sentencing attributes that apply only to human beings.

If someone was a repeat shoplifter, and continued to engage in shoplifting after conviction, I wouldn't necessarily "refuse to associate" with them, but if I were a shop owner, I'd definitely keep my eye on them if not ban them from my store outright.

And that's your decision, certainly. You can also kick people out of your store because the voices in your head tell you to do so. That doesn't make it a good reason.

Rather, your arguments about Microsoft going back and repeating their actions have not been proven; so at this point, you're the person who's seen someone commit a crime and then sees a crime in everything they do afterward, regardless of whether or not it was criminal or even malicious.