Maybe the NHS Trust I work for, as part of the Web Development Team, is an exception, but Linux is making inroads here. For example, while our Intranet presently runs on IIS and we do have a large number of third party applications that require IIS, signficant areas (like our homegrown document publishing system) take advantage of having a Linux server in the mix.
Likewise, I often get involved with extracting useful data from huge data sources and Linux provides me with an efficient and effective way to do that. It's not just me, either. Our network still has a Novell backbone and that is of course moving towards Linux, thanks to SuSE.
It is, of course, a far cry from Linux on every desktop but the penguin is definitely in there, helping to get the work done.
A fundamental problem with the idea is that one of the virtues of a traditional text book is that is fixed and static. The teacher becomes familiar with the content of "Smart and Barmey, Advanced Calculus, Second Edition" and uses it to support their teaching strategy.
The open textbook, being a continually developing resource, is going to be much harder to use as a teaching aid. How do you choose which day's edition to focus on? How much confusion will be caused when students print their own copies with different versions of the content?
And, if you produce one official version each year, how many people are going to take time to contribute information that may not even make the next cut when they could drop it straight into the flowing stream of knowledge on the wikipedia site instead?
It's a nice idea but I'm not sure it pays enough attention to the paradigms it rides roughshod across!
Emusic works for me. I had been a big fan of my local library where I could borrow CDs for free... and then they started charging. Only 50p a shot, but that made me feel less inclined to be experimental - duff albums would be a waste of money and of course I still couldn't keep the good ones.
Then I stumbled across Emusic. I can now try lots of stuff, keep what I like and carry around a collection of all sorts of albums on just a few CDs without any qualms of illegality. Emusic give assurance that the artists get paid so by and large I'm helping do away with unecessary packaging and distribution costs, getting extra value out of my broadband collection and discovering all sorts of new music that I might otherwise never have come across.
I hope Emusic manages to keep going on the same tack, expanding it's catalogue along the way - at $9.99 a month, I consider it a win for me and hopefully a win for others (Emusic, the artists, etc) as well.
Most of my GIMPing, for a range of websites, is done using GIMP for Windows on NT4 or Win98. Despite the warning given on that page that, "The GIMP for Windows is not really targetted at end-users yet", it works pretty well for me (certainly having no more quirks or crashes than anything else I've used on Windows).
I haven't read Crypto.. but I did recently read Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon. A big fat book but worth reading if you want a gripping story with lot's of crypto references thrown in.
Yup. I've been waiting for MSLinux for years (well, about two years anyway). Not that I intend to buy the disks, but I'd be tempted to download the ISO images from their free FTP site...
Do you remember a few years back when Bill Gates was in all the industry press saying "... the internet is not important... ", and then a few months later saying "... the internet is everything... "?
MS has proven itself to be ruthlessly adaptable in the past - if Linux continues to rise and Microsoft's new products don't establish a growing market share, MSLinux could well be on the cards.
If you can't beat 'em, imitate and assimilate! Beware!
I've spent most of my career working in Colleges and I've seen (and welcomed) some student help. However, I'd be reticent about wanting such major involvement for two main reasons.
Students move on... so how would you make sure that your system was kept secure and clean of any little backdoors etc. This is especially an issue with some of the more confidential information that must be kept on the system.
Education IT networks need to be run for the benefit of that whole educational community. It's all well and good the IT whizzkids setting up a killer Quake environment.. but folks doing boring stuff like business studies still need to be having their needs met.
However, I certainly applaud the idea of student involvement.
Bass_Wulf
Slashdot Mirror
Maybe the NHS Trust I work for, as part of the Web Development Team, is an exception, but Linux is making inroads here. For example, while our Intranet presently runs on IIS and we do have a large number of third party applications that require IIS, signficant areas (like our homegrown document publishing system) take advantage of having a Linux server in the mix.
Likewise, I often get involved with extracting useful data from huge data sources and Linux provides me with an efficient and effective way to do that. It's not just me, either. Our network still has a Novell backbone and that is of course moving towards Linux, thanks to SuSE.
It is, of course, a far cry from Linux on every desktop but the penguin is definitely in there, helping to get the work done.
Wulf
A fundamental problem with the idea is that one of the virtues of a traditional text book is that is fixed and static. The teacher becomes familiar with the content of "Smart and Barmey, Advanced Calculus, Second Edition" and uses it to support their teaching strategy.
The open textbook, being a continually developing resource, is going to be much harder to use as a teaching aid. How do you choose which day's edition to focus on? How much confusion will be caused when students print their own copies with different versions of the content?
And, if you produce one official version each year, how many people are going to take time to contribute information that may not even make the next cut when they could drop it straight into the flowing stream of knowledge on the wikipedia site instead?
It's a nice idea but I'm not sure it pays enough attention to the paradigms it rides roughshod across!
Wulf
Emusic works for me. I had been a big fan of my local library where I could borrow CDs for free... and then they started charging. Only 50p a shot, but that made me feel less inclined to be experimental - duff albums would be a waste of money and of course I still couldn't keep the good ones.
Then I stumbled across Emusic. I can now try lots of stuff, keep what I like and carry around a collection of all sorts of albums on just a few CDs without any qualms of illegality. Emusic give assurance that the artists get paid so by and large I'm helping do away with unecessary packaging and distribution costs, getting extra value out of my broadband collection and discovering all sorts of new music that I might otherwise never have come across.
I hope Emusic manages to keep going on the same tack, expanding it's catalogue along the way - at $9.99 a month, I consider it a win for me and hopefully a win for others (Emusic, the artists, etc) as well.
Wulf
Most of my GIMPing, for a range of websites, is done using GIMP for Windows on NT4 or Win98. Despite the warning given on that page that, "The GIMP for Windows is not really targetted at end-users
yet", it works pretty well for me (certainly having no more quirks or crashes than anything else I've used on Windows).
I haven't read Crypto.. but I did recently read Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon. A big fat book but worth reading if you want a gripping story with lot's of crypto references thrown in.
Yup. I've been waiting for MSLinux for years (well, about two years anyway). Not that I intend to buy the disks, but I'd be tempted to download the ISO images from their free FTP site...
Do you remember a few years back when Bill Gates was in all the industry press saying "... the internet is not important... ", and then a few months later saying "... the internet is everything... "?
MS has proven itself to be ruthlessly adaptable in the past - if Linux continues to rise and Microsoft's new products don't establish a growing market share, MSLinux could well be on the cards.
If you can't beat 'em, imitate and assimilate! Beware!
Bass_Wulf
- Students move on... so how would you make sure that your system was kept secure and clean of any little backdoors etc. This is especially an issue with some of the more confidential information that must be kept on the system.
- Education IT networks need to be run for the benefit of that whole educational community. It's all well and good the IT whizzkids setting up a killer Quake environment.. but folks doing boring stuff like business studies still need to be having their needs met.
However, I certainly applaud the idea of student involvement. Bass_Wulf