[clug] Linux on new school computers

[Andrew Smith]

> I also agree with other posters, you need well thought out reasoning 
> for this and price isn't really a factor.  I suspect that getting the 
> government departments to change document formats or operating systems 
> would be an easier target than the schools.
This is quite correct, price is often the least compelling factor, 
especially in Education, where Academic pricing often lowers the cost 
hurdle.

We do quite a bit of work in non-government education and have regularly 
had the Open Source discussion.  It is making in-roads, projects such as 
Moodle (moodle.org) is a good example.

As far as Linux on the desktop, one of the main issues (other than 
hardware support and other technical issues) is Teacher acceptance and 
training.  Teachers are a precious resource, we find that any new 
application or system has to be easily used and understood right from 
the start.  Most (normal) people have a Windows PC at home, so the 
training often starts there.

 From the hardware/integration side, classrooms these days will usually 
have a camera, projector, liveboard, lego robotics, wifi.  If these 
don't "just work" then they don't get used.  As we know, this isn't 
Linux's fault, usually the vendor focusing on Windows.

Andrew