<div dir="ltr">To add a concept to Williams experience, LTSP _IS_ a cloud computing environment for schools. It's completely cutting-edge technology that Microsoft wishes it could replicate. And it was invented in 1970. :-) </div><div class="gmail_extra"> <div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Apr 19, 2013 at 1:43 PM, William Fragakis <<a href="mailto:william@fragakis.com" target="_blank">william@fragakis.com</a>> wrote: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div class="im"> > > This is a school environment with about 60 desktop computers. The > > question is coming from the administration -- they have been using > > Windows since the 3.11 days and so I believe it's just a matter of > > inertia. I am also a volunteer and I'm not really sure if I'd like to > > continue as a volunteer if they do switch over -- the administration > > of it would be too much effort I fear. > > </div>Joseph, I've been involved with K12LTSP/K12Linux since Fedora 5 (what year was that?) - from a primary school conversion to, today, running my wife's medical practice on K12Linux running Scientific Linux. Stories like mine are pretty common. In reading your post, I'm guessing something else is up than just considering costs, etc. The administration is not only used to Windows but used to the old desktop model of computing. Word processor, a few apps and a browser to look at "educational sites". This reminds me of the resistance we encountered because "everybody uses MS Office at work and kids will need to learn it to get jobs". What people could see was only in their near experience. They'd forgotten how Office supplanted Word Perfect and couldn't imagine something like Writely/Google Docs or even how Office would change it's own interface significantly in future versions. Desktops still have their place but our kids are moving into a world where the "cloud" is their desktop - everything from Google docs to online apps and web sites that do much of the processing done by desktops in the past. Intel's Chromebooks, smart phones, smart TVs and tablets are examples of devices that enable users in the new environment. In my mind, the move to the cloud has made LTSP more, not less, relevant. What is important today is to have an inexpensive web/network-enabled device that is easily configured, supported and managed. LTSP does that; it does it very well. Many of the barriers we had to overcome in the past simply are going away. Proprietary technologies like Flash and Silverlight are dying or dead as the move to smart phones has forced providers to adapt HTML 5 whether they like it or not. Good luck, William <div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5"> _______________________________________________ K12OSN mailing list <a href="mailto:K12OSN@redhat.com">K12OSN@redhat.com</a> <a href="https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/k12osn" target="_blank">https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/k12osn</a> For more info see <<a href="http://www.k12os.org" target="_blank">http://www.k12os.org</a>> </div></div></blockquote></div> -- -- James P. Kinney III Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you gain at one end you lose at the other. It's like feeding a dog on his own tail. It won't fatten the dog. - Speech 11/23/1900 Mark Twain <a href="http://electjimkinney.org" target="_blank">http://electjimkinney.org</a> <a href="http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/</a> </div>