Request for Input on Creating Linux Courses...

[Tim]

On Tue, 2009-12-22 at 09:31 +1000, Michael D. Setzer II wrote:
> Last year, the college spend $79 each to upgrade 500 machines from
> Office 2003 to 2007. Seems they ordered the keyboarding book that used
> 2007, instead of the one that used 2003, so they had to buy the new
> software. Checked with students in my classes and only 20% had 2007,
> and when asked how many had a legal copy the answer was 0. I use
> OpenOffice since I don't have a copy of 2003 or 2007, but our Admin
> and MIS are M$,

There's an opportunity there, for a few lesson points:

Extolling the virtues of free software, which includes avoiding vendor
lock-in (done in a myriad of ways, from incompatible data and programs,
to needing regular expensive retraining).  

And promoting the point that you shouldn't illegally copy software, even
if you feel the bastards (e.g. Microsoft) deserve it.  It is a criminal
act, and should be regarded so.

> I learned on an IBM 1130 with 4K Ram and punched cards, which effects
> my approach to getting the most out of the resourses one has
> available.

Ooh, you lucky devil.  You had a punch card.  We had to make do with a
pencil...    </monty python voice>  ;-)

I've still got several of those colour-in-the-ovals-with-lead-pencil
computer cards stashed about the place.  They're a good talking point,
not only for nostalgic reasons, but they're about the only future-proof
archiving format.  Just you try accessing data on a 1 inch tape, when
the technology has disappeared, or the tape has deteriorated.  Then
compare that to something that could be optically scanned by anything,
including a person.

-- 
[tim at localhost ~]$ uname -r
2.6.27.25-78.2.56.fc9.i686

Don't send private replies to my address, the mailbox is ignored.  I
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