[K12OSN] Maybe Linux is ready for the desktop

John P. Conlon jconlon1 at elp.rr.com
Thu Jul 1 15:21:05 UTC 2004


I have a hoebrew 8 terminal network in my classroom that I created fro 
donations and left overs from upgrading my home computers.  The students 
e-mail their work backe and forth between school (K12LTSP) and home 
(some form of Windblows) with no problems. In fact the only time they 
ever complain about Linux is when several of them decide to play some of 
the more graphic intensive games all at once and the server, also from a 
junk pile, slows down from the work load.
Bye
Pat

anthony baldwin wrote:

> Carl Keil wrote:
>
>> For those of you trying to justify Linux to Administrators, teachers 
>> and other skeptics, here's an interesting anecdote about Linux's ease 
>> of use/familiarity to new users.
>>
>> I have a couple of 12 year old kids staying at my house for a few 
>> weeks.  I told them they could use my k12ltsp 4 server if they wanted 
>> as a workstation.  (Since I can't get any @#$% terminals working 
>> yet.)  They've been hogging my wife's Mac and I wanted to let her get 
>> back to it.  They're usually windows users.  When I found one of them 
>> using it I asked him if he'd ever used Linux.  He said, "No, what's 
>> that?"  I pointed to the screen and explained to him what an 
>> operating system was.  He had been happily surfing the web.  The only 
>> instructions I gave him earlier were to point at the terminal and say 
>> log in as foo/bar.
>>
>> Just thought I'd share.  I was pretty dumbfounded, actually.  I 
>> thought he'd need me to tell him where stuff was, etc.
>>
>
> I took two frankenstein boxes (made from donated parts, running RedHat 
> 8.0) to school and placed them in my classroom where students used 
> them to conduct internet research, write papers, create slide 
> presentation, manipulate graphics and more.  The vast majority of them 
> didn't have a clue they were using a different operating system until 
> I told them. They did notice that the linux boxes didn't crash and 
> lose their work, though!
> I gave the computers away at the end of the year.
>
> tony
>





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