[K12OSN] Maybe Linux is ready for the desktop

[anthony baldwin]

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

-- 
Anthony Baldwin
http://www.School-Library.net
Freedom to Learn!

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