[K12OSN] Making K12LTSP "school friendly"

[Steven Santos]

> If the software companies run their business like I run mine my guess is
> it is all hinging on numbers we don't have yet.

<snip>

> So right now they can calculate how much income would could possibly be
> gained at x amount for software multiplied by %y of available users z.
> If we could give them an idea of how large a number z is maybe they could
> see a real potential which will drive them down this road.

<snip>

> I am all for free and open source, but in order for them to want to
> produce software for this market maybe we need to somehow convey a
> willingness to pay for task specific software,

You know, I only see 3 or 4 titles mentioned for this over and over again.
Given that the biggest immediate need is only for these 3 or 4 products,
their are 2 alternatives that we could explore.

The first is going in as a group, and saying to the vendor that if X,Y
and/or Z are ported for Linux, that their are this many schools willing to
buy this many licenses today.  More flies with Honey and all.

The second option is for someone to approach the folks at Code Weavers.
They may be willing to build (and update, and market) a version of CO Server
for schools. It looks like Accelerated Reader, Carmen SanDeigo and Reader
Rabbit are on the list of apps people have gotten to run on COS, and it
looks like they would support it if they got people willing to buy.

Food for thought.