[K12OSN] Technology and Learning cover story: Linux

["Terrell Prudé Jr."]

R. Scott Belford wrote:
> Furthermore, having bought a place in Rolla, I now know what an
> incredible braintrust that town has.  I see lots of FOSS there.  Plus,
> it is bookended by Kansas City and St. Louis.  Don't underestimate the
> positive effects you may have had.  Besides, you probably didn't fully
> address, as I did not early on, the extent of OPM abuse in the schools. 

You ain't just whistlin' Dixie about that brain trust, brother!  The
University of Missouri at Rolla is one of the schools that regularly
competes at the Solar Decathlon in Washington, DC.  It's where 20
schools compete to build the most efficient and forward-looking, but
livable and comfortable, off-the-grid solar-powered house.  The 20
schools transport their 500-800 sq. ft. houses to DC and assemble them
on the Washington Mall.  Rolla always makes a good showing, and this
year was no exception.  It was quite nice.

Running a laptop computer, along with other "appliances", is part of the
competition.  Unfortunately, Rolla's laptop was running Windows XP, just
like most other teams (I also saw three MacBooks).  But the Universidad
Politecnica de Madrid (yes, they brought a house all the way from Spain)
did have GNU/Linux on theirs!  And yes, they know all about what's going
on in Extremadura.

"OPM", I take it, means "Other People's Money?"  The ultimate OPiuM, I'd
say....

--TP