[K12OSN] OT:Microsoft Windows ousted at California school district

"Terrell Prudé Jr." microman at cmosnetworks.com
Mon Mar 5 18:42:06 UTC 2007


Now, *there*, I agree.  Too many are still attached for dear life to
Reader Rabbit, if you can believe that.

But I do know of a school that did replace KidPix with LTSP.  Why?  The
tech person at that school tells me that it takes 512MB DRAM *minimum*
for their latest version, and it prefers a GB.  In went K12LTSP!  The
teachers seem to like it, and the tech person loved the reduced maintenance.

Would it be at all possible to show this stuff (TuxType, etc.) to a
teacher that's friendly to you?  I've discovered that some of the
politics can be defused if you have a friendly teacher that's doing it
in tow when you go talk to the principal about it.

--TP
_______________________________
Do you GNU!?
Microsoft Free since 2003 <http://www.gnu.org/>--the ultimate antivirus
protection!


Jeff Davis wrote:
> Technically, these would work.  Politically, It's a much greater
> challenge. 
>
> Terrell Prudé Jr. wrote:
>> Hmm...for Type to Learn, why not use GTypist (older kids) or TuxType
>> (younger kids)?  For KidPix, why not use TuxPaint?  And for Reading
>> Counts, why not just use a book?  Any reason why these wouldn't work
>> in your situation?
>>
>> --TP
>> _______________________________
>> Do you GNU!?
>> Microsoft Free since 2003 <http://www.gnu.org/>--the ultimate
>> antivirus protection!
>>
>>
>> Kemp, Levi wrote:
>>>
>>> Would using WINE be the same as “Ericom software – a Citrix
>>> alternative -- enabled the terminals to run the district's existing
>>> and irreplaceable Microsoft Windows educational applications,
>>> including Type to Learn, Reading Counts and Kid Pix.” as stated in
>>> the article? We have those programs and I was planning on running
>>> them using WINE, but I was trying to figure out what they used.
>>>
>>>  
>>>
>>> Levi Kemp
>>>
>>> Technology Specialist
>>>
>>> Bolivar R-I School District
>>>
>>> 417-328-8943
>>>
>>> lnkemp at bolivar.k12.mo.us <mailto:lnkemp at bolivar.k12.mo.us>
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>> *From:* k12osn-bounces at redhat.com [mailto:k12osn-bounces at redhat.com]
>>> *On Behalf Of *pogson
>>> *Sent:* Friday, March 02, 2007 8:37 AM
>>> *To:* k12osn at redhat.com
>>> *Subject:* [K12OSN] OT:Microsoft Windows ousted at California school
>>> district
>>>
>>>  
>>>
>>> The story is pretty sparse. It looks to me that they had a couple of
>>> issues:
>>> User permissions for files and thin clients.
>>>
>>> I do not understand the comment that they had to add one user at a
>>> time. That is the Windows way. In Linux, one would use scripts and
>>> it would take minutes. Perhaps they had to get the info out of AD
>>> first... That makes sense if they wanted to keep users connected to
>>> their data. I had the privilege of creating a system with no user
>>> history. I created staff accounts from a list of usernames and
>>> created student accounts using APG (Automatic Password Generator). I
>>> had teachers associate student names with account userids. They
>>> could have solved their problems by grouping staff, teachers,
>>> students. Perhaps they had staff that moved between buildings...
>>>
>>> I have never seen a Linux system that would not work with thin
>>> clients. Use LTSP to boot the thin clients and an X connection to
>>> whatever server you run.
>>>
>>> I guess they got locked into Suse and their way of doing things and
>>> it did not fit their setup. That is the problem with migration. You
>>> try to do the same old thing with the new system when it is
>>> unnatural. I say, make a clean break with the old system, automate
>>> account generation and migrate the data. If Windows will not produce
>>> clean text files with user information, scan the system with a Linux
>>> live CD or whatever to harvest the information. If file directories
>>> match usernames, and teachers and students are segragated it shoud
>>> be doable.
>>>
>>> Robert Pogson
>>>
>>> On Thu, 2007-01-03 at 20:32 -0500, k12osn-request at redhat.com wrote:
>>>
>>> From: Sergio Chaves <sergio at turbocorp.com <mailto:sergio at turbocorp.com>>
>>> Subject: [K12OSN] OT:Microsoft Windows ousted at California school
>>>         district
>>> To: k12osn at redhat.com <mailto:k12osn at redhat.com>
>>> Message-ID: <200703011316.15838.sergio at turbocorp.com
>>> <mailto:200703011316.15838.sergio at turbocorp.com>>
>>> Content-Type: Text/Plain;  charset="iso-8859-1"
>>>
>>> It would be better if it was LTSP but still a nice headline to read
>>> on a rainy
>>> morning here in ATL.
>>>
>>> http://searchopensource.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid39_gci1245710,00.htm
>>>
>>>
>>>  
>>> -- 
>>> A problem is an opportunity.
>>>
>>>  
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> K12OSN mailing list
>>> K12OSN at redhat.com
>>> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/k12osn
>>> For more info see <http://www.k12os.org>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> K12OSN mailing list
>> K12OSN at redhat.com
>> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/k12osn
>> For more info see <http://www.k12os.org>
> _______________________________________________
> K12OSN mailing list
> K12OSN at redhat.com
> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/k12osn
> For more info see <http://www.k12os.org>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listman.redhat.com/archives/k12osn/attachments/20070305/7b72b95f/attachment.htm>


More information about the K12OSN mailing list