On Tuesday 06 November 2001 05:23 pm, Philip S Tellis wrote:
It is very very tough to get linux into schools. We'll have to be a lot more adept ourselves, and be willing to provide support 24/7. And I don't mean mailing list support, I mean actually going there and fixing problems, training staff, and replacing all windows apps.
Not just that. There is tremendous resistance from the faculty as they are at best ill at ease with computers. Adding a new os is tatntamount to putting them at the same level as the students (who any way are teaching the teachers quite often). This is first hand experience at my nephew's school. In another school where my sis-in-law teaches I had offered free 24/7 support and free installation and training. Instead the managment spent about a lac on windows. If they did not utilise the software budget they would not get funds the next year (I think it was more abt augmenting incomes than anything else). The non commercial approach triggers a "saint v/s sinner" reaction. The commercial approach requires great undersatnding of computing and TOC issues from people who want nothing to do with it.