Use of Linux in Canadian universities

[Alyssa Knox]

Sure, knowing only one OS is constraining, but I don't think it is as
big a deal as you make it out to be.

I sincerely doubt that a person who doesn't know Linux would "feel the
consequences throughout their life". In any job that is NOT directly
computer/technology-related, I have only ever heard of (I must admit
that being only 20, my experience is v. limited, so maybe I'm wrong
here) employers asking for typing skill, and knowledge of Windows and
apps like MS Office etcetera. I'm certain it's essential for students
of computer science or IT to know multiple OSes, but I doubt that
someone who is heading for research work in a university, average
office work, or other jobs which are more _enabled by_ computers than
_about_ computers is going to seriously suffer from knowing only
Windows. If they encounter Linux later in life, they will not be
expected to know it already, and will be able to learn it at that
time.

It's not any part of the university's responsibility to teach *nix to
students. Perhaps you could say it is the uni's responsibility to make
such teaching available, though, and I certainly think it would be
great if some *nix computers were available for student use, along
with tutorials. This, however, is not the case.

I think at this historical moment, it would be unrealistic to expect
every single student to need to know Linux in order to use computer
facilities on campus. The university provides machines on which
students can get their coursework done as efficiently as possible,
because that's the purpose of the public labs. UVic labs do provide
some Open Source software, including OO.o, for what it's worth.

Personally I have been using Ubuntu primarily for over a year now, and
toying with Linux servers and the like occasionally for about three. I
think I will personally probably continue to use Ubuntu or something
similar for a long time, and personally I don't find the learning
curve (especially w/ regards to Ubuntu) steep at all. But I'm sure
there are people who are happier with Windows for whatever reason.

Linux isn't hard to find, and it isn't that hard to start using.
There's tonnes of support available all over the internet, and books
for those who prefer reading print. Anyone who needs or wants to learn
Linux can do so, probably at absolutely no personal cost. Nobody is
going to suffer because they didn't learn it in university.

=)
Alyssa

> From: Timothy Webster <tdwebste2 at yahoo.com>

> Knowing only one OS is like knowing only one language.
> Someone who knows only one language is forced to see
> the world through the constraints placed on them by the
> one language they know. Or to put it another way if the only
> tool we have is a hammer, everything in the world is a nail.
>
>  As far as your concerns about teaching a little linux to
> 90% of the users. That is what student tutors are hired to
> do and what tutorials are for. The consequences of students
> not knowing a little linux during their University years is
> felt through the rest of their life. Unless they take it upon
> themselves to re-train themselves. For example all of my
> company documents are stored in a software control system.
> This allows my company to merge documents written by
> several people and recover a document version from any
> point during its creation. The system requires open documents
> such as openoffice, other xml formats.
>
>
> There are lots of programs only written for Windows, but at
> the same time there are lots of tools, which are written for the
> opensource developer, designer or user in mind.
>
> Welcome to the ubuntu community. I hope you install linux
> on your personal computer and try it. Ask people here for
> alternatives to the windows programs you know. It will
> take a little time to learn them. But learning is a life
> long experience. I hope you enjoy learning a linux,
> discover new ways of doing things.
>
>
> Cheers
> Tim
>