[ubuntu-florida] who's using Edubuntu?
Casey Doran
wer4geeks at gmail.com
Mon Oct 22 23:15:11 BST 2007
>From what I understand, the US government (or at least the florida
government) is of the mindset: if its free it can't be that good, so
lets pay microsoft since we have the money and they'll definetly give us
a good deal. It is certainley cheeaper in the long run to get a set of
XOs, but since its so cheap it must not be the best thing for these
kid's educations (they're politicians, its not their fault they dont
have a clue). So what the real problem with the XO appears to be (aside
from a hippie name) is a lack of real understanding regarding the
reality of the situation among the people who make the decisions. If we
were able to do something about microsoft's propaganda, we'd have a real
fighting chance of getting the powers to be interested in the viable
alternatives. This has already started to happen (anyone seen the Vista
installation in 2 minutes video on youtube? epic. I'm getting together a
bunch of buddies this weekend to do a video response to that. ten
minutes of us standing around clapping.) through the wonders of an open
internet, and soon enough I'm sure there will be much more knowledge of
the entire open-source movement, right about when all these projects
start to mature. There's not really much more that we can do to speed
this up, other than to just keep polishing and spreading the word,
because eventually the better system will win out. In the meantime,
people will continue to switch at their own pace. Sure, Ubuntu is fairly
complete as it is, and the XO is a really promising device, but both
still have a long way to go before they can be considered for complete
takover in whatever their target market is.
In summary: these things take time, but eventually we will see results,
so lets keep working until that day.
Now can we please return to the topic at hand? OLPC is a viable option
by all means, but we should probably try to help this school avoid
buying all sorts of new hardware. Edubuntu works with what they have
NOW, if a little dependent on copland.
-E/C
On Mon, 2007-10-22 at 17:28 -0400, Andrew Watts wrote:
> Yet again another valid point to add. My true feeling is that a Linux
> distro, what ever is chosen, is the best solution. It would be nice,
> considering that this is ultimately the point of OLPC, for the XO to
> get in the hands of children and OLPC quits talking about it and
> starts actually doing it. Again, the idea only works if the damn
> thing gets into the hands of kids and they, like most other government
> programs, don't get caught up in red tape. I just think that if you
> approach OLPC the right way that they will see the benefit. I have a
> feeling that people are afraid to ask out of fear that they will say
> no, but if, by chance, they say yes then that could be the start of a
> beautiful education system for all children around the world. I would
> just hate to see something like the OLPC to fail because of people not
> asking the questions that should be asked. Since the systems need to
> get upgraded this is a viable option that should be pursued, thats all
> I'm saying. It may turn out to be something that OLPC is not
> interested in working with at this moment of time but for the sake of
> the children it needs to be asked. Technology should better everyones
> lives, not just a few. This is technology that should be available to
> any school, not just governments of 3rd world countries. It should
> start in the US giving every child the opportunity to have a laptop
> they can call there own (at least for the school year.)
>
> On 10/22/07, Casey Doran <wer4geeks at gmail.com> wrote:
> Martin's right there, so it seems that XOs are out of the
> question in
> this situation. An edubuntu thin (or relatively lean,
> considering their
> hardware) client system should be fairly easy to set up
> anyways and
> would offer a lot more in terms of configurability and
> available power
> for probably a lot less. If they really did have their minds
> set on
> laptops, remind them that the minimum system requirements for
> a full
> edubuntu install are well below the average specs of the
> cheapest
> laptops on the market today, and they could probably get a
> better deal
> if they order in bulk from the manufacturer (and also not have
> to pay
> for an OS). Really, you would only set up a thin client
> network if you
> had to start it up from scratch. If they have existing
> hardware and
> networking, you might as well just do a rather ragtag LDAP or
> Kerberos
> system. Its fairly easy to set up and is more
> network-reliability
> independent: If the servers down, you could still boot and
> logon to a
> generic account.
>
> Just another Idea.
>
> (A message came in the middle of my typing this, hope this
> aint obsolete
> already.)
>
> _e/C
> On Mon, 2007-10-22 at 15:52 -0400, Martin Wilson wrote:
> > I hate to chime in mid discussion here, but aren't the XO
> laptops not
> > available for sale in North America? I don't mean to take
> down such a
> > good argument, and trust me I think XO laptops would rock
> for this
> > school, but I believe OLPC has announced they will only be
> selling
> > their laptops to governments. The only way to obtain an XO
> at the
> > moment is to participate in the "Give 1, get 1" program, in
> which you
> > donate $399, and one child in a developing world obtains a
> laptop and
> > you also get one for personal use. And this program only
> runs from
> > November 12th for a short period of time.
> >
> > On 10/22/07, Andrew Watts <systemstalker at gmail.com> wrote:
> > You need to sell it to them that this is the future
> for their
> > students, including the parents. Honestly though i
> would talk
> > to the school and the parents about the XO
> laptop. If they
> > can afford to send there kid to a private school
> they should
> > be able to cope with the XO laptop. It's $180. the
> kids will
> > be able to bring the system home with them and be
> able to
> > everything that they can do otherwise. It may not
> be Ubuntu
> > but remember, the system was designed for kids, what
> ever is
> > best for the kids is the most important part. They
> will have
> > the ability to communicate and if you were to have a
> server in
> > every class all the lessons could be put on the
> XO. I bet if
> > the school were to work with One Laptop Per Child
> that they
> > would be all for working out something where each
> child spent
> > 200 per laptop and the extra $20 went to
> OLPC. Again, this IS
> > a private school, don't let those parents tell you
> they cant
> > afford it. Those kids wont be able to break
> anything and will
> > have a laptop that they can take home and work
> on. If you are
> > planning to buy new hardware anyway this would be
> the best
> > solution. Thin clients cost money and the last time
> i checked
> > the XO OLPC was alot better than a thin client PC,
> its small,
> > portable, about the same price as a thin client and
> best of
> > all the student can OWN it and use it at home too.
> The
> > biggest bonus is that if the kid breaks the OS
> he/she or a
> > parent can easily fix it at home without any CD or
> other
> > extraneous software, everything that is needed is
> already
> > there. its an all in one solution to the problem
> and costs
> > the school nothing, everyone wins. The kids won't
> care what
> > it's doing nor will the school. The beautiful thing
> is that
> > these laptops are self networking, you won't need to
> add any
> > major network infrastructure it should just work out
> of box,
> > so easy a child in the 3rd world can do it. this is
> a lot
> > cheaper than any PC on the market and its virtually
> zero
> > configuration, with thin clients and the like it
> there is a
> > problem it can take days or weeks to fix, money
> always needs
> > to be spent setting things up. Thin clients are
> difficult to
> > setup (for the average user, try telling a teacher
> to set one
> > up, HA) and if you leave the program goes belly
> up. With the
> > XO all you need to have is a few wireless access
> points and
> > the mesh network in the XO does the rest. if one
> child in the
> > room has internet/network access, all of them
> do. The teacher
> > can also run all the notebooks at the same time, say
> during a
> > lecture the teacher takes control and provides an up
> close and
> > personal interactive lesson right there. The
> perfect solution
> > to a very difficult problem. Not only is it cost
> efficient,
> > its also time efficient for both the school and the
> students.
> > The only problem with it is, how ever, getting OLPC
> to sell
> > the laptops to the school. Personally i think that
> every
> > child in the world should have this laptop issued to
> them
> > every year in school, there just isn't much you can
> do to
> > break them. and as they progress through grade
> school give
> > them more advanced laptops. The XO is water
> resistant, drop
> > resistant and most importantly kid tested to work
> every time
> > with a great battery life (8+ hours) so it will last
> most, if
> > not all of the day. Any open source software you
> want to use
> > should work on it too. Let me know what you think.
> >
> > Andrew
>
>
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