Convincing a school district to migrate from OS X to Ubuntu or Edubuntu

[CLIFFORD ILKAY]

David McNally wrote:
> I know that it is weird to see Macs that often, and in fact, I rarely
> see them outside of my school.

You lead a sheltered life then. A significant part of the attendees at
any tech conference I've attended in the last few years were carrying
Apple's notebooks. Apple has made huge inroads amongst developers and it
is also doing so amongst younger people. The iPod has introduced a new
generation to Apple's products. Here is a real conversation overheard by
one of my brothers on the subway a few months ago between two teenagers:

Teenager 1: Did you know that Apple started making computers? I'm going
to get a MacBook for my birthday. It's just as slick as an iPod.

Teenager 2: Kewl.

I read a few months ago that 33 cents of every dollar spent on
back-to-school notebook purchases in the U.S. were spent on Apple
products and Apple's notebooks constituted 20 per cent of the total unit
sales. Apple saw double-digit gains in sales over the same time last
year whereas all the other vendors, who are killing one another to eke
out a 5% margin compared to Apples 25% or better, were flat. That is a
pretty impressive achievement for Apple, especially in a down economy.

[snip]
> Of course, lunch is an important part
> of the school day all around the world, and would function more properly
> if it were running on Linux,

I prefer my lunch to be quite still and not running, thank you.

> but it's not the only part (I know that you
> said that, I'm just agreeing with you). If schools were able to run
> everything on Linux, everything would work smoother, considering the
> smoothness that Linux provides.
> 
> I have, however, noticed that Microsoft and Apple do better at making
> sure that the computer works rather well than the Linux community.
[snip]
> There are similar problems that I've found in Linux. Obviously, I still
> think that Ubuntu would beat Windows or OS X any day, but it's not
> perfect, and it never will be. It still has many more advantages than
> Windows or OS X.

If I were your teacher, you'd be asked to revise and resubmit because
the inconsistencies in what you wrote are glaring. How is it "obvious"
that Linux is better if "Microsoft and Apple do better at making sure
that the computer works rather well than the Linux community"?

> Next, I want to respond to Paige Thompson's and Clifford Ilkay's replies:
> It seems that Clifford felt that I shouldn't refer to these people as
> 'rich idiots'. While it is somewhat true, I do see quite a bit of truth
> in the fact that people will do what you want if you treat them with
> more respect.
> 
> On the other hand, Paige pointed out that "that's just exactly the kind
> of mentality that has held Ubuntu back". I agree with that statement
> more than Clifford's, although Clifford does have a good point. I think
> that 'rich idiots' was, indeed, a little harsh, but I think that they
> should be recommended to switch very strongly.

Just what exactly is this binary choice that you and Paige seem to think
exists? Are you suggesting that being respectful of the people whom you
wish to convince of the merits of your arguments, such as they are, is
mutually exclusive with promoting Linux?

> I'd also like to mention that this school has no difficulty buying
> software, but, that doesn't mean that it should spend so much money on
> software when it could be spent on better teachers or newer textbooks or
> better food or something else productive. I agree with Paige on this one
> again: moving away from software that a school can't afford (or can, but
> shouldn't) is always a good idea.

It's only a good idea if someone can make a solid case for it AND you
can gain the acceptance of the people involved through demonstrable
benefits.

[snip]
> No one uses OpenOffice. Instead, we get to use the worst productivity
> suite ever: MS Office 2008. I wonder how IT didn't figure this one out
> yet. The teachers who teach computer classes have to re-learn how to use
> Office because everything's been rearranged because of that stupid
> ribbon. OpenOffice would be a much better idea, so I'll have to see what
> I can do.

Spending money on software is not necessarily bad *if* there is a
demonstrable benefit.

> Clifford has pointed out that he has already gotten students using
> Linux. This comes as a total shock to me, as I've always gone to school
> to Macs. I still remember using very old versions of the Macintosh OS
> (definately pre-OS X) back in kindergarten, and up into the first few
> years of elementary school.
> 
> Clifford then pointed out how much work it has taken to move his school
> to using just a few Linux machines and mostly Windows machines.

No, it's the other way around. By the time we are finished, the majority
of the machines in the school will be running Linux, not Windows. Like
most schools, we have more computers being used for teaching than for
school administration.

> If this
> will need such dedication from everyone involved, then moving this
> school, which has been on Macintosh since before I was born, will be
> more work than most schools. People here are also very stubborn,
> especially IT.

Their resistance to change is understandable and not necessarily a bad
thing. You can't and shouldn't discount years of experience and
infrastructure and claim that Linux is magically going to make
everything better when you're talking about shades of grey difference
between OS X and Linux. OS X has some definite advantages over Linux and
the converse is also true. In other words, it's not a clear, decisive
win for Linux when competing against OS X. Against Windows, in most
cases, it's much easier to justify Linux.

> There's no question that Ubuntu would be able to work on these
> computers. While some of them are old, they're still new enough to run
> Ubuntu. The school has big metal carts that hold about 30 notebooks
> (these carts are called 'COWs', short for 'Computers On Wheels'), which
> are usually filled with rather new notebooks, but only because the
> notebooks are the first things to fall apart, with keys falling out and
> plastic casing coming off. Such new notebooks would be able to run
> Ubuntu quite well. The desktops here are also quite good, though,
> because the school tries to spend more money on the desktops, knowing
> that they will die long after a notebook bought at the same time, so
> those will be able to run Ubuntu quite well, too.
> 
> Saving money is nice, but changing the way an entire high school uses
> computers is hard, no matter how much money it saves.

That's because they may not save any money at all if the cost of
retraining and the loss of productivity during the transition period
exceeds the cost of software licenses. This is the TCO (Total Cost of
Ownership) argument, which is an argument that Apple is very experienced
at making.
-- 
Regards,

Clifford Ilkay
Dinamis
1419-3266 Yonge St.
Toronto, ON
Canada  M4N 3P6

<http://dinamis.com>
+1 416-410-3326
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