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

[Christopher Chan]

Bart Silverstrim wrote:
> 
> Christopher Chan wrote:
> 
>> You have just blown away the whole retraining argument for using Linux. 
>> If you have to constantly retrain Windows users, there ain't no TCO 
>> argument on the training front anymore.
> 
> No, TCO in training comes from the fact that users DON'T watch those 
> videos unless forced, or attend learning workshops unless forced, and 
> schools, quite frankly, will not rise up on a person's crusade to 
> replace what is more or less working for them to force their staff to 
> use these resources when the easiest thing for the users is to just have 
> their IT people do it for them.

Well, that goes for just about anything so nothing Linux specific.

> 
>>> Training is inconvenient for end users and they don't want to do it. 
>>> They view their IT department as the ones to do these annoying things 
>>> for them.
>> /me shrugs. When I finally clear out the mess left behind by the 
>> previous predecessors, I will offer voluntary training for the teachers. 
>>   For some, it is going to be hard...they are over fifty and will need 
>> constant reminders. For others, I don't see a problem.
> 
> Honestly, good luck. Maybe yours is a cultural environment where you 
> won't get pushback.

Well, teachers don't have much of a choice if that is what the kids will 
be using. Besides, they don't like some of the rubbish the school has 
for ICT. Might as well get rid of them and the need for Windows because 
of them. :-D

> 
>>> AND there's rollover in staff. One time pain to teach someone how to do 
>>> it "your district's way"? I don't think so.
>> Thank you for blowing away the foundations of your TCO argument with 
>> regards to Linux vs Windows on the training front.
> 
> My TCO argument? I didn't think I brought that up...
> 
> What I initially replied to was the argument that it's a one-time cost 
> and a non-issue because it was a one-time cost. I was saying that it's 
> not one-time, that users won't do it unless forced, and even when they 
> attend they don't retain it unless exercising it often (such as adding 
> network printers in Windows).
> 

Oops...sorry, got mixed up. But thanks for blowing away Clifford's TCO 
argument of Linux vs Windows on the training side of things anyway.