[plug] suggestion: PLUG 4 Schools

[Denis Brown]

The discussion regarding Linux in a school situation happily attracts more 
thoughtful contributions.  A couple of brief points...

Thanks to Justin for the heads-up on some of the real world programmes 
needed in the school environment.  I note the Efofex software is 
proprietary and Australian by the looks of things :-)  Perhaps if this 
(Linux For Schools) progresses further, the author could be contacted with 
a view to doing an X-windows version or maybe it'll run under a Windows 
emulator.  The CC material depends upon Access so, depending on how it's 
written, it may be suitable for migration to MySQL, PostgreSQL, etc (yes, I 
realise that this is not likely to be a five-minute job!)

Justin also mentioned primary children's programmes running in DOS or 
16-bit Windows.  This being the case it seems there are a number of 
operating systems in use -- doubtless there's some MAC material out there, 
also.  If that be true, children and teachers are already exposed to a 
variety of OS environments so Linux should not be unduly foreign.  Apart 
from what appeared to me to be personal prejudice, when the MAC-vs-Windows 
wars were upon us it seems that people were able to shift from one to the 
other with minimal fuss.  And this also didn't cause angst where parents 
had MACs and schools had Windows -- or did it???

Arie's points about post-primary and post-secondary schooling and the 
children's ability to capitalise on or transfer their knowledge are well 
made and proves the breadth of discussion which rightfully should take 
place.  Perhaps this is similar to a car driving lesson scenario:- if a 
learner driver learns to drive a manual car (= DOS or earlier Windows) then 
migration to an automatic model (= later Windows, Linux + desktop) should 
be easier.  Do others agree or am I outdated in this thinking?

Harry's comments on OpenOffice are well taken.  It is likely to be the 
first step I will be able to take here to engender an Open Source mentality 
albeit running on Windows platforms for a while. As my client base expands 
and with no prospect of additional (human) support for me, it will become 
increasingly important that I have a more homogeneous, reliable, secure and 
remotely-maintainable environment and I see a Unix-like (eg Linux) 
environment as being the solution.  For me the stumbling block was always 
to replace that "standard", as Trent called it, Office suite.

Question:  In regards to proprietary software such as Efofex, how much 
emphasis do you think we should place on the OSS-vs-proprietary side?  If 
we aim for a solely OSS situation then we're largely obliged to reinvent 
other people's wheels.  Not that that is a bad thing since there's always 
the prospect of a smoother, rounder wheel!  Since this sort of question is 
OT=philosophy rather than on-topic=technical-Linux, would it be reasonable 
to a) begin a new discussion list, b) carry on as-is c) suggest interested 
people join one of the pre-existing lists (seul-edu for example or echalk 
at Murdoch if it's still going) or d) flag such discussion with [lfs] for 
example to allow people the opportunity to dev/nul such transactions?

Cheers,
Denis