On Mon, Feb 9, 2009 at 4:12 PM, Christopher Woods <chris...@infinitus.co.uk>
> Transforming a Windows school to an Ubuntu school is nigh on impossible to > achieve unless you provide a year's warning, gradually phase out use of all > Windows-only software over the course of the year, implement the massive > overhaul and platform transition during the holidays and then spend the next > six months to a year supporting users when stuff goes wrong. Most schools > simply cannot afford to provision those kinds of resources, so they stay put > with what they have, and that's why FOSS will never make significant inroads > into those establishments. It would take something like Governmental > intervention to impose FOSS and OSes on schools as a mandatory element of > their funding in order for them to make the change, but it would be so > disruptive that it would probably be ignored or sidelined by many schools. And yet they will end up on a newer Microsoft operating system at some point. ;-) > I am not trying to scaremonger or FUD here, it is just my view as someone > who has gone through the system and grown up alongside the maturation of a > typical educational IT setup, and who also had the advantage of talking to > the person who helped to implement a lot of it (and still talks to the > person who now helps implement policy and infrastructure for an entire > county's worth of education!) Although perhaps flawed or coloured, I feel > it's a pragmatic, realistic view. It's very informative. Thanks. I've encountered similar stories from people working with charities for example. One thing I'd say is that nothing will stimulate companies that can support schools (and other institutions) using GNU/Linux like the prospect of there being a sudden increase in the number of schools using GNU/Linux to support. ;-) - Rob. - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
