Also sprach Michael Scottaline am Mittwoch, 19. Dezember 2001 21:00: > ================= > Verrry interesting, Mike. Thanks for the observations. I wonder what the > feed back from our European friends on the list will be like. Do you > happen to know what is used in their schools (or gymnasiums). I don't > mean universities, or IT schools, but their regular "high schools". What > do their students get used to using? One of te key to MS success in the > US is the near ubiquitous presence in the school systems [yes some schools > use Macs, but increasingly it seems many more are moving to M$. I know; > I've been working in the public school system for 28 years. Only the > really interested computer types can be pursuaded to try linux (I have a > few). Just my US$0.02, > Mike
Im a little late with my posting, because I have missed this thread up to now. At first sight, Linux seems to be booming here in Germany. There are a lot of discussions going on about changing to Linux in public administration even in highest places: Recently, there has been a 'lobby' war going on around the German federal parliament (Bundestag) between IBM, SuSe on one side and Microsoft on the other, because the IT responsibles of the Bundestag had announced to take into account Open Source software and Linux for their 5,000 pcs. Of course, this is primarily an issue of software costs, due to MS's licensing policy, but there is also a strong anti-monopolistic thread in the political discussion. Well, MS seems to be in a real bad mood about that... Up to know, the situation in companies is a bit different, usually there's NT networks. In my company, a publishing and printing house, we have two networks: about 300 NT clients for general administrative purposes and about the same number of Macs for those who take part in DTP production processes or graphics. At least, the real core of our publishing and printing system where the computer-to-plate processes are administered, is Linux based, but I can't tell you much about that. When going to a computer store for the home market, you usually have to bend down very low in front of the software racks for Linux distributions - it's xp all over! Linux on home desktops seems to be growing very slowly. Among the distros, SuSe is by far the most frequently sold (you know, this is Susie's homeland), I think RedHat comes next, but Caldera has vanished. Software prices over here are similar to those reported by Mike for Holland. SuSe 7.3 Personal Edition eg. is about 100 Marks, ie. 45 $. (BTW: The German Mark, as well as the Dutch Guilder, the French Franc and lots of others are going to vanish in a couple of days. Starting from January 1, there will be a currency update in most countries towards the Europe wide EURO which now is about 0.90 $.) Schools: There is a lot of computer madness going around, computers are virtually being pumped into schools (of course with a MS OS preinstalled, Macs don't play any substantial role there). Some politicians even have wild dreams about a notebook for each single student (whereas budgets for schoolbooks and other teaching materials are shrinking). On the other hand, there is no idea generally agreed upon about what to do with all these machines in schools. Linux in schools is getting stronger. A google search for 'Linux Schule' gives you more than 53,000 hits in German language (with both items!). There are hundreds of projects I believe, mainly maintained by teachers, to promote Linux. But there are obstacles too: - German teachers are overaged, around fifty (what am I talking about ...!) in the mean. They've just learned to do their homework with MS Word and should be very reluctant to a change. - School authorities try to promote Linux, especially for school networks (cheap!), but leave the administration to volunteering teachers who really exploit themselves, provided that they are found at all (see the age factor above). - Educational software in German language, for the home market as well as school specific, is nearly hundred per cent MS based, up to now there are very few platform independent (HTML, Java) projects. This is only a very brief personal overview, and I am neither an educational nor a Linux guru, so others might have different views. Klaus-Peter _______________________________________________ Linux-users mailing list Archives, Digests, etc at http://linux.nf/mailman/listinfo/linux-users
