I know a lot of people are interested in demonstrating the worth of Linux
/ Free software in business environments, since that is where department-
and enterprise-level purchasing decisions get made. That's important!
The sales / acceptance loop is an important factor. But here's my pitch to
encourage / give / arrange for etc. demonstrations in schools, and to try
to get your LUG or other group to participate in same.
In fact, my pitch is nothing but a bulleted list. Here goes:
- Kids like to play with things. The amount of software that comes with a
typical Linux distrib. is astounding, and since many distribs. include
games and candy like the Gimp (and do any come without Xpaint and XV?!)
there are some gee-whiz, hook-em-early apps all set to play with.
Particularly important with very young kids, who might not be as impressed
by a new C compiler, since (alas, like me) they don't know enough what to
do with it. There are lots of *fun* things to do right off the bat.
- Kids have little money. A computer that runs Linux with gusto might be
wheezing under the current MS OSes ... 16 megs of RAM and a 2 gig hard
drive would be pretty meager to anyone running Win 95 / 98 / NT, but it'll
handle Linux pretty nicely. How much does a machine like that cost right
now? In 6 months? Probably less than the high-end HP calculator that'll be
required for the kids' geomoetry classes. The high cost of software is (I
assert) the chief contributor to lackadaisical attitudes toward software
piracy, and consequently a lack of respect for software designers. Shame.
- Linux provides built-in email and multi-user capabilities. So machines
that are used by multiple students can still act like each student's
computer.
- Saving money with a free OS means that money can be better spent
elsewhere. The student newspaper at my high school, for instance, used a
Mac network for writing (and paid for software for each mac) partly
because layout was done on Macs. If we'd used Linux machines for writers
and everything but layout, could have afforded better, faster machines to
lay out on. I'd like to show some local public school how they could
improve their newspaper with Linux.
- Linux plays games. Not my area of expertise or even particular interest,
but it's true.
- Linux is a fantastic way to connect to the Internet. And nowadays that
seem to be synonomous with the World Wide Web. There are several browsers
available, and hopefully mozilla will be a good state in time for the
proposed demo day / week.
- Finally (not that there aren't more potential reasons), kids are, as the
cliche would have it, our future. I'd certainly like to encourage
appreciation of the benefits of free and freely extensible software in
children, and more important to instill a sense of subversion and
skepticism. The computer monoculture (or nearly so) of the last decade/s
is only one of the many things about which the free software movement
(sorry, don't gag) ought to spark indignant questioning. How about
mandatory schooling run by the State? Another soap box entirely, so I'll
drop the issue for the sake of decorum.
Cheers, hope this inspires someone ...
Timothy Lord
"Both ogliarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them
of arms." --Aristotle [[ [EMAIL PROTECTED] / www.monkey.org/~timothy ]]
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