Marc Paré a écrit :
Targeting the school boards makes a lot of sense.
Note that Openoffice targeted various gov't organisations in France,
some of which ended up migrating to Mandriva as well. Maybe that could
work with school boards as well. I'm tempted to try something like that
with mine, in banlieue of Montréal.
Just out of curiosity, what is your school board ?
For the server, if Mandriva management were a little more reasonable, it
would be good to partner with them. (I'd like to see something like
RedHat/Fedora.)
In any case, you can't go wrong with RedHat.
André (andre999)
Bonjour André:
Salut Marc :
(sorry for the slow reply, didn't notice it right away)
As an example, the official word from the Ontario Ministry of
Education is that if users cannot afford the use of MSOffice, that we
are allowed to promote the use of StarOffice. Here is the official
link: http://www.osapac.org/db/view_software.php?id=310 Sun had made
arrangements to provide support through their 1-800 ... telephone
service (unofficially, they had also said that they would have
supported OpenOffice user queries as well, although this policy may
have changed after this policy had been posted on the net). There are
over 2 million students being taught in Ontario where I teach. Quite a
good market to target. You can find the statistics on registered
school student numbers here:
http://www42.statcan.ca/smr08/2007/smr08_088_2007-eng.htm
Interesting contract.
I've read of similar approaches in France with OpenOffice or StarOffice,
where they ended up installing (at least some) Mandriva workstations.
If we were to commit to an "Education based" install (this could be
done at the point of installation where you could tag the type of
distro that you would want installed) with SOLID alternatives for the
most common software packages used in educational institutions, then
we could make a convincing case for the installation of Mageia
desktops in schools. Most governmental agencies today are sensitive to
ways of cutting down on expenses.
Selecting an "Education based" install (which could be used with other
software selections is what I had in mind.
This could be called the "Education software group" (for want of a
better name).
Like that you don't need a special "Education" version, it's the same
DVD for everyone.
Of course, the necessary education software has to be on the DVD.
An excellent way to promote Mageia.
In fact, using a common DVD, students could take a copy home, and
install as well, the "young family" and/or "home office" software
groups. (Which would necessarily overlap to some extent.)
The only problem that I would see in doing such a promotion is that
this type of usage would require a server/client solution. This is
where the choice of server partnership would become important. RehHat
and Suse are well-known servers options in the business world. We
could then partner up with them and make sure that Mageia/RedHat or
Mageia/Suse solutions are rock solid. Unless we seek a partnership
with MandrivaLinux server, but in North American markets, Mandriva is
really not a force to contend with and is not really known.
Marc
Since we're in Canada, Mageia/RedHat and Mageia/Suse make sense due to
the greater North American presence, but Mandriva server is a major
player in the European and South American markets.
The advantage of using Mandriva server in Canada is English/French in
the education system in every province.
Like I've already said elsewhere, I'd like to see some accommodation
with Mandriva for the commercial/server side.
In any case, we could always offer a choice of servers. RedHat, Suse,
and Mandriva all use compatible RPM packaging.
André (andre999)
