Hi, I have been reading this list since its inception and sometimes popping my head out from under the rock to post. After lurking on this thread for a while, I couldn't help but wade in. I am the maintainer of RTEMS (free real-time operating system) and very interested in it being used in educational environments.
But what I don't want is for talented, stretched instructors to flail attempting to do so. Allen and Heidi are the experiences I do not want to happen when you all try to take RTEMS into a class room or lab. Yes you have to do some preparation work that is specific to your educational goal. But no, you should not suffer. It really pained me to hear what Heidi went through. Avoiding that type of pain is critical to FOSS use in educational settings. And bridging the gap to FOSS projects to get help is a big step. Please approach the projects to get help avoiding pitfalls. Karsten hinted that the FOSS community will help. I honestly believe most FOSS developers would bend over backwards to help you all out. I know for RTEMS we try to keep an up to date list of possible projects, virtual machines which are already set up to do development with, etc. If you have a specific class room goal, we will work with you to make it a success. We all have a tendency not to want to ask for help or bother other people. But in this case, if you folks don't, then everyone loses. You end up with less time to spend on maturing teaching material and projects for FOSS. FOSS loses an opportunity for contributions and future developers. So I am begging all of you professors, instructors, etc.to please approach FOSS projects for help. We are happy to help you out. --joel sherrill RTEMS _______________________________________________ tos mailing list tos@teachingopensource.org http://lists.teachingopensource.org/mailman/listinfo/tos
