Re: (clug-talk) CBE Wants to hear from us - it's a start at least.

Excellent points and information Kevin...sounds like you have really thought it 
through.  Kepe up the excellent work!

----- Original Message -----
From: Kevin Anderson <list-server@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tuesday, September 23, 2003 11:27 am
Subject: Re: (clug-talk) CBE Wants to hear from us - it's a start at least.

> One benefit for the "when it breaks" that I thought of is that 
> they could
> use "distro on a disk" type solutions.  I think Cluggix would be 
> the best
> bet, simply because home-grown means alot.  Rebuilding the box 
> means "shut
> machine off - turn on again".  It wouldn't work for the servers, 
> but it
> would easily work for the desktops.  Further, upgrades would be a 
> matter of
> shipping out new CDs.
> 
> LTSP would work too, but it seemed a bit ugly to get it going for each
> different machine.  It certainly worked and it worked well once it was
> running, but with CDs, you're immediately ready to go with 
> anything that's
> donated and brought in.  This school currently does not even accept
> donations due to the level of maintenance they require to get them 
> runninginitially.  With a CD, they could just ask, does it have a 
> CDrom, does it
> have a NIC (not even neccessary for some uses).
> 
> Further, if a student needs help with some assignment, they could 
> simply be
> given or lent a CD identical to the ones used in the classroom.  
> Parentswould be free to keep a copy for their own home use.  
> Currently, if a
> student is learning to use Word (publisher, XL, whatever), and 
> they need a
> copy at home, they face 2 options.  1) the school can implicitly 
> encouragethe parents to pirate a copy.  2) the school can expect 
> the parents to cough
> up several hundred dollars for a legit copy.
> 
> Heck, the School could even accept donated computers, even if they 
> won't use
> them internally, and then offer them to parents who can't afford a 
> PC of
> their own.  or partner with a Computer Recycler, and give the 
> recycler all
> the donations with the understanding that CBE would be able to 
> allocate used
> PCs at a 10 to 1 ratio (or whatever).  I'm still thinking it 
> through, but
> there are far more possibilities when building the machine 
> involves "put in
> the disk, turn it on".
> 
> Kev.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Mahlah Hansen" <mhansen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <clug-talk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Monday, September 22, 2003 3:00 PM
> Subject: Re: (clug-talk) CBE Wants to hear from us - it's a start 
> at least.
> 
> 
> > On September 22, 2003 02:50 pm, you wrote:
> > > This is an excellent idea. The schools are always talking to 
> Microsoftbut,
> > > the schools are always crying about cash. The ROI for them 
> with Linux
> would
> > > be a huge annual savings even with their educational discounts.
> >
> > I think a fair argument for this would be how much would it cost 
> them to
> train
> > their staff to use it? sometimes the cost of training is far 
> greater then
> the
> > cost of the licenses.  They would have to know they would be 
> guaranteedfree
> > or low cost consulting until their staff are completely trained and
> > comfortable with the system. Offering help through certain 
> mailing lists
> etc
> > would not be enough support for them to start at least. I just 
> couldn't> imagine they would have the time in the day to be 
> searching the internet
> on
> > how to fix their system if something breaks. You also have to 
> realize some
> > people don't know how to use search engines efficiently, and 
> they might
> not
> > even know what they are suppose to be looking for.  Putting 
> together some
> > sort of 6 month to 1 year support group for the school may be 
> helpful, at
> > least this way one person wouldn't have to be on call 24/7..
> >
> > just a thought..
> >
> >
> 
>