... and continuing my stream-of-consciousness lifestyle ... i just today suggested to my local LUG about trying to promote linux in the local public schools, either through the schools themselves or higher up at the school board level. (this is in kitchener-waterloo, ontario, canada, in case any followup depends on the country in question).
one respondent mentioned that he thought it would be difficult to do this in his rural school system, as MS and compaq/HP had already dumped a pile of software and hardware on the schools, with the effect of creating a computer lab and classes obviously designed around MS products. because of that, he thought it would be nigh impossible to get linux in the door. (he claimed that all of this was at no cost, and i haven't yet heard whether that represents just the initial cost, whether it covers future licensing, or what). i vaguely recall this sort of thing happening elsewhere, and it seems to raise serious conflict-of-interest issues. in establishing a MS-only lab and curriculum in a public school, one can argue that taxpayer-funded, public facilities are being used to promote one corporation's interests to the exclusion of others. i asked him to, if it was possible, approach his school or school board and offer to, at no charge, install linux on one or more of those PCs, to see the response. if they say sure, terrific, we're in. if they say no, that's probably because they've entered into some sort of exclusionary agreement with MS, and that's where the sh*t really should hit the fan. even if both the HW and SW were donated, the entire infrastructure supporting it (school facilities, teacher time, etc.) is publicly- funded and this should raise some troubling legal issues. does anyone have pointers to similar cases, how to approach this, what others have done, whether they were successful, etc? i think it's time to start making some noise about this sort of thing. rday p.s. yes, i *still* have better things i could be doing. Robert P. J. Day, RHCE, RHCI Eno River Technologies, Chapel Hill NC Unix, Linux and Open Source corporate training http://www.linux-migration.org -- redhat-list mailing list unsubscribe mailto:redhat-list-request@;redhat.com?subject=unsubscribe https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/redhat-list
