Clem please read!

[NCHarleyHardtail]

I live in a Community in Western North Carolina. I use your OS and Find it very user friendly and have been helping people out that have older machines and giving them new life so to speak and saving people money and exposing the Microsoft racket of leap frog Hardware then up grade software. To get to my point I am working on presenting Linux Mint as Cost cutting money saving smart alternative to Microsoft. I want to propose ever computer in the County Schools included should move to Linux Mint. In the school system that our students should be using it and learning it as well. My belief is it would create possibly new Jobs for young people that get into deeper learning the inner workings.
I just wanted you folks to know I want to run with this idea and I have the Backing of a friend that worked for a former congressman for 6 years here. I pretty much have the pitch figured out how to make this happen I have been smart enough to go to some key p[people and show them and teach them how to use Mint . Also I have friend with biggest Talk Radio show ever here in Western North Carolina. I am thinking he has close to 100,000 listeners a day. We play music together as well Both Veterans as well. It so happens his producer swears by Mint! So I am hoping to get the opportunity to bring this to the attention of people on Grand Scale. I believe in this OS. I want to pitch it to the people! I am disabled Vet and I am looking stop our Elected officials to not Dig into tax payers pockets and trim there budget within there foolish purchases of Microsoft Licenses and all the add on programs that support it. Any support in my presentation would be greatly appreciated! NCHarleyHardtail@gmail.com

[kwisher]

Some things to consider in your endeavor. I am the Network Admin for my local school system and would also like to move away from MS where possible. The problem you will find is that MS is heavily ingrained into the school systems. You will need to have the Linux clients authenticate/connect to your server system. We use Novell eDirectory instead of MS Active Directory. This is a plus but still difficult to implement. Like it or not, students will need to learn about MS Office sometime in their K-12 education, along with other software that requires Windows. The path we are taking is to use as much Open Source software as possible installed on our Windows machines. I am trying to propose that we move our Elementary school to Linux clients sometime in the next couple of years. All of our client machines are running XP and we will need to move to Win-7 after MS stops supporting XP. I believe we could reuse our existing machines with Linux in the Elementary and just purchase new machines for everyone else.

[Kendall]

I'm curious as to what exact community in Western North Carolina.

[DrHu]

I'm curious as to what exact community in Western North Carolina.

Same here!

In the school system that our students should be using it and learning it as well. My belief is it would create possibly new Jobs for young people that get into deeper learning the inner workings.

It is possibly true that people(students) will become more computer literate by using another OS than is generally provided, but that is unlikely for a school system that has not already considered it
--by inertia and design they are stuck with the deal they have; and, Microsoft and others will deeply discount licenses and software for education purposes, that is, in a legitimate education institution or setting.

As to the jobs angle, not as likely, since as is constantly being pointed out Windows OS consumes 80-100% (the numbers change every so often, and depends on how you count sold or unsold for real( not just inventory counts)) of computers systems in use by everyone..

Then you get the inevitable reasons why not

• Parents object
  --not what will be used in the workplace
• School boards object
  --not what will be used in the workplace
  --not what parents want
  --not what the students want
  --will be too costly to changeover
  --will we need training, how to pay for that

Listen, good luck, it will always be a community effort to do that, especially considering the vested interests allied against it..

[Biker]

As with any IT endeavor within a school district, the bottom line is going to be funding. Whether it's funding for equipment, or funding for training to use a new OS, the fact remains that there's going to be money spent. Training usually comes out of the budget allocated to teachers, and it will be a rare district that attempts to cough up extra money for training they will see as not needed nor necessary. Especially in those districts where there is a full time IT staff.

Now, there's the equipment side of the house, and claiming you can save money in that aspect will nearly always grab their attention. But... This will work ONLY if you have a full time IT staff that's willing to support a Linux environment. If there's no staff that will support it, you now have the training issue that comes out of a different pot of cash, and that will not happen.

kwisher is approaching it the right way. In grade school, it doesn't matter so much what they're using, as long as the students are getting the exposure to computers and are able to do what the curriculum requires them to do. High School is a far different animal where you do need to prepare the students for college and beyond. An unless they're going into some IT related field, Linux isn't going to cut it in that environment.

[FrogDemon]

I personally have tried this same route here in my town. The school wouldn't budge even after I got the local library to actually let me install Mint 7 on 4 of their systems. Which I service myself at no cost to them.(Not much servicing though when it comes to Mint ) But when they noticed that they were getting the most sign-ups on the Mint boxes, they asked me to convert 4 more to Mint, which I did. I don't mind servicing them for free. I love the library, I have the time to do so.

When Mint 9 clears the RC stage, I will upgrade them again, at no charge. However, I have most of the staff's home pcs on Mint now also and I do charge them AND the families and friends for the install. I will also be donating here soon!

[Pierre]

The school wouldn't budge even after I got the local library to actually let me install Mint 7 on 4 of their systems.

How easy was it to network to the existing library network ?.

[hinto]

I'm curious as to what exact community in Western North Carolina.

ditto... I'd like to know. This is interesting... including Fred, there are quite a few of us. Time for a user group or at least a remx.... (how about Linux Moonshine Edition or Linux Mint, Builtmore Version)
-Hinto

[Kaye]

If Fred somehow gets in on this I think all of North Carolina will be converted to Linux in a matter of weeks!

Ok, only joking, but this seems like a good idea with a decent starting point. I can't say I'm overly optimistic about it (bureaucracy is... difficult to overcome), but making people aware of alternatives is the first step in the right direction

[jesica]

Wish my school had Linux way back, then I would have known the Shell by this time

[hinto]

If Fred somehow gets in on this I think all of North Carolina will be converted to Linux in a matter of weeks!

I've started with my kids... They do all their photos using Picasa on Mint as well as all their assignments using OpenOffice.
I even jumped at the opportunity to name the computer after their favorite "My Little Pony"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minty_%28My_Little_Pony%29 They love it.
-Hinto

[RepElec]

If Fred somehow gets in on this I think all of North Carolina will be converted to Linux in a matter of weeks!

Ok, only joking, but this seems like a good idea with a decent starting point. I can't say I'm overly optimistic about it (bureaucracy is... difficult to overcome), but making people aware of alternatives is the first step in the right direction

I agree wholeheartedly with your concerns surrounding bureaucracy, especially in the Southeast. I've had to appear a number of times before our Commission in Knox County, TN, and it's rarely ever an easy thing to convince local government to embrace outside-the-MSBox thinking no matter how pragmatic. North Carolina is a prime candidate to benefit from Linux systems given its economic climate, but change will almost certainly come in steps.

If I may offer a suggestion from my personal experience with local government, I'd say appearing before one's local legislative body during budget discussions would be the best opportunity to discuss installing Linux in certain departments as a cost-cutting measure. One doing so would need to be prepared to speak for approximately five minutes, have hard copy or a slide presentation with supporting cost-efficiency data (for bonus points, I suggest designing and delivering this presentation on a Linux machine), and be prepared to make a few politicos look stupid for saying things like "I DON'T KNOW ABOUT THIS OPEN-SOURCE DOOHICKEY DOESN'T THAT MAKE IT LESS SAFE?!" (No, really, I feel comfortable betting a triple-digit sum that at least one politico would say that.)

I would suggest starting with a program that replaces 15-30 Window$ computers within the bureaucracy with models powered by Linux. The most likely replacement candidates would be in the school setting, both within administrative offices and classrooms. It may take a budget cycle or two in order to see the concept spread, and the more educated a government's IT personnel are concerning Linux the better, but given traditional Southeastern governmental mindsets, this is what I suggest would be the route with the best chance of success in accomplishing what the poster wants to (rightfully) do.

If it succeeds, though, there better be a professional supplier or two available to handle the load, because most governments don't feel comfortable buying tech from mom-and-pops. They'll want reliable hardware and software support at an affordable price, or else they're going to just go right back to the abusive relationship that is Window$.

Or I could be completely wrong. My wife tells me that quite often, anyway.

[hinto]

I've also cut a few cd's to give to the High School IT teacher. He provides cisco certification to his students and he also takes old crash and burn pc and teaches the kids about security (Windows and Linux).
-Hinto